Quit Being A Sissy!

In my prayer time this morning I was overwhelmed with a great sense of God's Power. I didn't want to wake up this morning to pray at the chapel, but for whatever reason I did it. As I prayed God led me to 1 Chronicles 29:10-22. David is praying and dedicating everything to the Glory of God. Read and Soak this Up!

1Chr. 29:11-13
Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.

I want you to know that we can rest like Calvanists. I certainly do not fly any other flag but the flag of Christ, but I do believe in the complete sovereignty of God. He has given us a lot of responsibility. He has given us a great mission. But let's not forget that it is HIS ALONE. It should be our desire to absolutely bust it in order to accomplish His purpose, even if it takes our life. We aren't guaranteed anything. All we can do is work as hard as we can, to the best of our ability, and then LEAVE IT IN GOD'S HANDS.


(This next part is directed towards the DUDES. Ladies, I love ya. But this is not meant for you. I believe in the work and role of women in God’s work, but I am greatly concerned by the lack of real men in God’s work.)

With everything that has evolved over the last couple of weeks, I have started to get discouraged. All of us in some way or another have been punched in the gut at times in our lives. Recently, I have felt like I did the morning after a basketball game in college. When I started to pray and read this passage this morning God gave me a pep talk that was extremely straightforward. He told me to SUCK IT UP or QUIT BEING A SISSY. Where in God’s Word does he promise salary packages, homes with a white picket fence, health, prosperity, etc. NOWHERE! The disciples were persecuted, people around the world today are persecuted (www.persecution.com), and most importantly Christ was persecuted. What makes me so special?

I am so glad that I am yoked with REAL MEN. Seriously, I would love for another ministry team to come and challenge our team in a cage fight. I am blessed with a ministry team (Ignite Mission) in New Orleans that loves God, loves people, and does it like real men. There are too many queers out there trying to work for Christ. They aren’t going to make it. Real ministry is tough. You won't accomplish God's work painting and planting flowers (nothing against guys that do this "as you can see above I like to do this once every 10 years", I just prefer to battle with people that are equipped with muscles, not paintbrushes and watering cans if I am going to war). I am glad that the guys that I hang out with get pissed, fight, and battle.

I have been loving some of Mark Driscoll’s stuff. He has a talk on the Acts 29 Network website called Qualifications of an Acts 29 Church Planter Like Mark Driscoll says, “I don't follow the gay-dressed-hippie Jesus that is in most pictures around our country. I follow a hard-core man's man-fighting Jesus, that wants nothing but His Father's Glory to be proclaimed”.

Follow Christ. Follow your passion. Keep pushing forward. God wants to take all of us on an awesome ride. But you will never experience that ride within the gates of a seminary campus, sitting in Sunday school room, or writing a blog and sipping coffee all day long. It is going to suck a lot, but I praise God that he is raising up some men who are strong enough (because they recognize the source of their strength) to handle it.