Leave it Like it is

“The God who spoke light into existence, saying, “Let light shine from the darkness” is the very One who sets our hearts ablaze to shed light on the knowledge of God’s glory revealed in the face of Jesus, the Liberating King. But this beautiful treasure is contained in us – cracked pots made of earth and clay – so that the transcendent character of this power will be clearly seen as coming from God and not from us”
(2 Corinthians 4:6-7, The Voice Translation).

One Thing I Know for Sure

You all know my friend Mike by now, he’s a frequent guest contributor. I really love his post below, mostly because it does what all great writing does: it provides both an invitation and a confrontation. Enjoy! You can follow Mike on twitter here.

One thing I know for certain in life is that every human being is an addict. We’re all addicted to something: Drugs, Alcohol, Sex, Money, Power, Status, especially our own ways of thinking. Addiction is just a way of providing ourselves with a self-cure. We don’t know how to live with the pain and frustration of life and so we create ways to self-cure. We make an idol out of these things because we don’t know how to deal with the fact that life is painful, frustrating, ambivalent, and hard.

One thing I also know is that while we all try to protect ourselves from ourselves with a self-cure, we also protect ourselves from others. We hide ourselves from others because the shame is too messy and we don’t want other people to be offended by our mess. What things like shame and addiction and violence reveal are the ways in which we protect ourselves from others and them from us. The famous Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once said that, “Hell is other people.” I don’t think we really believe that. I think what we really believe is, Hell is our need and dependence upon other people.

The Apostle Paul, in Philippians, shares an interesting tidbit about Jesus when he says,

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

Rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

Paul uses an interesting word when he says he made himself nothing. In Greek, this is translated kenosis. Kenosis is a word that describes self-emptying. On the Cross, Jesus empties himself for the sake of humanity.

Story telling is an interesting thing because if we are self-protective and if we protect ourselves from others, then our stories will often negate the things that we ourselves don’t want to see and we shape it to how others want to hear. But when we tell our stories honestly, truly honestly, like when we sit before a therapist two things occur:

1. The fragments of our stories our picked up when we have our, “A-HA” moments. When we tell ours stories, sometimes unconscious things become conscious and we finally see with clarity. Storytelling becomes a cure for our self-protection.


2. Storytelling becomes the way in which we are known. All of our intimacy issues are being worked through when we honestly tell our stories. All of the things in which we are ashamed of, guilty of, and all of our addictions and violence are revealed.

The other interesting thing about story is that when we tell our stories, when we empty ourselves and give the gift of our stories to others, The Crucified Christ shows up. Because when we empty ourselves out, God shows up to pick up the fragments of ourselves and God shows up to the pick up the fragments of our relationships. Storytelling is one of God’s cures for the idols we make in our self-cures.

When we honestly tell our stories about our addictions and struggles and frustrations, God shows up to pick up the fragments of our lives and delivers us from all the self-destructive things we do to protect ourselves from ourselves. When we tell our stories The Crucified Christ is there to meet us and deliver us. When we tell our stories about the things that we have done and how they have made us hide from others, The Crucified Christ meets us there and brings us together.

Source: The Actual Pastor by Mike Friesen

Mike Friesen's post on addiction
Photo Source

Now is the time.

Melissa offered me some amazing verses of encouragement tonight. Here they are:

Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty.
Haggai 2:4

The Lord gave this command to Joshua son of Nun: “Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them on oath, and I myself will be with you.”
Deuteronomy 31:23

And he became more and more powerful, because the Lord God Almighty was with him.
2 Samuel 5:10

David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished.
1 Chronicles 28:20
*Great fatherly advice

So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.
Zechariah 4:6

The Armor of God
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
Ephesians 6:10-20

I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:10-13

Test me, Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness.
Psalm 26: 2, 3

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139: 23-24

The Crickets Have Arthritis

Shane Koyczan
This may be use a bit off base, but his guy has such amazing passion.
|||Warning: This video contains a small amount of foul language.|||

What it Really Means to be a Real Man

Men are getting a lot of shallow advice about how to be men, and a lot of it is coming from the church.

Avoid passivity!

Embrace accountability!

Take charge! Bring your family to church! Bring your wife flowers! Just do it! Do active things followed by lots of exclamation points!!!

Does anybody else feel like Brick Tamland might be behind this whole thing?

What’s empty about all the “just do it” challenges that men are receiving is that they’re all about trying harder to control what is spinning out of control. Control your temptations! Control your anger! The problem is that control is rooted in fear, and fear will not lead us into freedom.

We fear failure.

We fear getting it wrong and being wrong.

We fear that we’re defective.

We fear appearing soft and weak.

We fear being afraid!

We fear criticism, especially from our wives.

We fear that our version of what it means to be a man is not the version of what it really means to be a man.

So we flail around, trying to control whatever we can, only to panic when we still fail, still get criticized, and still get it wrong.

(Thank you, Brene Brown, for chapter 3 of Daring Greatly, which helped to form that list).

The truth is that most of us need to release the grip on control, so that we can get at the root of our fear, which is shame.

What we need are flawed men who begin to tell their raw stories of losing control. We need to hear about how they’re naming and moving through their pain and loss (death), and how they’re embracing a radical grace that is setting them free (life). This kind of courage will slowly eradicate the culture of shame in men.

I’ll never forget the time when Dave Busby (a pastor who died of cystic fibrosis almost twenty years ago) told a huge room full of men and women that he had recently watched porn in a hotel room on a ministry road trip.

He talked about the process of feeling empty, then bored. He talked about making the decision to turn it on, then watching it for the next thirty minutes. He talked about the even deeper emptiness and the pit of deep shame into which he tumbled afterwards. Then he talked about the phone call he made to his best friend in the middle of the night, to whom he laid it all out. He talked about the process of losing control and what he did about it. He talked about what happened when he named it out loud to someone else. He talked about the grace that he received.

I’ll never, ever forget that.

Men need to hear that they will feel empty, and that they shouldn’t try hard to avoid feeling empty. The question is: What you will do when you inevitably do feel empty? How you will respond when you’ve done something stupid because you felt so empty? Can we hear some stories of normal men who get empty?

Now, if you’re a pastor and that is your story, please don’t stand up in your congregation on Sunday and tell them about your porn addiction. That wouldn’t be a good first step. But tell someone. Tell someone about how close you are to doing something stupid. Tell someone about how angry or bored or frustrated you are.

We are afraid of telling the truth about what’s really happening in our lives because we have a long history of hiding what’s really happening, and talking about what really isn’t happening.

“So how many girls have you guys slept with?”

This was the question that the tall, good-looking senior guy threw out in the locker room during the winter of my sophomore year of high school.

We all shifted uneasily and a few of us mumbled some very tentative responses. One of us finally asked him how many girls he had slept with. He thought hard about it, obviously working out some really advanced mathematics.

“About a hundred,” he finally answered.

We all sat there, stunned. It didn’t occur to me until years later that he might have been lying. Isn’t it interesting that of the millions of things that happened to me in high school, I have a vivid memory of this very short, seemingly insignificant scene?

Fast forward to every pastor’s conference I’ve ever attended. The same question gets asked, every time: “So how many people come to your church?”

We need to see that this question is actually the same question that tall, good-looking senior asked in that locker room.

So what are men supposed to talk about, and what can we quit talking about?

Can we start with some baseline assumptions?

You’re going to feel empty. You’re going to be attracted to people who are not your spouse sometimes, and it doesn’t mean you’re a terrible husband. You’re going to be bored with your life, and you’re going to be angry about it. You’re going to feel like a failure at work. You’re going to find yourself on the edge of doing stupid things. You’re going to do some stupid things. You’re going to be a bad listener (sometimes) and feel defective about it.

Men who are walking towards maturity are finding ways to talk about those things so that they return to who they are. These men are releasing control and becoming expansive. They are creating wide spaces for others to become who they actually are.

We can quit comparing ourselves to each other, endlessly berating each other, and acting like there is one kind of ideal man. I have a friend who loves to hunt and smoke cigars, and he’s a great man. I also have a friend who loves musicals and baking, and he’s a great man. There are so many ways to be a great man.

Now, a word about men who crash and burn.

Over the past several months, I have heard stories four pastors who have had affairs, lost their jobs, and wrecked their marriages. Each one of them doubtlessly knew that they were supposed to avoid passivity and remain accountable.

They needed something more. We need something more. These men are not monsters. They are good men who just stayed hidden for way too long. They are men who are losing the battle with fear and shame.

Dallas Willard once explained the five-step process that he saw men walk through on their way to destroying their lives. He said that it didn’t matter if it was drugs, alcohol, sex, overworking, or something else; it was always the same journey.

First, they got really busy. Then they get unsettled and restless. Then, they got angry. Then they felt entitled. Then they acted out.

Where are you on that journey?

Can you take the courageous step to tell someone about where you actually are? Then, try to be still long enough to ask this dangerous question: What do you want? When you dig underneath the anger and the entitlement, what do you really want? Who might be able to help you move towards that?

It might take a while to cut through the shame and the fear. It is slow work. But this is the work of becoming a real man. And it is worth it.

I want to be a real man. A flawed, growing, honest, expansive man with an easy smile, who is learning to create wide spaces for the people in my life to become who they actually are.

Source: The Actual Pastor

I AM

I have a terrible habit of living in the future.

I don’t know why I do it… I just do.

I’m always thinking, worrying and preparing for what’s to come that I end up tying myself into anxious knots.

Then there are the times I’m haunted by my past.

All the regrets, disappointments and frustrations can lead me straight to the trough of depression if I let them.

A few weeks ago, I got stuck being anxious about the future again.

I had a lot on my plate. Nothing crazy, just, you know, a new position at work, some travel to work around, two wonderful kids at home who want to play with their daddy, some weddings and families to photograph, friends, relationships, family… and oh yea… My wife and I are expecting the birth of another child at the beginning of October!

Then, as if nudged by someone, I was reminded of a poem my mother-in-law sent me back in June:

I AM

by Helen Mallicoat


I was regretting the past and fearing the future.

Suddenly my Lord was speaking:

My name is I AM.

When you live in the past,

with its mistakes and regrets,

it is hard. I am not there.

My name is not I Was.

When you live in the future,

with its problems and fears,

it is hard. I am not there.

My name is not I Will Be.

When you live in this moment,

it is not hard. I am here.

My name is I AM.

I was reminded that the only time I’m living my *actual life* is right now, in the present moment.

The past can’t be changed and the future isn’t here yet. And if I’m spending too much time regretting my past, or being anxious about the future, I’m not here.

Tolstoy said it best when he said, “The present is the moment in which the divine nature of life is revealed. Let us respect our present time; God exists in this time.”

The present moment is a gift. It’s the only moment we have control over. It’s the only time we get to choose. It’s the only time we get to be who we really are. It’s the only time we get to be our actual self.

If you’re stuck somewhere in your past, let go. Breathe deep. God is with you.

If you’re anxious about what’s coming, let go. Breathe deep. God is with you.


He is not I Was.

He is not I Will be.

His name is I AM.

Source: The Actual Pastor by Dan Bennett

There is More

Everyone who has run a marathon insists that the marathon is really two races: the first twenty miles, and the last six point two.

During the first twenty miles, assuming you have adequately trained, your body does what you have prepared it to do: At mile 10, you wonder why you don’t run marathons every day of your life. Thousands of people shout your name, cow bells echo the clarion call of your own personal greatness, endorphins pulse through your body, and the road floats beneath you as you glide through the miles with effortless joy.

At mile fifteen, your legs begin to feel fatigued, but you still enjoy the race. I’ve even had deliriously happy moments at this phase of the race when I felt sad about the inevitable finish line looming in the distance; I didn’t want it to end!

But at mile twenty, it all begins to change. The glycogen in your body is rapidly diminishing. What used to be a slight ache in your hips is now constant and sharp, as if you are missing some essential lubricant, without which you will grind to a halt, in a heap of smoke and bones and pain. The bottoms of your feet, which used to feel fluid and graceful, are now made of iron; they’re heavy and they clang in protest with every foot strike.

If the first twenty miles are mostly physical, the last 6.2 are all mental.

Fans lining the sides of the course, noticing your obvious pain, will shout encouraging banalities like, “You’re almost there!” even though you know you are nowhere near the end. Your mind and your body are now engaged in full-scale war. Your body demands that you quit this foolish, meaningless quest. I have run 10 marathons, and I cannot recall even once when I did not desperately want to quit somewhere between mile 20 and the finish.

In the last two miles of the race, your focus narrows. You feel every stab of pain, your brain is foggy with dehydration, the blister on the back of your heel is now open and raw, and you can’t believe you haven’t seen the mile 25 marker yet. You convince yourself that in your state of semi-delirium, you must have missed it. But something inside you knows you have not.

Mile 25 is a torture chamber. But as you creep by the miler marker, you realize that you are going to finish. Though the pain continues to increase, your mind has conquered, and your body has given in. You know that you are going to finish. I have run one particular marathon 9 times, so I know every step of the route intimately, especially the last 1.2 miles. At mile 26, the runners turn slightly left, crest a gentle hill, and then the finish line comes into view. In that moment, a wash of emotion comes over me that causes me to weep. By some act of exquisite grace on the part of the course planners, these last two tenths of a mile are mostly downhill, and sometimes I draw on the last drips of glycogen that remain in my body and attempt to sprint down that hill and across that mat, signifying that the race has ended, and I have endured.

I do not run for the medals, tee shirts, for accolades from friends, or because I’m addicted to competition. I run marathons because of what is forged in the crucible of those last painful miles of the marathon: when I fear that there is nothing left, there is more.

There is more.

Photo Source

Source: The Actual Pastor

Shortest Sermon Ever

Hope Within Imperfection

Within each of us is a belief that the future holds something bright. This belief can be something that gets us up in the morning. It propels us to keep “moving forward.” We all want to believe is a brighter future. However, there might be something that says to us, that if the future is the place where the light is, what am I living in now?

Within each of us is a desire to “fix” our lives. So we read, “Five steps to a happier you” books. We fall into the latest diet trends. Then, Cosmo tells us 26 new sex positions to obtain the perfect sex life. And, after every book, magazine, exercise, and practice, we come to two conclusions:

I’m tired.
I’m not in control.

I have had the privilege of working with four mentally disabled for the past six years of my life. Some of them have struggles walking because of balance. Some of them struggle with the bathroom. Some of them need help brushing their teeth. They need help with medications, their banking, making food. Life has struggles. They might be able to get slightly more efficient, independent, or capable of doing these things. But, the reality is, life has struggles. And, what the disabled teach us is to surrender and accept our struggles. Sometimes, we can get slightly more efficient, independent, or capable. Sometimes, we just need to accept that we are powerless and we are not in control.

That feeling of being powerless and not in control is an awful one. From an early age, we are taught that in order to be acceptable we are taught that we need to control our behaviors and conform to a certain behavior and image. We are taught to tame and control our behaviors, feelings, actions, and thoughts to fit this ideal. Unfortunately, we can’t be in control all the time. I can’t control everything I do. I can’t control everything everyone else does. And, if the definition of functional is being able to perfectly manage and control my life and outcomes, I am dysfunctional.

The good news is that there is a God who doesn’t expect us to be perfectly functional. The God that we worship says, “Come to me as you are and I’ll love you as you are.” The God that we worship offers us grace. And, grace is the love that heals the wounds of dysfunction. This God says, “I embrace your messiness. I embrace your failure. I embrace your pain. I embrace the parts of you that you feel like are dying inside, because, I will use those places to offer my healing and new life for others.”

While the future may be brighter in the future because we feel like we can control our destiny, hope is mostly found in the loving presence of a God, a friend, a significant other, or whoever allows us to accept the dysfunction inside of us. Hope is someone who loves you in your darkness. Hope is someone who accepts the parts of you that you find unacceptable. In the case of one of my mentally disabled friends (who happens to be 300 pounds), hope looks like allowing me to check him for hemorrhoids and see if I need to apply medication.

Photo Source

Source: The Actual Pastor by Mike Friesen

Being in God for the World

One of my friends took his daughter to the Minnesota State Fair recently, and they walked by a man holding a sign that said, “Jesus Hates Sin.” He was yelling.

What do you do with that?

How do you respond to that?

If you could have a conversation with that man, what would you want to ask him? What would you want to say to him? What would you want to learn about him?

One of the most remarkable things about God is that God doesn’t seem to care too much about controlling the Divine Brand. I would sue for libel. God smiles and continues to express the same great affection for both me and sign guy.

Robert Mulholland is a professor and author in his seventies, who gave a lecture a few months ago about the kind of love that looks like God’s kind of love. I was at that lecture, and the tremors from that earthquake are still being felt in my body.

It was quietly revolutionary. We all sat there, furiously scribbling in our notebooks (that’s what evangelicals do; we try to get it all down on paper and then into our heads, versus letting our hearts soak in the goodness and trusting we’ll remember what we need to remember).

I needed to remember one statement:

“There is a great difference,” Mulholland said, “between someone who is in the world for God, and someone who is In God for the world.

Years ago, a friend of mine was Director of Youth For Christ in his region. He met an older man who would become one of the great mentors in his life. When he first met this older man, he did what you and I do, which was to shamelessly try to win his approval.

“I’m the Director of Youth For Christ,” he proudly stated, hoping that would win him some approval and respect.

The older man thought for a second and said: “Hmm. Youth for Christ. I don’t know any youth who are for Christ. I do know a Christ who is for youth, however.”

And that little statement changed the trajectory of my friend’s life.

Someone who is in the world for God has an agenda and is in control of that agenda. She remains in control of her own transformation, and she unknowingly desires to remain in control of the transformation of the world around her. The problem is that transformation begins when we recognize that we are not in control, as the twelve steppers have taught us. It is difficult to be truly for someone that you are trying to control (whether that person is yourself, someone else, or God).

When I’m in the world for God, I’m convinced I’m going to do great things for God in the world. But pretty soon, I get so passionate about being for God that I end up trying to control people. And then when I cannot control them, I end up being against them (like people who hold up signs at State Fairs).

So maybe Mulholland is on to something. Maybe what God wants are people who are walking around in their actual lives, brave enough to simply be in God, and for the world.

Maybe when you are in God for the world, you can be a quiet revolution instead of a blustery declaration. The radical teaching of the mustard seed isn’t really the teaching; it’s to whom Jesus entrusted it. You and I are the mustard seeds, not our acts of love. And when you and I are planted in God, mustard seeds that we are, what sprouts up is surprising.

In God, For the World.

What does that look like for you?

My friend’s ten-year-old daughter looked at the sign, then looked at her dad. She said,

“Dad, I wish I had a marker. I would cross out the word “hates” and replace it with “forgives.”

In it together, friends.

Source: The Actual Pastor by Steve Wiens
Pic Source: Only Foods

The difference between Power and power

There is Power, and there is power.

Power demands and is never satisfied. Power withholds and hoards. Power is convinced there is never enough. Power makes sure everyone knows it is in charge. Power makes others smaller and smaller even as it gets bigger and bigger. Power is scarcity.

power, on the other hand, is expansive. When it grows, everybody grows with it. It supports, shares, and waits. It comes underneath and lifts up. It gives energy, it creates space, and it moves with a spirit of we rather than me.

Power takes. power gives.

Power demands to be god. power makes space for God to be God.

When we are plugged in to Power, we clutch and grab, we scatter and flee. When we are plugged in to power, we open up and give away.

So what are you plugged into these days?

You get to choose.

Source: The Actual Pastor by Steve Wiens

Getting Punched in the Balls

Yesterday morning, I got punched in the balls.

It was Ben. On my way out the door I went in for my ration of morning hugs from the boys. Isaac is easy; even at six, I think he’d be happiest if we were fused together. Elijah, too – though I did have to pry him away from his art project. But Ben is a slippery little guy.  He has endless hugs for his mom, but he rations them for me. So instead of a hug, I got a punch in the balls with a laughter chaser.

This is a universal experience for fathers of sons. If you have sons, they will mercilessly zero in on your privates with intentional and relentless fury. I’m sure it’s somewhere in Proverbs: “One person pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth; but both will be punched in the balls by their sons.”

When you have gotten punched in the balls, there is no remedy other than time, but there is a universal reaction:

1. Your hands immediately move to protect the vulnerable area from further assault.
2. Your face contorts into a grimace of pain as your head drops back.
3. Your eyes close and your mouth curses.
4. Your hands move to your hips and your knees slightly bend; if it’s really intense, you drop down all the way down to the floor, head in your arms and knees drawn in, the ultimate posture of defeat.
5. When it becomes possible, you briskly walk around, as if doing so lessens the pain, only to find that it deepens before it abates.

The good news is that Ben is four, and the pain didn’t last. As I was leaving, Mary took Ben into her arms and began explaining why it’s a bad idea to punch daddy in the balls.

“Benny, when you get older, you’ll realize that your balls become very sensitive, and it hurts really bad when someone hits you there. And that’s why it’s important not to use your hands for hitting.”

I was laughing as I pulled out of the driveway. As a parent, there are a million conversations like this you find yourself having with your kids.

“And that’s why it’s important to NEVER put a plastic bead in your nose.”

“And that’s why we don’t fart out loud at school.”

“And that’s why we wear clothes when we leave the house.”

Here’s what I want to say: Be careful with your loved ones. Because you know them so well, you know their vulnerable places. You know exactly what to say that would drop them to their knees, and sometimes you’re angry enough to say it. You know how to shut them out, punish them, and make them pay.

Don’t do it. It never helps; it never makes you feel better. It only escalates the violence.

And that’s why it’s important to stop yourself before you let the real missiles fly.

And that’s why you talk about the issues before they become inevitable explosions.

And that’s why you apologize when you have gone too far. Don’t justify yourself, simply say that you realize you hurt them and that you’re deeply sorry.

Because sometimes, we’ll lose it. Sometimes, we’ll say it. Sometimes, we’re so angry and hurt that we don’t feel like we can stop ourselves.

Let’s be kind to our loved ones. Let’s protect their vulnerable places instead of exposing them to more pain. And let’s apologize when we fail to do so.

We can do this.

Photo Source

Source: Steve Wiens

SATAN'S MEETING: (Read even if you're busy)

Satan called a worldwide convention of demons.
In his opening address he said,

'We can't keep Christians from going to church.'
'We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth.'
'We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their Savior'
'Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken.'
'So let them go to their churches; let them have their covered dish dinners, BUT steal their time, so they don't have time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ.
'This is what I want you to do,' said the devil:

'Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!'
'How shall we do this?' his demons shouted.

'Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds,' he answered.
'Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow.'
'Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles.'
'Keep them from spending time with their children.'
'As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!'
'Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice.'
'Entice them to play the radio or CD player whenever they drive.' To keep the TV, VCR, CDs, DVD's, and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly.'
'This will jam their minds and break that union  with Christ.'
'Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers.'
'Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day.'
'Invade their driving moments with billboards.'
'Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes..'
'Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV so their husbands will believe that outward beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives. '
'Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night.'
'Give them headaches too! '
'If they don't give their husbands the love they need, they will begin to look elsewhere.'
'That will fragment their families quickly!'
'Give them Santa Claus to distract them from teaching their children the real meaning of Christmas.'
'Give them an Easter bunny so they won't talk about his resurrection and power over sin and death.'
'Even in their recreation, let them be excessive.'
'Have them return from their recreation exhausted.'
'Keep them too busy to go out in nature and  reflect on God's creation. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies instead .'
'Keep them busy, busy, busy!'
'And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences. '
'Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus.'

'Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause.'
'It will work!'
'It will work!'
It was quite a plan!
The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busier and more rushed, going here and there. Having little time for their God or their families. Having no time to tell others about the power of Jesus to change lives.

I guess the question is, has the devil been successful in his schemes?

You be the judge!!!!!
Does 'BUSY' mean: B-eing U-nder S-atan's Y-oke?

Moralistic therapeutic deism

Moralistic therapeutic deism is a term that was first introduced in the book Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (2005) by sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton. The term (abbreviated MTD) is used to describe what they consider to be the common religious beliefs among American youth. It has also been referred to as egonovism. The book is the result of a research project, the "National Study of Youth and Religion," privately funded by the Lilly Endowment.

Definition[edit]

The authors find that many young people believed in several moral statutes not exclusive to any of the major world religions. It is this combination of beliefs that they label Moralistic Therapeutic Deism:

1. A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
5. Good people go to heaven when they die.

These points of belief were compiled from interviews with approximately 3,000 teenagers.

Authors' analysis[edit]

The authors say the system is "moralistic" because it "is about inculcating a moralistic approach to life. It teaches that central to living a good and happy life is being a good, moral person."^[6] The authors describe the system as being "about providing therapeutic benefits to its adherent" as opposed to being about things like "repentance from sin, of keeping the Sabbath, of living as a servantof a sovereign divine, of steadfastly saying one's prayers, of faithfully observing high holy days, of building character through suffering..."^[7] and further as "belief in a particular kind of God: one who exists, created the world, and defines our general moral order, but not one who is particularly personally involved in one's affairs--especially affairs in which one would prefer not to have God involved."^[8]

The remoteness of God in this kind of theism explains the choice of the term "Deism," even though "the Deism here is revised from its classical eighteenth-century version by the therapeutic qualifier, making the distant God selectively available for taking care of needs." It views God as "something like a combination Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist: he's always on call, takes care of any problems that arise, professionally helps his people to feel better about themselves, and does not become too personally involved in the process."^[9]

The authors believe that "a significant part of Christianity in the United States is actually only tenuously Christian in any sense that is seriously connected to the actual historical Christian tradition, but has rather substantially morphed into Christianity's misbegotten stepcousin, Christian Moralistic Therapeutic Deism."^[10]

CNN online featured an article, “More Teens Becoming Fake Christians” on Kenda Creasy Dean’s new book Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church. (Oxford University Press, 2010). She writes, "The problem does not seem to be that churches are teaching young people badly, but that we are doing an exceedingly good job of teaching youth what we really believe, namely, that Christianity is not a big deal, that God requires little, and the church is a helpful social institution filled with nice people…" She goes on to say that "if churches practice MTD in the name of Christianity, then getting teenagers to church more often is not the solution (conceivably it could make things worse). A more faithful church is the solution…. Maybe the issue is simply that the emperor has no clothes."^[11]

Amazing Sermon from Fifth Reformed