Spiritual Soapbox...

*A little preface - this post is a little random, a little unorganized and a little intense...I speak to myself as much as I do to anyone else - just wanted to make that known...I'm first in line when it comes to accepting my fleshly weakness and need for grace. The Lord was pressing me in a big way tonight and this is what came of it...unedited and unapologetically. I pray you receive whatever is of the Lord, and discard anything that might have come from me.*

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Sweet Jesus, precious, precious Jesus...you are so Holy, so perfect and so amazing. Our picture of Jesus is so skewed, so blurred by the cultural definition of who He is and what He looks like. We are so accustomed to the images that have been created throughout history that I think we've stopped searching for His true face. We're comfortable with what we've been shown, with what's familiar...it's just easier to accept that and move on. Would we recognize Jesus today? Would we accept Him in our society? These lyrics hit my heart like a piece of cold steel tonight:

Which Jesus do you follow?
Which Jesus do you serve?
If Ephesians says to imitate Christ,
Then why do you look so much like the world?
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Blessed are the poor in spirit
Or do we pray to bless me with the wealth of this land
Blessed are they that thirst and hunger for righteousness
Or do we ache for another taste of this world of shifting sand
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Cause my Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and liars
He loved the poor and accosted the arrogant
So which one do you want to be?
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Who is this that you follow
The picture of the American dream
If Jesus were here would you walk right by on the other side
Or fall down and worship His Holy feet
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Pretty blue eyes, curly brown hair and a clear complexion
Is this how you see Him as He dies for your sins
But the Word says He was battered and scarred
Or did you miss that part
Sometimes I doubt we'd recognize Him
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Cause my Jesus bled and died for my sins
He spent His time with thieves and the least of these
He loved the poor and accosted the comfortable
So which one do you want to be?
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Cause my Jesus would never be accepted in my church
The blood and dirt on his feet might stain the carpet
But He reaches for the hurting and despises the proud
I think He'd prefer Beale St. to the stained glass crowd

And I know that He can hear me if I cry out loud.

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When in the world did we come to the conclusion that we were better than those with less? Who decided that our value is dependent on the clothes we wear or the car we drive or the title we hold. Where in the Bible does it say that?? When did we decide that we deserve anything more than death? It is only by the GRACE of God that we are entitled to anything else. Let us not forget that w/o it we are no better than the murderer or the rapist or the terrorist sitting prison...think about that...you see the words, but do you believe it? Not by our standards, but by Gods...do you see it? Pretty people, locked in a pretty church with crimson carpet and fresh cut flowers. How often did Jesus do His work within the walls of a church? How often did He settle for comfort over the will of His Father?? How can we possibly minister to others when we're stuck in the walls of the church, holding ourselves up on a pedestal of pride and vanity, searching for the next person to fulfill our selfish need for affirmation and love. We are such parasites...our lives spent sucking everyone around us dry in order to quench that insatiable thirst in our hearts. And then we pray for more...God, give me financial blessing, give me more of this and more of that...what MORE do we need than life? Not life today, but life in His Kingdom...oh Lord, when will we, when will I, get it?
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We lack gratitude, we lack reverence, we lack humility...humility...that's what it is. The point here is not to condemn or create guilt, but to impart true, pure and humble gratitude for the things we have been given...the gifts we were granted before we were even born into existence. The gifts that were granted to every one of us, you, me, the homeless on the corner, the addict, the gang member, the murderer...the sacrifice was for every one of us and don't for one second think that you're any different than any of the other mentioned...what is in them is within every one of us...you'd better believe it. We're all made of the same flesh and the same sinful nature. Most of us are just fortunate enough to have avoided those paths, again, not by our own doing or work, but by the undeserved grace of God.
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Would you proclaim Christ if it meant death? Would you worship Him if it meant being locked in a cell, starved and tortured day upon endless day? If it meant watching your children being killed? Do you trust Him that much? Don't just give the standard "of course" here...think a/b it for a moment, and think a/b what it would take to endure those things. Would you even think a/b denying Him? Peter did...don't be so quick to say that you wouldn't. Dear Lord...show me how to be less of myself, how to trust You more and to live only by Your will...it's all that really matters, it's the only thing that makes this life worth living.
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