Most people would say that I probably should not share this with you, I should “Keep your guard up. Don’t let them know the real you. Dress the part. Talk the part. You’re a pastor now. Never let them into your life, or you’ll regret it.” Quote from this article this article .
Okay its time for me to be as real as I can possibly be. Right now I am worn out. I am tired. I feel like I sleep a lot, and yet I really dont know how long I sleep, because often I am awake in the middle of the night thinking. Yesterday I read this article and it really expressed my heart. Here are my thoughts.
I desire to drink deep of Christ and allow His love to flow through me, to love Him with everything I am, to make disciples and make Him famous through out the world. But right now I am not sure what is next. Right now I am seeking after God. God speak to me. God show me what I need to be doing for Your Glory. I dont want to do what I think I should be doing because then its all about I. God its gotta be about You, but I need you to show me, reveal to me Your passion, Your desire, God how can we better Minister to students. God I dont have much to offer, but I want you to use me. I dont know what to do or say, Flow through me. I know that right now so many people are hurting. They look okay, but I know that down inside they hurt. They dont understand, just like I dont. But we know Your in control. God use me to set hearts on fire for Your Glory.
Okay I let you in. Now I am going to let you in on a student thoughts who I just met with. His mind filled with questions, we went from subject to subject, questions, searching for answers. I know God is in Control and all, and I want to live for Him, but its tough. When I am close to God I feel like He wants me to do this….. but then I get so filled with what I want and its just hard to give everything to God. I just dont know.
How you feeling? I mean come-on, are you willing to be real yet? Whats it gonna take for you to open up and admit that you dont have it all together? That you dont have all the answers? That you need God to really come through or your gonna fall flat on your face? Me and 3 other guys started to meet and be real with each other. It was refreshing.
I dare you to be real and leave a comment!
This song “Rejoice” by Chris Tomlin pretty much is my heart.
And we hold on to the promise
That Your hold on us is true
There’s no other like You, Jesus
Lets Rejoice.
This song by Jeremy Camp is also a song that I am claming.
Filed under: Think Deep, Worship, Youtube | Tagged: , be real, Chris Tomlin rejoice, Christian, God, Jeremy Camp, Leadership, Life, my Desire, Think Deep, Worship, Youth Pastor, Youtube
You know i’ve been thinking and questioning my faith alot lately. I just don’t know where to go next. I just don’t want to be content, I want more from God. I want to be more involved with the student ministry. I feel so lost in “Big Church” I want to hear your messages that you speak on, becasue i know Jeremy that you like to dig and figure us out. At the time, i didn’t like that but now im really missing your lesson that you have taught me. I want to be real!!! Im tired of the friends I have and The way I been living my life!!!
I remember a year ago I listened to a lot of rap and hip hop. Now a days, I’ve become completely immersed in rock music ( and I don’t mean the heavy screaming kind). A year ago I only listened to the beat and never paid attention to the lyrics. The lyrics are there for a reason. They often times reflect a certain idea. It has the most effectiveness when it’s interpreted by the listener. Music doesn’t necessarily have to be christian to have a deep meaning.
One of my favorite rock songs is called “Life Wasted” by Pearl Jam. Its been only a few days ago when I actually looked at the lyrics. Here are the lyrics:
1) You’re always saying that there’s something wrong
I’m starting to believe it’s your plan all along
Death came around, forced to hear its song
And know tomorrow can’t be depended on
2) Seen the home inside your head
All locked doors and unmade beds
3) Open sores unattended
Let me say just once that
4) I have faced it, a life wasted
I’m never going back again
I escaped it, a life wasted
I’m never going back again
having tasted, a life wasted
I’m never going back again
5) The world awaits just up the stairs
Leave the pain for someone else
Nothing back there for you to find
Or was it you you left behind?
6) You’re always saying you’re too weak to be strong
You’re harder on yourself than just about anyone
7) Why swim the channel just to get this far?
Halfway there, why would you turn around?
Why invite it to stay?
9) You’re one with negativity
Yes, comfort is an energy
But why let the sad song play?
heheheh…
I have faced it, a life wasted
I’m never going back again
Oh I escaped it, a life wasted
I’m never going back again
having tasted, a life wasted
I’m never going back again
10) oh i erased it, a life wasted
I’m never going back again
(This is only my opinion, not the bands)
I love to look at things and try to find a meaning out of it. This song is a perfect example.
At #1, it reminded me about Timothy and Ethan. Most everyone, at least once, must have claimed God was wrong with taking them. But after having heard the weeping, prayers, memories, and tributes made to them, you’re hearing the “song of death”. Everyone who knew them were “forced” to hear this song. We’ve come to realize that it’s true that we cannot depend on tomorrow. We don’t know what it has in store for us.
#2 deals with taking a look at yourself, at your “home” which is who you are. Some people choose to keep things locked up within themselves rather than open the door. When we are in distress, we can’t keep our composure and look a wreck. There are those who look like they got it all together, but the only ones able to see the ‘locked doors and unmade beds’ are the person and God.
#3 shows that when we are hurting, we don’t choose to heal ourselves or don’t know how to. The only one able to tend to those wounds is our God Almighty.
#4 everyone’s faced it. A life where you’re only looking for the joys of the world and what it has to offer. I often times refer to it as “Californication” ,(a Red Hot Chili Peppers song) seeking the materialistic, fake,drunk, famous, superficial, sins that the media ultimately glorifies. Anyway, it also says ‘i escaped it’ many people are able to get away from what this world has to offer, but it’s always going to be there. EVERYONE has tasted it. We have all fallen victim to the inequities ot mainstream culture. ‘i’m never going back again’ is what a lot of us say when it hurts us, but some just keep going back for more. It’s the only thing they are familiar with…
#5 The world patiently waits for you to fall back in its magnet tar pit trap. The devil knows we’ll eventually fall back in. But we should be ever strong and vigilant
and carry on, knowing that there is nothing back there that will give us any benefit. We know that many will become drunk with what the media exploits, but it is impossible to convince all who really matters. Those who fall victim to “Californication” feel that pop culture is their all, their only, their master, which has them sense that leaving it is like leaving their whole self-identity behind.
#6 People in general will lower their expectations of themselves. This is due the insecurities, hardships, and relationships they have faced. Everyone can say what they want, but the person who has the biggest impact on ourselves is OURSELVES. ‘harder on yourself than just about anyone’ our self-esteem will always have the lead say on our perception of ourselves, the biggest influence, what we allow to come through and what we filter out.
#7 When we attempt something, why do we often times give up? There’s no reason for it. It’s understandable if it’s simply too much for one person, but that’s God has placed those true friends in our paths. To help us through the struggles, to give us a helping hand when we have fallen. Alas, we still take a passion for pride and dignity and tackle it alone…
#8 Hardships come in formation. They are unpredictable, unknown, and unprecedented in its impact. We should be able to carry on and come out of it stronger than ever with the help of Christ and our loved ones. ‘why invite it to stay?’ people will get too caught up with the problems and not know what else to do. Keeping it only ‘invites it to stay’.
#9 When in despair we are consumed with thoughts and ideas that should’t even be. We should allow comfort of others to an energy around us, giving us that motivation to know that all is not lost. To realize there is no reason to mourn, because God has everything happen for a REASON. We exalt His Name ever highly and know that He is our God…’but why let the sad song play?’
Finally, #10 Some say that they have erased a ‘life wasted’. A life where we only care for me, myself, and I. Where the wine of sin is drunk from EVERYDAY, EVERY SECOND, ALL THE TIME. But have they truley done so? It is IMPOSSIBLE to do so on this supposively called “God forsaken world”. At times it may feel so. It’s been felt by EVERYONE, the SAVED, the MATERIALISTIC, the FAKE, the DRUNK,
the FAMOUS, the SUPERFICIAL, and the SINFULL. The only way to not face it, the only escape, the only way to rid yourself of its bitter taste…the only way to permanently erase it, is to know AND acknowledge AND accept in your heart that the Lamb of God was slain at the cross to give us the oppurtunity to once again be in His precense and have that relationship with our Father and Saviour. After having had been tempted to drink from the cup of sins, given the opportunity to become a self-serving slave of the media, having resisted suicide or killing the person who has pushed you onto the deep end, being resilient in the face of what others want you to be, not becoming another victim of “Californication”……if you have intrusted your life with Jesus; then He will personally meet you in Heaven with the most
heart-warming embrace you have ever felt and utter the most precious words that will mean more than ANYTHING that the devil has offered you… “Well done my true and faithful servant”
[...] Posts In loving memory of Ethan and TimothyTimothy and EthanAs real as I getOh no you never let go. Gunnells Candle Light VigilYouth Football- I am so removed from Culture. [...]
I know that this is more for the Student Ministries/Youth, but I thought I would share my heart as an “Older Person.”
I know that the Subject of “Being Real” is a very close subject to my heart, and I know that even being 30-Something – I find that I haven’t been real with my struggles until just recently. I grew up in the Open Door Church, and was involved with Christian Bible Studies and all my friends – and I hid the hurts behind a mask that I just began to let the pain and hurt fester inside. I never really let it out! No one really got to know the person that lives deep down inside.
Now, my heart is burning for God to let His Presence burn inside of me and to be as real as I can. With Tim and Ethan going home, I was too faced with the Question – “Was it really fair for these kids to go home at 15, when myself at 30 something was so far from where I should be as a Christian?” – Then I heard of the character and action that the parents took and then I realized that – “God had things IN his Control” – I had to realize that God’s timetable was not in our ability to change.
I stand here as a witness to every Student in the ODSM and everyone else that comes on here – “Be Real for God” because first of all, you don’t know when you’ll be called home (when your mansion is complete). Second, we should be doing whatever we can to REACH family and friends with the Gospel of Christ and to do whatever we can to bring more to JESUS.
I’m probably getting the cart before the horse, but as a Drama Writer I love to create things that make the VIEWER THINK…and my Prayer is to be able to start a Drama Ministry/Outreach in the future that will be based on “Soul Searching Drama.” Stuff that makes you think more than entertaining…
My Challenge: Be Real, because when it comes down to it…There are people all over that are hurting just like YOU, and we need to keep things in the “Eternal Perspective” because that is all that really matters.
Live Life as IF!
[...] Christian are you licking the knife? Posted on November 20, 2007 by Jeremy Blount Recently Ron Sugden gave me a book Titled “Confessions of a Pastor” by Craig Groeschel and I have begun reading it. Not sure if Ron is aware of it or not but I actually posted a couple of weeks ago regarding Graigs Confessions. Read the post here. [...]