“God is Love!” This is a phrase used often by today’s Christians as well as the secular world when telling Christians that they are doing things wrong. It’s also a phrase that is proven by the events we celebrate this week.

If you are a Christian you believe that the creator of the universe sent his only son, one third of the Trinity that he is a part of, to be sacrificed for our sins. I often try to remind myself that even if everyone else on Earth had never sinned, Jesus would have still willingly died because of my sins. He would have done it all just for me. That is a truly amazing thought and the whole idea behind the sentence, “God is love.”

This is what we often spend all of Holy Week focusing on as we should. It’s vitally important that we remember the love Christ had for us and the saving Grace he showed us by dying on the cross and rising again on Easter morning.

What is often left out, and something that I feel today’s society often forgets is why Christ had to die. He didn’t die because Satan required it. He died because justice was required. God the father, though he is all love is also all justice! It is his nature that sin MUST be punished.

Satan tries to get us to sin, to bring us to a place where we don’t think we need Christ and his grace. He tries to convince us that sin isn’t sin but he isn’t the one who requires justice. God the Father requires justice!

So when we say that, “God is love” we are completely accurate but it must be remembered that God is also completely just! If it weren’t for Christ’s grace we would be separated from God for all eternity not because of Satan but because God would not accept our sinful nature! Jesus whipped us clean of sin otherwise God would have cast us away.

I know this might seem like a small detail but I think it goes to the root of much of the world’s obsession with “therapeutic moral deism” and Christian churches around the world starting to fold when it comes to sins in our world. We have forgotten that God is not JUST love. He is just and the only reason we need a savior is because we are sinful. We individually and collectively need to continue to remind ourselves that we are sinners. That things we do, though we may enjoy them or feel proud about them, may very well be sins.

Holy week is all about forgiveness and grace. The forgiveness and grace that is freely given to us because Jesus paid the price that God required.

Let me start this post by saying this is intended for people who are already Christians. This is not a post for the general population but for those in my Christian family.

They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.  That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other.  And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.  Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.  They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents.  They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.  They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. -Romans 1:25-32

In the last few years church denominations have been caving from their doctrinal stances to societal pressures. Whether it be the issue of divorce, women in ministry or gay marriage it seems that many denominations are making their theology match the society at large and that’s a very dangerous trend.

In my daily Bible readings I came across the passage above from Romans. Now, I’m not a Bible scholar but it seems pretty clear to me that this New Testament reference to the act of homosexuality is agains the will God has for humans. Of course many will say that it’s precisely the fact that I’m not a Bible scholar that shows I can’t truly understand what God is saying here. I think that’s a load of horse manure. The Bible was written for all people to read and understand. Yes, some parts take a great deal of study to truly appreciate and we can always delve deeper into The Word but to write of what is clearly written here in Roman’s is absurd.

There is another camp of Christians who reference the Bible more as a guide book and not the inspired Word of God. For these Christians I suppose you can write of this verse for whatever reason you wish. Though, if the Bible is just another book what is your faith really based on? How do you pick and choose what parts of the book you wish to follow. To me this seems like a pretty unreliable way to go about practicing your religion.

Finally, there are a great number of Christians who don’t want to take the hard stand against homosexual behavior because they wish not to judge. They don’t believe it’s possible to love the sinner and hate the sin. Well I think that’s a cheap way out. I’m a sinner. I know there are vast parts of my character and my actions that do not line up with what God wishes for me but I still love myself. I can hate my sin and still love myself. I know there are things that I did growing up (and even now) that my parents disagreed with and probably even despised but that didn’t stop them from loving me.

As Christians it’s imperative that we show the love of Christ to each other and the rest of the world but it’s also imperative that we help our fellow Christian brothers and sisters realize when they are accepting sin in their lives. It seems in the last generation or so we’ve stopped doing that. We have accepted gossip, divorce, jealousy, and all the other human vices to creep into our Christian family without reprimanding each other. We’re not doing anyone a favor by this.

One of the New Testament stories that always amazes me is when Paul comes back to the Apostles and starts reprimanding them. Here’s a guy who use to persecute and stone Christians telling the men who walked and talked with Jesus how they’re not doing what they should. Wow! That takes guts, but it was the right thing to do. We as Christians must work to keep each other on the path. It saddens me to see so many denominations lifting up and affirming society while they diminishing the authority of God’s Word. I’m pretty sure society is doing a good enough job of diminishing God’s Word without the Church helping out!

This post will undoubtedly stir up some controversy but that’s something we as Christians are going to have to get used to I think. Let me start by saying this post is really not about whether you think homosexuality is Biblical or not. Though many will read this and think that’s the point, it’s really not. That being said, this post is based in my opinion that acting on homosexual thoughts is indeed against God’s will for our lives. Now for the real point…

Yesterday yet another court ruled that gay marriage is legal. This affected my state and now I find myself in occupied territory. I could see the signs coming. The last 20 years have been a steady move towards secularization and away from Judeo-Christian values. The last 10 years have been less of a steady move and more of a rushing tsunami! Yesterday was the day it really became crystal clear to me.

To my knowledge this is the first time in American history that something that is believed by the majority of Christians to be against God’s will has become openly celebrated in our society. To me this marks a crossing of a threshold. Christianity in America had always run parallel to the general population’s culture, if not fully a part of it. This is no longer the case. Traditional Christianity is now truly countercultural a place it’s never really been in America before.

We are diving into uncharted territory for most American Christians. We are now “strangers in a strange land.” Our opinions and beliefs will become more and more unpopular. We will be labeled hateful and bigoted. Our children will grow up in a country we never imagined and have to be stronger in their faith than ever before. It’s going to be hard. I think, harder than anything Christians in this country have ever endured.

I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes from America’s founding. We must take up the armor of Christ and become Christian soldiers, not to bring thoughts of damnation but to bring the love and grace of Christ to a fallen world.

“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

In the past few years I’ve really gotten into the idea of content marketing. That’s the concept of providing content about your product or service regularly, usually online. Businesses create useful videos, write blog posts, provide tips, and other things that provide value so that you know more about their brand and trust them. This way you’re more likely to become a customer of theirs in the future.

Blogging is one of the main forms of content marketing and something I’ve been playing with for a while now. It’s a great way to get your thoughts and information out to your friends and others who might be interested. It’s also a great way just to get thoughts out of your head and expressed in a tangible form.

As I’ve been learning about blogging and practicing it myself I’ve really started to think that it would be a great form of outreach for the local church. What if each church had 5-20 members who were bloggers. They certainly wouldn’t have to blog about only their faith but it would be an aspect of their blog. There blog would be a place to tell the stories of how God is interacting with their lives. Telling stories is one of the most powerful forms of reaching people for Christ.

If a business has a few people working on content for the greater world about their product or services think how much greater it would be for Christ if we had 5 people telling their faith story at each of the 450,000 churches in the United States. Can you imagine the stories that could be shared? Can you imagine the witness that would be?

If you’re interested in learning more about what blogging is, how to do it, and all the details about gettings started I’m offering a free live course online for people who are interested. Check out the details HERE!

I just recently finished a book that again reinforced my feeling about the local church. It said what I've been thinking for a long time. Your church is not a country club. It's not a buffet that you come to and expect to just be fed at. It's a family, the body of Christ that you must be active in.

We have an epidemic in this country of people cutting off their body parts and trying to find new ones that “fit” better. Once we feel that we're not being fed at a church or the church has stopped being the perfect reflection of Christ we pick up and move on. We go on that epic search for the next great church “country club.” Every community has the “popular” church that every is migrating towards because they have the cool pastor or the great programs.

Is that really what God wants from us? Are we strenghtening the global Church by abandoning our local church? Are we showing unbelievers the love and forgiveness of Christ by leaving our local church because it's not doing what we want?

God only leaves our local church when we leave it. We are the body of Christ. We each have a part to play and by leaving our churches we're robbing them of our skills. We stop being the hands and feet of and start being spectators. The Church is a flawed body because it's made of sinful humans but we must do our part to help it, to forgive it and to support it.

I've been at my local church for most of my life. I am intimately aware of its flaws. They are frequent topics of conversation in my house. Frankly, some of the flaws drive me NUTS! There are times that I know life would be easier if I found another church. The thing is, Christ has never abandoned me so who am I to abandon his church!

I'm working on the inside to help make my church more Christlike. Will it ever get to where God wants it? Nope, because we're not perfect. But I've said to people before, they'll have to excommunicate me before I leave my church. It's where God is and I need to stay and help do his work there.

If God hasn't left my church, why should I?

Raising the minimum wage is a big topic in Washington right now. It always seems to be. Why? Well because it’s something that makes the masses feel good.

“Yeah! We’re getting paid more!”

As a small business owner this is a topic that frustrates the crap out of me so today I want to discuss it using a dwindling human skill called logic!

I recently was talking to a high school student who works at McDonalds. She said that they need to serve 300 people an hour to meet their goals. Why? (Watch out…logic coming!) With the expenses McDonalds has and the price of their products the profit margin per order is very small. Thus they must serve many items in an hour.

Let me freeze here and explain why I’m using McDonalds in this example. First, fast food is one of the major places that people are paid minimum wage. Second, it’s a business that almost everyone interacts with on a regular basis. That being said, this logic can be applied to all types of businesses.

So, let’s pretend the average worker at McDonalds gets $7.25/hour. I’m not sure that’s the case but that is certainly the lowest average because of the current minimum wage. Of course being paid that little is a crime against HUMANITY!! So let’s raise the minimum wage to $10! Now someone can make a real living.

That’s a 38% raise in wage. So what could happen?

1. They could up their goal of customers served each hour
2. McDonalds could raise the price of their menu items.
3. The company cuts their profits
4. A combination of any of these.

The first thing most people say is, “Screw those greedy companies! Why should they be making such a profit!”

Could the company be making a disgustingly large amount of money and have no need for that? Sure. But, is it our job, or the governments, to tell you how to spend your money? If you’re the owner of a small business do you want someone telling you how much money you can make for your business? Do they know the blood, sweat, and tears that have gone into what you’ve made? My question is why does that thought change if I run a large company versus a small company? Do the rights of the person who started the company somehow change if it gets past a certain size? I sure don’t want it to change for me if I were to spend years building a company that became big.

I don’t think we should be in the business of telling a company how much money they can or can’t make. So we’re left with upping the price or serving more people per hour. My guess is that a business would work on both of these. They would have an increase in prices and also try to serve more people.

I’m not sure about you but McDonalds has never been the epitome of customer service. Why? Because they have to serve 300+ people per hour to make their business model work. They don’t have the time to have customer service. If you want that kind of service you’re going to have to pay for it with higher food prices. Now if they have to serve even more people the service is going to get even worse. With a combination of serving more people and a slightly higher price you’re going to be paying more than before and getting a crappier experience.

Now, you may have gotten this far and said, “Ok, I can deal with paying a little more and maybe a little less customer service as long as that high school kid working the fryolator get’s paid a decent wage.”

AWESOME! Just do me one favor…I don’t want to hear you complaining about higher food prices or crappy service! You asked for it.

Of course none of this brings up the issue of who actually is getting minimum wage and what effect it might have on unemployment. Frankly, I know I can’t pay anyone $10/hour to serve a few cups of coffee and a latte every hour. So say goodbye to your local small town coffee shop. Though most of you don’t mind you’d rather see a global company like Starbucks come in.

In a future blog rant I’m going to discuss my thoughts on supporting local businesses…stay tuned!

P.S. – Just to make some of you angry (hehe) my ideal solution would be to get rid of ALL minimum wages! I’d settle for states being in charge of their own if I had to.

The Accidental Creative podcast ends each of it’s episodes by saying, “Cover bands don’t change the world, you must find your unique voice…” I really like this quote and I think it’s very apt for the society we’re currently living in.

I pay attention to two totally different worlds. One is the online creative space full of entrepreneurs, bloggers, podcasters, and artists. These are people who are doing some very forward thinking, creative stuff. The other world is my local community and specifically it’s youth. As a martial arts instructor and a youth ministry worker I interact with kids a lot. To me it seems that the vast majority of today’s youth wish to be cover bands.

Cover bands are great! You get to relive some of your favorite songs over and over again but they don’t create anything new. They help you live in the past. Many of our youth today are doing the same thing. All they want to do is find someone to model because modeling is safe. It’s safe to be what someone else has already proven as acceptable its much more dangerous to be yourself.

I find it interesting because locally with youth I see a lot of cover bands, with a few exceptions but on the other hand I see this vast group of original thinkers and world changers online. There are people of every age (many young) who are doing some very creative and inspiring things online. Then you turn and see a kid who watches 8 hours of YouTube a day eating Cheetos.

What I hope to do through my teaching (in all it’s forms) is to inspire people to be original and creative. The world doesn’t need more of the same old thing, it needs each person’s unique input. God didn’t design us to hide our gifts and abilities he gave them to us so that we could do amazing things with them.

This leads me to wondering how you inspire people to do these things. Somehow my brother and I have always been ones to mess around and try new things whether it’s make movies, create websites, or record podcasts. We’ve always enjoyed being on the front end of creating, especially when technology was involved.

I think to cultivate creativity you first have to give people the confidence that they can do it, or the confidence to try it and know that if they fail it’s not a big deal. They have to feel like making mistakes are good, that they can’t really do anything creative without failure and so it’s to be expected. Second, you have to encourage them to do hard things. Being creative isn’t easy, if it was than everyone would be doing it. I think over the last generation or so we’ve lost our sense of adventure and that’s essential to being original and creative. We have to teach our youth that risk and adventure are good things when done with some amount of wisdom.

I’m not sure about you, but I’d love to see a generation of world changers rather than a generation of cover bands!

One time my family was on vacation and we were traveling by train. I remember walking through the station hurriedly, which is the only way we Hayden’s walk when we’re on vacation. Just like airports, many of the larger train stations have little news shops that have candy and all the latest magazines. As we passed by one of these shops I remember watching a guy grab some candy and shove it into his jacket. The man then quickly walked away. I was astonished. I’d never seen a crime like that in my life. I didn’t know what to do but to this day I can remember that event. I was witness to a crime.

As I was reading my Bible the other day i stumbled upon the word witness. Of course, I have read it many times in many different context but this time it seemed to hit me a little different. I think I’ve always disconnected being a “Christian witness” from the idea of being a witness in something like a crime. I think we’ve turned the word “witness” into Christianese and thus neutered it’s meaning.

Most of us, having witnessed a crime, would report it right away. We’d tell our friends and relatives what we’d saw. Heck, we might even post a video on YouTube or call the local news. Would we feel ashamed to say what we say? No! We were witnesses to an act and we’d just report what we saw and the feelings we associated with it.

So as Christians we know that the God of the universe gave his son as payment for our sins and what do we do. We keep it to ourselves. That might be an over generalization so let me elaborate. We don’t keep it a secret but very often we just repeat the phrases. We post Christian meme’s on Facebook or quote Bible versus to make people feel better. But is that really witnessing?

Isn’t witnessing telling the story of what has happened to us? Shouldn’t we be reporting the facts about the events in our life that God has shown himself in? Each day can’t we be telling the story of, not what God did for others, but what he’s doing for us each day?

I’m not sure God has called each of us to be preachers, I certainly don’t have that spiritual gift, but I’m pretty sure we can each be witnesses. Because being a witness is just about reporting the story of our lives. If those around us don’t see how God is working in our lives why would the expect that he’d work in theirs?

If you’re a witness to a crime you may very well be called to testify in court. They lawyers may ask you what you saw, who was there, what the results of the event were, and how you felt about it. Well, pretend that each day you’ve been put on the stand and asked, “What is Jesus doing in your life?” Would you plead the fifth? I sure hope not! We’ve been witness to the most amazing event in human history. We’ve witnessed forgiveness given by the Lord of all creation. You would think we’d be like those crazy people who see UFO’s and screaming to anyone who would listen to us!

Maybe it’s time we stepped up our witnessing game.

“For you are to be his witness, telling everyone what you have seen and heard.”