The Most Important Things

This is too good to pass up saying something about. This quote is from Lady Gaga’s publicist,

“It was necessary to incubate her for a certain time, because tonight she is actually birthing a new race,” Gibson said. “A new race that doesn’t have the ability to judge or hate in their DNA, so she is incubating right now so she goes through that process.”

Now, let me say this, I don’t care about Lady Gaga’s egg costume or her music. Props to her for being really creative and continually one-upping herself. The problem I have is when somebody insults God. What?! You heard that right. Anytime somebody insults the creator of the universe, by way of saying His creation is wrong (be them Christian or non-Christian) WE must take a stand. Jesus Christ has already established a “new race” (see here 2 Cor. 5:17 and Gal. 6:15) with His death, burial and resurrection. For any human, to proclaim or declare that they have the ability to create a “new race” comes down to the spirit of the antichrist.

The devil himself, in the book of Revelation, is shown to have an counterfeit to everything that Christ has. For example, a false temple, a false throne, a false priesthood, false doctrine, (Rev. 2:9, 13; 2 Cor. 11:3) etc. All of these thing point to counterfeit, perverted forms of what God does. Which now leads us back to Lady Gaga.

Do I believe that Lady Gaga is the antichrist? Emphatically, NO! But she has taken on the spirit of the antichrist (which 1 John says is released into the world now, 1 Jn. 4:3) and has made his intentions known. In other words, the spirit of the antichrist says, “what Jesus Christ did is not good enough and I WILL create a new race.” I am not sure how obvious the devil can make himself and believers still be enamored with his false light. But this is really obvious. Please, do not buy into the myth that you can listen, be a fan or support Lady Gaga and not be joined to the spirit of the antichrist. The spirit of the antichrist seeks to destroy the anointing and discredit God!

We are always living in the end times. Now, more than ever, we should be so keenly walking before Jesus (and the world) with a spirit of the fear of the Lord. He is still coming back for a pure and spotless bride. It’s our job to make sure the bride is not sleeping with anyone else. Seek after the Holy Spirit, desire deeper relationship with Him today!

This is an excerpt from A.W. Tozer, he passed away in 1963. This makes this insight that much more valuable. It’s at least 40 years old and yet speaks to us today. (emphasis mine)

“Unannounced and largely detected, there has come in modern times a new cross into popular evangelical circles. It is like the old cross; but while likenesses are superficial, the differences are fundamental.

From this new cross has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian life, and from that new philosophy has come a new evangelical technique – a new type of meeting and new kind of preaching. This new evangelism employs the same language as the old, but its content and emphasis differ.

The old cross would have not truck with the world. For Adam’s proud flesh, it meant the end of the journey and carried into effect the sentence imposed by the law of Sinai.

The new cross, in contrast, is not opposed to our flesh. It is a friendly pal, the source of oceans of good, clean and innocent enjoyment. It lets Adam live without interference. His life motivation is unchanged – he still lives for his own pleasure. But now he takes delight in singing worship choruses and watching religious movies instead of singing bawdy songs and drinking hard liquor. The accent is still on enjoyment, though the fun is now on a high plane morally, if not intellectually.

The new cross encourages a new and entirely different evangelical approach. The evangelist does not demand a surrendering of the old life before the new life can be received. He preaches similarities rather than contrasts. He seeks to create more interest in the gospel by showing that Christianity makes no unpleasant demands. His brand of Christianity offers the same things the world does, only on a higher level. Whatever the sin-mad world happens to be clamoring after at the moment is cleverly shown to be the very thing the gospels offers – only the religious version is better.

The new cross does not slay the sinner; it redirects him. It steers him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect. To the self-assertive it says, ‘Come and assert yourself for Christ.’ To the egotist it says, ‘Come and do your boasting in the Lord.’ To the thrill seeker it says, ‘Come and enjoy the thrills of success through Christ.’”

A.W. Tozer

We must die to ourselves and cling to the old, rugged cross. It is only then that new life can be granted.

Poor St. Francis, so many people have blasted him for a comment he never made. Perhaps, you have heard the phrase: “preach the gospel, if necessary, use words”. A lot of people think St. Francis coined that phrase. (He didn’t, his real quote: In Chapter XVII of his Rule of 1221, Francis told the friars not to preach unless they had received the proper permission to do so. Then he added, “Let all the brothers, however, preach by their deeds.”) Regardless, that “deeds” theology has pervaded in Christianity. It’s wrong. It’s off-balance. In James’ epistle he covers faith and works, so I don’t need to here. But I do need to cover the truth that the gospel must be preached, not “worked”.

All throughout the bible, OT and NT, there are ample scriptures regarding the necessity of declaring truth with your mouth. It’s inescapable. But we have settled into a social justice/ works gospel, while in and of itself it’s not entirely wrong, it’s just not right. If all we had to do on Earth was build wells for clean water, feed the homeless and build shelters to get people saved; we’d be experts. However, God demands that we use our words to preach. Isaiah ponders the question of salvation, he writes: how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never HEARD about Him? And how can they HEAR about Him unless someone tells them?

In order to hear something, someone must say something. Take a look at Acts 8:26-39. Philip meets an Ethiopian Eunuch. He says to the eunuch, “do you understand what you are reading?” The Eunuch responds, “how can I unless someone instructs me?” Then it says, “Philip TOLD him the Good News about Jesus.” Notice it doesn’t say Philip dug him a well and the man got saved. Or that Philip gave him food for a year. (And all of those are necessities) It says, Philip told him the Good News. That is the REAL NECESSITY.

So why would we rather use words if necessary when it comes to preaching the gospel? Bottom line, social justice is easier. It’s not offensive or confrontational. We can perform social justice and the world will love us. It’s so hot right now, too. It’s also devoid of the power of God. For He says, “the Kingdom of God is not just in WORD, but in POWER.” God has built a throne of righteousness and justice. This world needs both. Not justice at the expense of righteousness. For with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.

Preach the Gospel, with your mouth.

It’s hard to truly fathom heaven and eternity. In fact, in hebrew, the definition of eternity is time outside of the mind. So, having said that how can finite beings truly comprehend the infinite? Only through the mind of the Spirit (the mind of Christ).

It’s very easy to get caught up in earthly thinking. You have bills to pay, circumstances to overcome, trials to walk through and offenses to forgive. Those are things that happen everyday, there’s no avoiding them. Yet, in the midst of this God has called us to not think like that. He has called us to “set our minds on things above and not on this earth” (col.3:2). He has told us that we should constantly be allowing the mind of Christ to invade our natural mind. Paul says in Phil. 3:19, “…their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they THINK ONLY ABOUT THIS LIFE HERE ON EARTH”(NLT).

What an excellent verse! It points out the current state of many christians! We think only about life here on earth. What are going to eat, what are we going to wear, where are we going to live; these are all valid questions yet Jesus has specifically instructed us to seek His kingdom first. Those are all finite, earthly things. Jesus’ kingdom is infinite and heavenly. It will last forever. That’s where our mind should be. That’s where we should be looking.

So why don’t we? I believe it boils down to one truth that has not been spoken on enough in recent years. The second coming of Jesus. Yea. For real. Because we don’t hear this doctrine being preached at all (in reality) a mindset has settled in. It is, “Jesus won’t come back in my lifetime”. No one on Earth can even make that claim. The bible most definitely contradicts claims like that. (See Phil. 4:5, James 4:13-17 for some of my favs) Because of a lack of teaching on this doctrine there is an enormous amount apathy in churches across the globe. Why should I witness? Jesus isn’t coming back for a long time. I can witness later. WRONG. Nobody, except the Father, knows the time. Therefore we should be witnesses. (Acts 1:8)

Take this as a healthy reminder, Jesus is coming back. We do not know how many days are left. Therefore set your mind on eternal things – salvation, discipleship, righteousness, etc. Not on things on the earth, for the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking (earthly things) it is righteousness, peace and joy (eternal things, that can be experienced on earth) in the Holy Ghost! Let a sense of urgency flow into your spirit right now.

The battle rages on in the kingdom: to drink or not to drink. Many denominations have relaxed their stance on ministers drinking alcohol. Many mainline preachers have given themselves over to social drinking (and the occasional curse word) and decried it as “relevant” and “I am not perfect”. These comments are of course ludicrous and obvious for a number of reasons, here’s one: relevance has nothing to do with you being friends with the world. (The book of James can instruct you in that basic premise, specifically James 4:4.) As a result of the rise Christians accepting lower standards, we continue down the broad path of compromise. All the while asking ourselves, “why don’t we see the miracles of the New Testament?”

I was reading in my daily reading plan and came across this verse, Isaiah 5:22:

I laughed. I found it amusing and scary. When ministers talk casually about substance abuse or misuse, I think we all need to do some soul searching and bible reading. We are not in a good place. When the world’s pleasures (or wines of the world) become our primary focus over the harvest and discipleship… renewing of the mind must occur.

I know what the “heroes” will say, Paul tells Timothy to take a little wine. Jesus was CALLED a wine bibber, His first miracle was turning water into wine, etc. Well, you are not the Son of God (who is God), neither do you walk in Paul’s apostolic authority/miracles/writing 2/3rds of the NT/ anointing. Not a good enough reasoning? How about we go back to Genesis and read that we are to have dominion over ALL the earth? Including (but not limited to) hops, grapes, animals, satan and spiders. So, are you being dominated by hops and grapes? Or are you having dominion?

It’s time we stopped having a fetish for the world’s pleasures and gave ourselves over to the New Wine of the Holy Ghost – righteousness, peace and joy in the Kingdom, not eating and drinking.

Here’s a link to a blog I read every now and again. It deals with a classic question, for the church, or workplace or wherever. The question is: which is better, attitude or execution? If you go with attitude only, the extreme position is that you have like-minded people with little or no skill. If you go with execution, then the extreme position is to have hired-hands who get the job done but have no true DNA.

This question comes up time and again, it’s can be a major source of contention and strife. When you lean to execution, in your business or non-profit or church, you bump up against people who minor on details that can be endless. You also run the risk of disloyalty and rebellion. The hired-hand comes to a place where they deem that they can do it better and leave, often taking many people with them. If you stick with attitude only a lot of times you run into the problem that they know nothing different. There can be mental barriers to achieving new levels. There can also be a lack of initiative within the attitude only camp. Only being able to respond to orders rather than creating new ideas or taking initiative.

So, what’s best? The blog I referenced above put a very useful and insightful hierarchy together. It looks like this:

1. Attitude
2. Approach
3. Goals
4. Strategy
5. Tactics
6. Execution

This is only an opinion but I think it’s a valid one. Placing an emphasis on attitude first will help the execution-ists remember their “why”. And using a hierarchy of approach, goals, etc helps the attitud-ers focus and advance their “hows”. I have found when people love their job their workflow increases and the result is a better product. (Be it a disciple, a widget or a program)

The other day I was driving on the freeway. An SUV pulled in front of me, a nice one too. Except for one thing…it had a GIGANTIC tazmanian devil sticker on the back of it! Now, first of all, I am not a sticker-on-the-car person. I don’t have any fish (christian or otherwise), no NOTW, no Know Jesus, Know Peace etc., no Obama 08, no McCain/Palin, no nothing! Stickers are for putting on your skateboard. Or for placing in your sticker notebook, along with baseball cards.

Second of all, I am not (and never have been) a fan of the tasmanian devil. Not because of the devil connotation, but because of the fact that he’s a…dork. Seriously, anybody who runs around with their tongue hanging out and slobbering all over people is a dork. He can’t speak any coherent language and is too busy spinning around messing things up to make any friends. He’s a dork. That is all besides point. The real problem with Taz? He’s another fad. A fad from 1998 to be exact.

Remember when people were wearing T-shirts with Taz on them? Or keychains shaped like Taz? Remember cups and glasses and pajamas and…slogans like: “muablahefgetlay!” (which is tazmanian devil for buy my gear, dawg!) Now 11 years later, some guy in a blacked out (or murdered out as some call it) SUV has the audacity to put a Taz sticker on his rig?! Point being this, what fad(s) are you chasing?

I have a theory about christian merchandising companies: they are always a fad/trend behind. That’s why no one in their right mind would buy a “fear not” (no fear) t-shirt. Or “A bread Crumb and Fish” (abercrombie and fitch). Or “His Pain, Your Gain“, the Lord’s Gym. All of those ideas were behind the times. They were made in response to, at the time, current or fading trends. As a Christian and a designer, I believe that we should be creating the trends. Never copying or imitating them. Why? I will get to that in the next post. Stay tuned…

Style is a funny thing. I wrote, a couple blogs ago, about creating or buying style. But there’s more to both of those theories. For me, when it comes to style, FIT is king. If the clothes don’t fit, I won’t even bother looking at it no matter how “stylish” it is. To be in style, I think you should look good as opposed to looking trendy.

To understand fit, you must understand your body type. (Since I think anything can be broken down into sets of threes) Here are the three main body types I see in the world. (Note: this blog is not about what fit you are, so much as an observation. I don’t care what shape you are or are not.)

1) Hip to be Square. AKA the box cut. Most large box retailers (macy’s, jcpenny, etc) this is the cut that stocks their floor. It’s great for older people (men especially). When you hold up the shirt and it could fit over packing box, you know it’s a “box cut”. This is Tommy Bahamas bread and butter, drape this over your body and let the cool breezes flow!

2) I am in shape, round is a shape. The nice thing about the box cut is that it can fit over round people as well. You don’t need to have broad shoulders to wear the box cut. If you have sloping shoulders, it will drape just fine. Again, no shame what shape you are. I am just saying, if you are round or square; stay away from clothes that say, “modern fit” or “slim fit”. It just won’t make you look the best. And that’s what style is supposed to do, make you look your best. Not make you look “trendy”.

3) The elongated square. The rectangle is the shape a lot of younger clothiers tailor to. Think H&M, some GAP, etc. These are all companies that create for the rectangle shape. If you are not a skinny rail, shop with caution! If you fall into square or round, it will be harder to find clothes that will make you look good in those types of stores. (Note: i am not saying you can’t, just that it will be like a treasure hunt. Happy hunting!)

The next time you go shopping look for clothes that will make you look good. Not clothes that are trendy or the latest in style. Go for a combo, style and fit. I was at the beach and around town this past 4th of July weekend, too many people wearing clothes to small. And I am not just talking about beachwear. Don’t wear what the store tells you to wear! Wear what makes you look and feel good. If the clothes fit, wear it. Unless it’s really ugly!