living dangerously

why is it that all young men want to be dangerous? why do most young men these days feel the need to go to the gym, learn martial arts, get into fights, etc?

my question has been answered by this book i've been reading. i borrowed "Wild at Heart" from Gino R. it awakened something in me that i had not realized that God had put into me. the need to be dangerous. men have an inherent need to be "wild at heart"

these days men are too nice... everyone has forgotten what it means to be a man. something dies inside of a man when he has forgotten what it is God has designed him to do.

sometimes i feel like men today have a severe lack of passion. and if they do have passion, the object of passion has the tendency to lean towards things that lead us away or distracts us from what God wants us to do.

case in point:

i think i have an idea why its difficult for us to invite people to come to church. to jzone...to anything related to being in close contact with the Lord.

it's fear of rejection. yes of course everyone hates rejection. but this is on a different level. when you invite someone to church you are actually inviting them to share an experience. not just go to a building to be with, and hang out with people you don't even know.

it's not just any experience. its the chance of a lifetime. for your close friends. for your relatives. for your enemies. these are the people we know. these are the people we care about (or hate). knowing how wonderful it is to live in the light, we naturally yearn to share this joy with those we love. (of course we also need to learn to want to share this joy with those we want nothing to do with)

when people turn me down after inviting them to church. to bible study. to jzone. it hurts. it hurts because they don't see the need to be close to God. it hurts because they brush it off as something that is as pertinent as flossing your teeth. (excuse the pun) we all need it...yet we dismiss it just as easily as we turn off the lights before we sleep.

why do we feel the need to share this joy with those that will 90 times out of 100 turn us down and say, "we'll see" or "i'm not sure" or the dreaded "maybe"?

is it because we are stupid?

is it because we lack a sense of realistic thinking?

is it because we all need to, as a poor misguided fool once said, "pull the bible out of our asses"?

when are we going to "learn"?

will we "learn" when those 10 people out of 100 stop going? will we "learn" when people starting persecuting us for what we believe?

MAY IT NEVER BE SO!!!

*sigh*

it is my prayer that i will never "learn".

IT IS BECAUSE WE ARE MEANT TO BE DANGEROUS.

but dangerous to whom...?

dangerous to the god of this world...Satan...

but how are we to be dangerous to him? we are just mere humans...of flesh and blood. we have no power in ourselves.

when we have no power who do we turn to?

we turn to our conqueror, the king of kings and lord of lords!!!

but wait...when you think of "Jesus", do you think of a nice man, who wouldn't hurt a fly? a man who just let himself be killed because he was too meek to defend himself?

let's take a quote from the bible:

3Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.
4So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, "Whom do you seek?"
5They answered Him, "Jesus the Nazarene." He said to them, "I am He." And Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them.
6So when He said to them, "I am He," they drew back and fell to the ground.
-John 18:3-6

let's read that again:

6So when He said to them, "I am He," they drew back and fell to the ground.
-John 18:6

to put it simply, Jesus was a dangerous man. everywhere he went, there were people that simply didn't like what he had to say. in fact, people hated him so much they plotted to kill him. not just once...many many many times... and they only succeeded because it was God's plan for Jesus to die. not just to die, but to die for our sins, so we may all have eternal life.

some people just prefer to end the story there. it's easier that way. everyone can understand a hero that dies. everyone can identify with the pain and defeat at the hands of death.

Praise God! because OUR hero didn't just DIE...he rose again. Jesus IS alive. in fact, he is so alive, you can have a relationship with Him. it is my firm belief that no life is ever complete without a relationship with Christ Jesus.

in light of all this, i pray that i will continue to invite people to come to know Christ better. i pray that i will continue to share my faith with others. that i have the opportunity to do so in my everyday life. the way i live. the way i walk. the way i talk. the way i eat. the way i speak. everything is done for the Lord and His glory.

i pray that you do the same my brothers.