Reflections on the allegations of abuse and fraud in Bethel Church

Recently, I took the time to listen to one of Mike Winger's latest podcasts that exposes some pretty dark and awful truths about Bethel Church out of Redding, CA. The episode's primary focus looks at false "prophet" Shawn Bolz and how Bethel helped him rise to fame inside the church, and continued to support him and promote him all while allegations of fraud, deception, and sexual deviance and harassment continued to come in against him. Really though, this is part of a larger picture of what's been going on inside many churches in the NAR movement, involving many other "leaders" like Bob Jones, Paul Cain, Benny Hinn, Mike Bickle, Bob Hartley, and now adding Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton, and Che Ahn for starters. I have a feeling that as this momentum for reform within the church builds, we will find that this list is much larger and disturbing than we even now think it is.

Now, let me just say first that I have always been a person who is usually reluctant to throw out the baby with the bathwater. I think one of the greatest tragedies for the church is that you have people like those currently being exposed who are willing to give into their temptations for power and greed, and allow that to infiltrate the church and mislead and promote false teachings that lead people further and further away from Jesus. One of the most dangerous things about movements like this is that they are based on a lot of truth, with lies mixed in. I know full well that there are many Christians in this movement who love the Lord with all their heart, and have had good experiences themselves, and I am thankful for that. You can take the good but you need to see the bad for what it is, and you need to respond accordingly, not tolerating an environment that allows sin to be present for the sake of preserving a culture that is built on a bad foundation.

Nonetheless, the recent exposure of Bethel leadership is extremely disturbing when you see how far back the awareness of fraud goes and their willingness to allow it anyhow. It is disturbing when you see the depth of cover-up culture inside of Bethel and the greater NAR movement, going back many years, at the expense of people who were being victimized by those the church chose to prop up and promote. I wish I could say I was surprised, but I have been aware of the dangerous nature of these types of churches for quite a while and have seen the effects that it has on believers who pursue it. These types of churches place an enormous weight on "signs and wonders" and the experience of emotional encounters as the sign of authentic faith, typically at the cost of biblical teaching and what I would consider a "balanced faith." Those who stay in this sort of environment often learn to suppress their own discernment because if you question anything leadership or false "prophets" are teaching, you are seen as "putting God in a box" and it means you are a doubter. It's a dangerous path to follow, so although my heart is broken for those who have been victimized by these churches, I'm so glad it's finally getting more exposure and I'm hoping for true change in the church.

If you aren't aware of any of this and follow Bethel teachings or anything of the like, I would encourage you to look into it. It's gotten tons of press in the last couple weeks, and Bethel themselves did address this in the last few weeks. Is their repentance true? Only time will tell, and I pray that it is. I can tell you though that it feels a little too late to be genuine. It feels to me like when Samuel called out Saul in 1 Samuel 15 when the Lord commanded him to completely destroy the Amalekites and Saul chose to spare King Agag and the best of what they had. When Samuel confronts Saul, he responds by insisting that he did obey the Lord! It was only when Saul saw the consequences were real, that he finally admitted he was wrong, which is not true repentance. This situation with Bethel and the NAR movement feels a lot like that to me. In my personal opinion, what Bethel leadership chose to do is in direct conflict with very clear Biblical teaching, and they should consider themselves completely disqualified from being in ministry and step down immediately. If this doesn't happen, I fully believe once the spotlight is off of them they will resume the same old stuff. I hope I'm wrong though.

In conclusion, I just want to say that if you are someone who has been hurt by the church, or by fellow Christians, I just want to encourage you to keep looking at Jesus. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to associate the church or another believer with Christ himself. Now, it is true that as Christians we should be representing Christ in truth and without error and be practicing all that the Bible teaches. The reality is though, that we are all broken humans, and not all who say they follow Jesus are truly even following Him:

"Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’" -Matthew 7:21-23 NIV.

Just because someone calls themselves a Christian, or is leading a church or a movement of the church, doesn't mean they are Biblically grounded. If Christianity is true (it is!), then we should also expect that there is a real enemy who hates God and wants to pull as many away from Him as possible, so we should be well aware of the infiltration of false teaching into the church. This is why it is so important as believers to be well grounded in scripture OURSELVES, so that we can test what is taught to ensure we are following what is true. Paul offered a good balanced view for us in 1 Thessalonians:

"Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. Do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil," -1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 NLT.

If you have been burned by the church, realize that church will never be perfect, because it has people in it. All you have to do is read the New Testament epistles and you will see that the church had problems from it's very beginning, but that doesn't mean that God isn't real and at work in spite of it. Allow these situations to bring us to a place of greater faith in Jesus himself, even as we sometimes find depravity in those we hoped we could trust within the church. Never place your pastor or teacher above the Lord himself. Keep following Jesus with all of your heart, you may be disappointed in the church at times, but you will never be disappointed in Him. He is the good shepherd, and your faith is well placed in Him:

"I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep," -John 10:14-15 NLT.

Conversations about God.

 

The other day I was watching an episode of After Life and was intrigued by some dialogue between two characters on the subject of God. If you haven't watched this show yet, although it's got some pretty explicit language and subject matter, it's actually pretty good if you can get past that. The show is created by Ricky Gervais, and much like himself in real life, his character Tony is a fairly strong atheist. In this scene I referenced, Tony is talking with his co-worker Kath and they end up on the subject of God, with Kath vocalizing her belief that God created everything and Tony challenging her in the end by asking her where God came from. Kath responds by saying that, "He's always been around," to which Tony dismisses her by saying, "There you go, easy isn't it?"

I found this interaction interesting for a few different reasons. I felt like this scene unfortunately exposed an uncomfortable truth about a lot of modern Christians, and that is that often we are unprepared for the questions of skeptics and tragically fail to engage with them in a way that lovingly challenges them in return. A possible reason for this could be because as believers, we haven't often engaged with our own intellect or analyzed the reasons for why we believe what we believe. I think that generally speaking many modern churches have done a poor job of teaching apologetics to believers, or how to defend their faith, which can result in faith without much substance. If we aren't willing to engage with people when they ask honest questions about why we believe what we believe, it can be an opportunity lost to lovingly show them who Jesus is. If we are unable to do that, we may experience shame at being to defend our faith, and it has the potential to undermine our own faith in Christ if we aren't sure why we believe.

1 Peter 3:15-16 (NIV) tells the Christ-follower to "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander." This is how we share Jesus with people, by telling them what he has done in our lives, and what we have learned about God's role in creation, and his purpose for it. I think that often believers try to do this, but are unprepared to deal with the follow-up questions, and are left looking like a deer in headlights. One problem people face is that they incorrectly think that if they don't have a well articulated answer on the spot, that they have failed in that moment and lose courage and give up. This just simply isn't true at all. Every Christ-follower is fully qualified to share their own story, so don't be afraid to do that. If you get a question you don't know the answer to yet, be honest about what you know, and never be afraid to say something to the effect of, "I don't know the answer to that question right now, but I am going to do some research and get back to you." I have used this response many times, and I can then use it as an opportunity to do research which will benefit and strengthen my own faith, and which will lead to more follow-up conversations with that person. Don't walk away from an opportunity to engage with people about Jesus, because you never know where the conversation might lead.

I think most often all that is required from us in those conversations is honesty, and a willingness to listen and to stay engaged. Let's go back to the example from the show After Life, what if Kath had engaged with Tony instead of just shrugging her shoulders and letting the conversation die there? What if she asked him questions in return, like, "What do you mean by easy? If you mean, can I can accept God's existence and have it satisfy every question my brain could ever think of about him and the universe, well no. The Bible doesn't even say that's how it should be. In fact, the Bible teaches the opposite. We read in Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV that "...He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end," and there are so many other examples in the Bible of people who are in awe and wonder at what he has done, as they survey the world and all that it contains. So, no Tony, believing in God doesn't make for an "easy" view of the world, but it does provide answers, and I see more evidence that it is true than I see of it not being true, and that is why I have faith in what the Bible teaches, not because it is "easy." Tell me Tony, do you find it "easy" to reject God and to believe that life just randomly happened, against the absolutely impossible odds? Is it "easy" to accept result of that belief, that if the world exists by chance, then it is completely devoid of any meaning? There you go, easy isn't it?"

The reality of this scene though, and I think that is true for many who find themselves questioning God's existence like this, is that Tony was fighting grief and depression after losing his wife to cancer. Pain and suffering are a force to be reckoned with, whether you believe in God or not. Often, when someone who is walking through pain like this questions God's existence, the question they ask isn't the real question they are asking. With some digging and willingness to engage with emotions and where they lead, we may find that the real question is probably closer to one that questions God's integrity or character, wondering how if he is supposedly loving and good, how could he allow evil, pain, and suffering in the world. That question is hard for anyone, and people have lost their faith over it, but people have also come to faith because of it. The Bible does provide answers and a framework through which we can address these incredibly hard questions, but often our heart is unwilling to believe the truth because we believe lies about our identity that are in conflict with what the Bible teaches. In order to demonstrate what this could look like, allow me to build a hypothetical scenario for Tony's character. Maybe Tony had things happen in his childhood that caused him to internalize a belief that he is all alone or not loved, because he had people abandon him early in life. Maybe then when he married his wife, he felt like he finally found the one person in this world that loved him, and now she's gone. If there was any shred of belief or knowledge of God before that, then it's probably in complete contradiction with what he was feeling in that season of grief and sorrow. I think that we often let these core lies decide what we believe about God, rather basing belief on actual evidence or intellectual exercises we have worked through. Emotion creates bias, and bias shapes the way we view the world. If we can expose the emotions, we can follow those back to the core beliefs and lies that we have. If we can do that, we can get to a place where we face a choice to either let our defense mechanisms continue to decide what we believe and embrace the lies, or we can ask God to show us his truth and let him direct us. The choice is always up to us though as to how we handle our emotions and beliefs once we have exposed them.

In summary, my encouragement would be that if you find yourself in a conversation like this one between Kath and Tony, where you feel that you don't have the "right answers" to the question, just keep going and do your best to take the conversation as far as you can. Pray that God would help you find a way to honor him with your words, and to provide the responses needed in that moment. Instead of trying to think of a proper theological response to a "challenge to God's existence," ask questions instead to try and find the underlying motives for why they believe what they believe. Atheism and disbelief in God is almost always (in my opinion) rooted in a moral resistance or an emotionally based desire to reject him, rather than well developed intellectual arguments. I would be more interested in trying to identify the reasons for their disbelief, rather than focusing on trying to "prove" to them that God exists. Lastly, and most importantly, share your own story. One of the most powerful things we can share is what God has done in our own lives, because it's actual evidence that God is real. People can argue against the Bible all day long if they don't see it as authoritative or know why it's credible, but they can't deny what has been true in your life. If you hit a dead-end in the conversation because you don't have the right information, tell them that you'll do some research to clarify your thoughts and will get back to them. Then, most importantly, follow up with them and keep the conversation going. You will be blessed in the process, as it will build up your own faith as well as you go back and remember what the Lord has done in your life.

Thanksgiving Reflections 2025

Happy thanksgiving everyone. I am so thankful for my family and friends, of which I get to spend this day with. While I am thankful for those in my life, I am mindful of the fact that today is another day that can remind us of painful memories, or of painful loss that we have endured, which can feel like a reminder of better times gone by. I am mindful of loved ones who are going through extremely challenging life circumstances, and it is taking all that they have just to get through, and they do that day after day. I am aware of the division that exists in our world, and the loneliness that can result when we allow things like beliefs and life choices to keep us isolated from those we should be in community with. There is so much we can choose to be grateful for, but when we are feeling the weight of heavy emotions like sadness and grief, it can seem an impossible task to view life through that lens.

I recently had someone at church confide in me that they felt like "we never really get to live the life we want to live." As I pondered the sadness behind that statement, I also realized that this person is quite right, in the sense that we often view our lives. The reality is that since the beginning of creation when Adam and Eve walked on Earth and chose to rebel against God's plan for their lives to pursue their own selfish desires, no one has ever really been able to live the life they wanted to. The world we live in now, is not the world as God intended it to be. We live in a world that has been broken and corrupted by the effects of sin that we have all chosen to bring into it. The Bible says that, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way..," (Isaiah 53:6 NIV) which is what has brought sin into the world, by our rejection of God.

On this Thanksgiving, if you are feeling the weight of addiction, the sting of grief, or the loneliness of being separated from you loved ones, or anything else, then I have good news for you. Despite the fact that humanity brought evil into the world, which has caused all of this pain and suffering, God in his infinite love for us, initiated a rescue plan to save us from the punishment due for the consequences of our rebellion. For although the Bible says in the book of Romans 6:23 NIV that "...the wages of sin is death," the incredible news is that the rest of that same verse declares "...the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

God has never promised that we get to live the life that we want to live in this world, that ship sailed long ago with the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden. And yet, in a world where Jesus Christ himself told us that, "In this world you will have trouble," he also said to "take heart, because I have overcome the world," (John 16:33 NLT). In a world where instability often seems to reign, our confidence is assured to be well placed in our God, because "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever," (Hebrews 13:8 ESV).

Today, I am thinking and praying for the many that I know are going through hard times. My prayer is that despite the disappointment you may feel over how your life has turned out, or the pain you are feeling from the hand you have been dealt in this life, that you would allow Jesus Christ into your heart, as he is not just a God who is so remote from our Earthy experience that he doesn't know what we are dealing with. No, my friends, he is fully God in who he is, yet he fully entered into the humanity of our world and experienced pain and suffering on a scale we cannot fully comprehend with our limited understanding. We have a savior who knows what it is like to be rejected, and to carry the burden of sickness and pain. The prophet Isaiah painted the picture of Christ as our savior so beautifully here, several hundred years before he was born of the Virgin Mary:

"He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn’t have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him. Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds," (Isaiah 53:2-5 CSB).

Today, I am thankful for all of those in my life that I get to share it with. Although I am also grateful for the physical things I have been entrusted with, my hope is not in them, or in money, or in my job, or my health, or my family or friends. Those things are temporal, and there is no guarantee that they will be here tomorrow. My hope is in Jesus Christ alone. For he "is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety," (Psalms 18:2 NLT). We may not get to live the life we want to in this world, but we are guaranteed that when we place our hope in Jesus Christ, he walks through it with us, and "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus," (Philippians 4:7 ESV). In this world, we may not be guaranteed all of the physical things that we desire, but in spite of that, we are promised God's love and forgiveness, and eternal life with Him when we place our hope in Jesus Christ alone. I pray that you will experience God's hope and comfort on this Thanksgiving day, no matter what your life circumstances are. May you know that you are loved by the creator of everything, so much so that "He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life," (John 3:16 NLT) and that is something we can be eternally thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

The Pursuit of Peace

Good morning everyone,

Today I'm reflecting on peace, and looking at the various points in my life when I felt myself at peace, and times I definitely did not sense peace within myself. Why am I reflecting on this idea of peace anyway? Well, one thing I like to do is to start each day (as much as possible) by reading God's word in the Bible. I primarily use the YouVersion Bible app, and they have a widget for the "Verse of the Day," which I place right on my home screen. This ensures that from the moment I wake up and turn off my alarm on my phone, one of the first things that grabs my attention is a Bible verse, and it engages my thoughts and centers them on God right away. For the last couple of days, the verses have talked about peace with God that results from faith in Jesus Christ, and what the qualities of a peace filled life look like when we're properly grounded in the Lord.

So what is peace, and what does it look like in action? Well, Merriam-Webster lists a few definitions on their website, the first one focusing on freedom from civil disturbances, but I'm focused on definitions 2 and 3 for the sake of this post, although I would point out there is a common thread between all of these expressions of peace. Their definition #2 states that peace is, "freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions," and definition #3 states that peace is also "harmony in personal relations." I think that no matter who you are or what you believe, for the most part, these are all things that everyone wants and are admirable goals for every person. My belief based on my own experience is that people will generally go to great lengths to try and achieve peace in their lives. In this post, I am mostly focused on what peace means for a Christ-follower, and will draw from my own observations in my pursuit of peace over the years, and my many failed attempts to achieve it, and where I am currently at with it.

When I look at my own life, present day and also looking back at myself over the last several years, I see a drastic difference in how much peace I felt in my daily life. I would say that it was a priority for me for most of my life to try and maintain peace through my own efforts. This manifested in various ways, especially through the use of drugs and alcohol to manage oppressive thoughts and emotions that were rooted in unresolved issues from my childhood (I would learn this several years later), and also through conflict avoidance, for similar reasons. I can look back and see periods when I had much stronger perfectionist habits than I do now. I can also look back only a few years ago and see how I used my career to try and compensate for the lack of peace I felt inside, through workaholism. As I look back at these chapters of my life, I can see that I was doing those things because I was compensating for the lack of peace I felt inside about who I was, which was driven by massive insecurities and fears, again, rooted in events of my past that I had not properly dealt with yet. My use of drugs and alcohol to try and maintain inner peace gradually stopped working for that purpose (not that it actually ever really "worked" either), as demonstrated by the need to continually use over and over, because the wounds were not healing, and the negative emotions would keep coming back after the high wore off. Peace kept feeling like a dream that I could never actually get to for myself.

One of the most interesting things that I notice about this idea of peace as it pertains to a Christ-follower, is that peace is not actually the end goal of our faith in Jesus, it is not something we should be chasing after, but rather is the mark of faith that is properly anchored in the Lord. I think that the Apostle Paul illustrated this very well in the book of Philippians, let's take a look at some of his words in chapter 4:

"Now I appeal to Euodia and Syntyche. Please, because you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreement. And I ask you, my true partner, to help these two women, for they worked hard with me in telling others the Good News. They worked along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are written in the Book of Life. Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you," -Philippians 4:2-9 NLT. 

Right at the beginning of these verses, we see Paul talking about two fellow believers who were having a disagreement about something, and he is urging them to set that aside, "because [they] belong to the Lord," and he is also tasking the others to help them with this. Paul goes on to tell them to always be full of joy in the Lord, and to rejoice, and to let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. He goes on to tell them not to worry, but instead to pray about EVERYTHING, and here is what that looks like, to tell God your needs, and to give thanks for all that he has done. After all of this, Paul says we will then experience God's peace, which goes against all of our human understanding, because it often just doesn't make sense to our brains. So how do we actually achieve this? Well, Paul just gave us a set of rules to follow right? We just, do these things and then we get peace? Is it just a different set of things we need to do to get the end result we want? No, you must keep reading, as Paul details this concept in the following verses. I especially think the next sentence is key: "His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." The crucial part is that we are living in Jesus. This implies more than following rules, as we can go back to the four Gospels and see how Jesus repeatedly rebuked the Pharisees because although they were great rule followers, they weren't living out the principles of the law, which were put in place to show people how God is holy, and what a life lived in service to Him looks like in our world. It's not about following rules, it's about having a relationship with God and giving Him every part of ourselves to be used for His purposes. This makes me think of how Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty," (John 6:35 NIV). Jesus wasn't talking about the physical aspects of hunger and thirst. As was typical of Jesus, He was looking at the big picture, life eternal, and our hunger for righteousness (to be justified and made right before God), which can only be satisfied in the Lord. I love the image of bread in this analogy, because it requires that we take it into ourselves, it's not just something that we do or apply on the outside, but rather something that changes us from the inside out.

When I again look back at my own life and experiences, for most of the years I was living in a way that tried to bring peace into my life by my own efforts, I was a Christ-follower. I truly believed that Jesus was my Lord and savior since the age of 15, so why was I not experiencing the peace that Paul talked about in Philippians? As I look back now, I believe it was because I was not truly living for Him, and I wasn't giving Him access to every part of myself. Within my heart, I had walls that I had built up for years to try and keep those negative emotions from coming out that threatened to disrupt my false sense of peace. I didn't give Jesus access to those places, because I didn't want to go to those places myself since they were a source of pain and hurt which triggered all sorts of lie-based thinking about who I thought I was. The funny thing about walls that we build up in our hearts is that they never fully keep the things locked away that we intend for them to. Those things seep out, and they creep into our daily lives. People say things, people do things, life happens, and those events trigger our false beliefs about ourselves that are rooted in the past. The efforts we make to try and create peace in our lives actually lead to the opposite in the end. We may use drugs or alcohol to try and numb out the negative emotions that we don't want to feel, but eventually we feel them. We may through workaholism try to prove we are not that person we used to be in our past by measuring the success we achieve in our jobs, until something happens with our job. We may engage in pointless debates and arguments to try and make ourselves feel better by proving that we are right and everyone else is wrong, as we burn our relationships to the ground. We may through perfectionism try to achieve peace by controlling our environment and proving that we are good enough by meeting impossible standards, until we can't. Ultimately these things don't bring peace, and the longer we try to find peace through these means, the farther peace feels for us, and our lives will usually show it.

So if we can't truly attain peace by our own efforts, how do we actually get there? There may be other paths to types of peace in this world, but for the one who walks with Jesus, true peace is the mark of a life surrendered to Him, and not at all by our own efforts. I think that the key that opens the door to that peace of God is what Paul said in Philippians 4:6 (NLT), "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done." I think that one thing of the problems we face in the modern church is the temptation to oversimplify scriptures that are actually very profound and deep when analyzed critically. We live in an age of quick fixes, and with platitudes abound, I really do get it, but we can't make that mistake with God's word. Let's look at what I think Paul is getting at here in this one verse alone.

First, Paul says, "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything." I wonder what most of us think prayer really amounts to? How many of us approach prayer as a list of demands or our Earthly wish list that we want our "genie-in-a-bottle" God to grant for us, so we can get on with our day. How much time do we really spend in prayer with God either by the way? Prayer is not a set of things we do, it's not good deeds, it's not anything other than communication with God. Communication means talking, and listening. When we look at the life of Jesus in the Gospels, we see Jesus spending massive amounts of time in prayer, and it was always in solitude. He made deliberate efforts to spend time with His heavenly father. He didn't just say a couple of quick light-hearted prayers while he was on his way to preach a sermon, just something to squeeze in between all the other more important things in his day, no, he was intentional about it. He would get away from the crowds and the people and spend time one on one with his heavenly father, pouring out his heart and soul in direct communication with Him. When we feel tempted to worry about things, instead of just saying a 30 second prayer and telling God He needs to fix this or you're going to take matters into your own hands, how about slowing things down and spending quality time with the Lord, and really looking at what's going on inside your heart, and telling Him all about it? I think this is closer to the heart of what Paul probably has in mind when he tells us to pray about everything, he's not just telling us to put it on our to-do list, but rather to incorporate it into our way of life.

Secondly, Paul says to "Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done." Telling God what we need is part of prayer in my opinion, it's what should flow out of us when we are communicating with Him, while we at the same time are listening to Him. Next though, is something that I think is just as important as prayer: showing gratitude for what He has done. To me, this short section of the verse is all about reflection, and spending time with God and getting to know Him and His character. It's about knowing who He is, and what He is like, because those traits are what help build trust in our relationship with Him. I see the personal aspect of looking at what God has done in our lives directly. This is critical, because I've learned in my own experience that if I don't continuously go back and look at the things God has done in my life, I will naturally forget about them, or at least they will lose their significance in the active parts of my brain and get moved into the archives. This can only happen if I allow it to, usually as the result of me prioritizing other things of the world more than God. A way that helps me to keep this in perspective, is to broaden the lens and not just think about what He has done directly in the life of me and my family, but also in the world. To do this requires me to be actively engaged in His word (the Bible), and to be in regular community with other believers. When we make a regular habit of studying the scriptures, it gets worked into the depths of our minds, and our hearts. We begin to really get to know God more, based on on how active we are in learning about Him and what He has revealed to us in His world. When we are active in community with other believers, we also get to hear stories and testimonies of what He has done for others. When we have this framework built around our life, it makes it extremely easy to have an attitude of gratitude, which drives everything else in our life, because it allows us to see His guiding hand in the world and to trust that He is in control, even when we don't understand why something is happening. This is how we can attain what the bible calls a peace that surpasses understanding.

So once we do the work of being intentional in our faith, how do we safeguard and protect our hearts to ensure we don't fall victim to the attacks of the enemy, and from the hardships of the world? Well, the things I've just talked about will help, but Paul goes on in the verses I shared to really paint a picture of an insurance policy we can adopt as believers:

"Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you," -Philippians 4:8-9 NLT.

What we absorb through our eyes and our ears ends up in our brains and our hearts, and can end up shaping our thoughts and actions. The people we hang out with regularly, the music we listen to, the stuff we watch on TV, the way we engage on social media, it all makes a difference and will directly play into everything else I've been talking about in this post. This was something I became aware of several years ago when the Lord really began showing me that the reason I was struggling with fear, anxiety, panic, and depression was because of the walls I had built up to isolate negative emotions, but also because I had no accountability in my life, I had no Bible reading or prayer routine, and I just consumed whatever media I wanted without a thought. Slowly, I began to see how these things impacted me in ways I never noticed before. I didn't change overnight, but over a couple years, I made drastic changes in all of these areas. I started by reading the bible regularly and getting into regular community with other Christ-followers. I then began to open up to people and being honest about my struggles, without hiding the truth. I began to get help in the areas I couldn't seem to resolve on my own. I also began to look at the music I was listening to and what I was watching on TV, and I had to cut a lot of things out. To me it wasn't about doing these things because I had to follow a set of rules though, it was because I started paying attention to how these things affected me and my relationship with the Lord on a spiritual level, and I was intentional about wanting to know Him more.

I certainly don't get everything perfect all of the time, probably not even most of the time, but I try to make sure that everything I do has the intended effect of growing me in my relationship with God. I still screw up, but I try to pay attention to when my conscience tells me I shouldn't have done something, or if I need to apologize for something I did or said, and then actually do it. I just have to make sure my pride doesn't get in the way. Pride is a huge blocker of peace, and it will hinder our walk with the Lord.

So, how does peace look in your life right now? Have you been feeling the emotional roller coaster of life as you try repeatedly to produce peace in your life through the various ways of the world? If so, I recommend that you follow the blueprint laid out in Philippians by the Apostle Paul, that I discussed above. Stop chasing peace, and start submitting to God whatever areas you may have held back from Him all of these years. If peace is what we seek, it will prove to be ever elusive, and not attainable. Remember, true peace, on a soul level, is the marker of a life that is fully placed in the hands of Jesus, "His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus," (Philippians 4:7 NLT). Living in Christ doesn't mean just showing up to church on Sunday, it's a daily, hourly, minute by minute, second by second way of life, in which we submit everything we do, and every breath we take, to Him. We will live this way almost naturally when our hearts are in love with Him and amazed by what He has done for us. It doesn't happen by itself though. It takes effort, and it is by our own choices whether we choose to cultivate ways of living that draw us closer to God, or push us further from Him. Our life will reflect the results of our choices either way. May you be blessed in your walk with Christ as you choose to follow Him more closely, and may His peace follow you as a result.

"I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid," -John 14:27 NLT.

CrossCounsel Podcast: "Truth Independent of Reactions"

 

I was recently given another opportunity to be a guest on the CrossCounsel podcast, and to take part in a conversation with Steve Freitag about what it looks like to stand in truth in a world that often takes incredible offense against truth claims. I was able to share some of my own story as I reflect back on factors that have contributed to my own insecurities that have caused me to avoid conflict in the past, and that often kept me in a place where I failed to share my faith out of fear of rejection. I was able to connect some things currently going on in the world with part of my own story as I looked at some of my past issues with substance abuse, and the price that I paid while I was stuck in that pattern. We talked about those things, and quite a bit more, it was a great time talking with my good friend Steve! That interview was just released this week, so I wanted to post that in case anyone was interested in checking it out (see link at the bottom of this post).

If you haven't heard of CrossCounsel before, it's an incredible ministry that seeks to connect us with the healing power of Jesus by helping us navigate through lie-based thinking and allowing God to shine his truth on it through what they call the MELT process (memory, emotion, lie/belief, truth). God is ultimately the one who reveals truth, but we have to be willing to go to the painful memories and lies we've believed, and open the door to let God into those same places. Once the lies are exposed and truth has been revealed, we can experience freedom in those areas that have held us hostage for so long.

So many of us have fallen into patterns of pain management and conflict avoidance because we simply are unwilling to allow ourselves to feel those painful memories and to hear those lies that we've believed for so long. That is not a life of freedom, that is a life of bondage and of heavy burdens. God has something different in mind for each one of us, but we have to be willing to open the door.

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me." -Revelation 3:20 NIV

CrossCounsel Podcast Ep #176 - Truth Independent of Reactions

If you enjoy watching this podcast, feel free to check out a couple of the other ones I was previously able to share on as well:

CrossCounsel Podcast Ep #125 - An Uncommon Message

CrossCounsel Podcast Ep #149 - No Need for Weed

CrossCounsel Podcast Ep. 159 - Weeding Out More Lies

CrossCounsel Podcast Ep. 167 - Our Soul's Soundtracks

The dangers of comfortable living

One of the most dangerous things we can do is to allow ourselves to just be comfortable. There is a risk of being so comfortable in life that we allow others to think for us and we don't ask any questions, we just trust the "experts." It's also possible to be so comfortable that we don't ask ourselves any questions or self-reflect on why we do what we do, and we just go through life on autopilot. This behavior can most certainly be true in the realm of worldviews too, as in formulating our belief system that seeks to address the core questions most people have about life, such as: how did the world come to exist, how did humanity come to exist, and what is the meaning of life? I believe that everyone has a worldview. I think that whether you believe in God or not, you have some sort of belief system that shapes how you live your life, whether you are aware of it or not. What this post is intended to invoke reflection upon, is the question of, "why do you believe what you believe?"

If I asked you right now, do you believe in God, what would your answer be? My challenge to you is to think about how you came to hold your belief system, especially as it pertains to God. Whether you do believe in Him, don't believe in Him, or whether you claim that you aren't really sure if you do or don't, again I ask you, well...why is that? Is it possible that you came to hold your set of beliefs through situational or cultural osmosis because of the people in your life? And although for a good belief system that is certainly a good starting point, sooner or later everyone needs to decide why they believe something, or it will fall apart when life gets hard and may challenge your undeveloped foundation (Matthew 7:24-27). Or perhaps you have a more cynical worldview, doubtful of God's existence and of any good reason for anything to exist, is it possible you arrived at this belief due to your life circumstances, perhaps having been dealt a bad hand in life? As someone who has struggled with much in life myself, my heart goes out to you if this is your situation, but that too, is a fragile, emotionally-based way to view the world. What I want you to really think about, is to consider the actual evidence that you have based your beliefs on. Is there actually any evidence that you have looked at and considered, or are your beliefs based on weak presuppositions that you may have chosen to fit in with other beliefs you have, allowing your emotions or desired behaviors to actually shape how you view the world?

If you don't think you believe in God, do you actually know why? I have observed that often, people who claim no belief in God, when questioned on the evidence they hold to against His existence, often have none in fact, but rather simply point to Christians that turned them off to the idea of God. Although I absolutely do not minimize the importance of Christians living out our faith in a way that aligns with what scripture teaches, I have to point out the inconsistency of rejecting faith in God on grounds that actually have nothing to do with Him. I would actually agree with the person who asks, why aren't Christians being more Christ-like? To that person I would say, you are right, Christians are supposed to act like Christ, but the fact that the disconnect in their behavior bothers you so much only reinforces true Christianity by proving that the biblical moral standards by which you are measuring Christians themselves, is a standard worth comparing to, or you wouldn't be doing it with them. By bringing this argument forward, you are actually in a sense reinforcing the principles of Christianity itself. By pointing out the inconsistency of a Christian who is not being Christ-like, you are pointing to Christ and the bible as the standard against which we should be compared, which is valid. Your issue is not against God or Jesus, but with some of His followers, which is a topic that I could elaborate on separately, but for now only acknowledge that it is a tragic reality we find ourselves in while living in this broken world.

For now, I just want to say, if you are in this camp of people who rejects God because you have been hurt or burned by Christians, or the church, my heart is with you, because that is something that should not be. Unfortunately, it is the reality of living in our broken world, in that even those that love God don't get it right all the time. I would encourage though you to go to the source and try reading the bible and looking at Jesus himself, he's the one we should all have our eyes focused on, because he is "the pioneer and perfecter of faith," (Hebrew 12:2). Does the idea of God or Jesus as God sound silly to you, like some sort of kid's fairy tale or something? Well, I thought you might say that, in fact the bible said that you would say that:

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God," -1 Corinthians 1:18 NIV.

If you have a hard time believing that the bible could be true, have you considered other things in your life that you believe and looked at those for inconsistencies? Do you hold faith in other spiritual ideas or practices, while at the same time claiming it is too unlikely that there is a God who created the world? If you claim no faith in God and you believe the world came from nothing, have you ever considered the amount of faith that it takes to believe something like that? I can tell you that I don't have enough faith to believe this world is totally random, because an honest look at modern science data will show just how precisely fine-tuned the universe is for life, and the sheer odds of it being random are staggering. Many scientists have actually become Christ-followers because of the volume of evidence they witnessed when looking at creation itself through a scientific lens. Did you know that the bible actually says that's how it should work if you truly look at the world and consider how wondrous and amazing it and life are?

"For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse," -Romans 1:20 NIV.

The world itself was made in a way that it should cause us to be amazed and to wonder about the core questions about life and how we got here, because God created it all to point back to Him, and to cause us to look for Him. If you already believe in God, my question to you would be, are you living as if it's the most important thing in the world? Does your faith define the way you live your life, or is it just an accessory that you put on when you go to church on Sunday? C.S. Lewis once said: "Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important." A lukewarm Christian faith is not really a faith in Christ at all. To you who are lukewarm I would also ask, why do you believe what you believe? Do you believe in God because your parents did? If so, that's a good start, but have you considered the evidence for His existence? Have you looked at the facts, have you talked with Him and asked Him to meet you in your journey for truth? He will meet you if you are sincere in your pursuit for Him, I assure you, He will. When you truly encounter Jesus, it will change your life, but everyday we have to make a choice to follow Him. Belief, and allowing ourselves to be changed by truth in how we live our lives, are different things, but we are called to both as we follow the Lord.

God is real, I would stake my life on it. Where are you with your set of worldview beliefs, are you lukewarm for God, do you disapprove of His existence, or are you so comfortable with your life that you don't care enough to even think about the big picture? Either way, are you so convinced of your beliefs based on a careful review of the evidence that you would stake your life on it? Stop being comfortable for a change. Challenge what you think you believe and be willing to look at the evidence. Stop living your life based on secondhand information, or what your emotions led you to think. I will tell you with complete confidence that an honest look at the God of the bible and Jesus of Nazareth will stand up to the test, and will most assuredly only increase your faith in the end. Maybe that's what you're scare of though. Sometimes we want to be comfortable because we are afraid of what we'll find if we go searching for the truth. Is it better to live for an uncomfortable truth, or a comfortable lie? I'm all in for the truth man, I don't care how uncomfortable it makes me sometimes. As for you though, well, the choice is yours. How about you try getting out of the comfortable boat and walking towards Jesus (Matthew 14:28-32)?

Stand and Fight: The Christian's Response to Evil

Are you one of the many people that feels as if their eyes have been opened after staring at an act of unspeakable evil, as if a veil has been removed, revealing reality as it truly is? When confronted by evil, there is no greater logical conclusion you can arrive at, than to acknowledge that God is real too. The forces of good and evil are very real, and increasingly active in our present world. As modern societies and cultures forget and intentionally distance themselves from God, the source of the morality that most of them desperately try to cling to, we will continue to see the effects of this more and more everyday.

Let this wake-up call not be in vain. We are called to fight against evil, by standing on biblical Truth, and by calling upon the Lord to advance His kingdom through the preaching of the good news of Jesus Christ, through prayer for our brothers and sisters to be saved, and for His will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. This requires a warrior mindset, and our enemy wants nothing more than for us to be comfortable, lazy, and to think that he isn't real. Except, he is real, and evil is very tangible proof of it. It's the proof that invades into our otherwise often peaceful lives and demands an explanation that we just can't come up with. You can't explain evil in a way that makes any sense. It seems to violate natural laws inside of us, whether you want to believe they are there or not. I assure you, they are, for "...the requirements of the law are written on [our] hearts, [our] consciences also bearing witness," (Romans 2:15 NIV). You can use sociology or psychology to try and understand why someone commits an evil act, but at the end of the day, you really can't grasp it properly without a biblical worldview, in my opinion. The reality is that there are spiritual forces at work in our world, they are in fact, at war with each other. The book of Ephesians describes this as follows:

"For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places," -Ephesians 6:12 NLT.

Until we understand that our actual battle is not with people, but the spiritual forces that govern this world, our theories and solutions to try and solve the problem of evil will always fall short. We are either actively fighting against the evil powers in this world, or we are helping to advance them. You may think to yourself, "I'm not a bad person, although I don't believe in God, I'm not doing anything that hurts anyone." Well, Jesus was clear about the fact that there are only two sides in this battle, and you're either on His side, or you're not: 

“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters," -Matthew 12:30 NIV.

If you presently don't believe in God, but you are starting to see that you believe in evil, I encourage you to let that push you to do some investigative work to try and follow that to it's logical conclusion: if evil is real, then so is God. If God is real, then Truth matters, and lives are at stake. Go to church. Read the Bible. Pray. God is real, and He really does hear you when you talk to Him. Be honest with Him about where you are at in your faith journey, and don't pretend to be something you're not, this world needs real, genuine faith that transforms lives, not a bunch of fake Christians that pretend to have it all together already. Nobody has it all figured out, the church is full of broken people that are pursuing Jesus together, and we're all at different points in our journey. Keep your eyes on Jesus, and start by just putting one foot in front of the other, and keep following Him.

If you're already a Christ-follower, but perhaps you are like I was for many years, passive, and ineffective. One of the ways the enemy gets us to be ineffective is by using our past wounds and the lies we believe about ourselves, to keep us from truly stepping into the lives that the Lord has called us to lead. Instead of looking at our past hurts and learning how we can use them for the Lord's purposes, we instead choose to numb our pain with booze, weed, porn, job addiction, or a million other things that can distract us and keep us from growing in relationship with the Lord. Instead of learning about who God says we are and basing our identity on that, we embrace a victim mindset and seek a diagnosis from a doctor so we can numb our pain with medication instead of doing the hard work of facing the pain of our past and allowing God to reveal His truth to us in those areas. Instead of changing the world by sharing the love and truth of Jesus Christ, we let the world change us, and we sit on the sidelines, paralyzed by fear. This is not the life that God has called us to. No, the Apostle Paul put it beautifully in Romans 8:37-39 NIV:

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 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."

When we choose to follow Christ, there is nothing in this world that can separate us from Him. That means we can look death and evil right in the face and proclaim the name of Jesus boldly, because it has no power over us anymore: 

"Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through His death He might destroy the one holding the power of death — that is, the Devil — and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death," -Hebrews 2:14-15 HCSB.

So, if scripture tells us that as Christ-followers we can stare death and evil in the face and have no fear, how do we actually achieve this? Paul tells us in Ephesians:

"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..." -Ephesians 6:10-11 NIV.

Again, keep in mind that we are actively living in a spiritual battle, whether we are engaged or not, the choice is ours whether we choose to fight, or to be defeated without effort. Did you see that the devil has schemes? He is an expert at what he does, and he hates when people grow closer to God, and he especially hates when we become more effective and lead others to Jesus. He knows our weaknesses, and he schemes up ways to try and take us down. It is for this reason that Paul tells us to put on "armor," this is meant for battle, and putting it on is a daily process. Paul goes on to describe what it looks like to put on the armor of God:

"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," -Ephesians 6:13-18 NIV.

So whether you're new to faith, or you've been passive in your walk with Christ, each day you have a choice to put on this armor and to fight against the enemy. Each day is an opportunity to choose to stand and fight. Notice that almost all of the armor he describes is for defensive purposes, except for "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." This sword is made up of truth, as found in His word, or the Bible. If you aren't in the Word regularly, you aren't actively engaged with the primary offensive weapon we have to fight back against the lies of the enemy. In order to fight with a sword, you actually have to pick it up and hold it; you have to be engaged.

Before you feel inclined to run and grab your sword though, you have to first be aware that you are in a battle, and in need of a weapon. I find it no coincidence that scripture tells us in many different ways to "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour," (I Peter 5:8 NKJV). This one hits home for me, because of how I passively lived my life for many years. If you're drunk or stoned all the time, you won't realize that you're under attack by a very real enemy, and you won't be alert enough to fight back. Maybe you have been trying to fight, but you've felt like your prayers are ineffective and are never answered. Is it possible that sin is keeping you from fully experiencing God's presence, and you're senses are dulled as a result of the choices you're making? How can we discern what God is trying to show us if our heads are in the clouds all the time? "Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV). If we really want to feel God's presence, and to hear from Him when we pray, we need to present ourselves as a clean vessel that He can use for His purposes, and for fighting against the evil forces of this world.

Although we are saved for eternity when we accept Christ, we are not called to live a passive life sitting on the bench in light of that. We are called to have an active faith, living a life that is "worthy of the calling [we] have received," (Ephesians 4:1 NIV) praying for and setting the example for our families, friends, and community around us. The choices we make on a daily basis can either help grow our faith, or can cause us to become weak and prone to attack if we are not actively engaged with the spiritual warfare that is going on all around us. Make no mistake, it is up to us to decide what side we will fight on, so "...choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...” (Joshua 24:15 NIV). Make every effort to make yourself a holy vessel for God's spirit to dwell in, and "Do not quench [subdue, or be unresponsive to the working and guidance of] the [Holy] Spirit," (1 Thessalonians 5:19 AMP). The choice of which side we are fighting on, truly, is up to us.