Dan Byl

Now that I have you thinking, and maybe a little upset with the idea of not needing God. I want to tell you this, “we do need God.”

No not like most of the world, not like the kids in Africa that are wondering where there next meal is going to come from, or the people in china that are sick and going to die because they cant get medical attention. But perhaps in a less practical and a much more spiritual, and internal way.

We have created an environment that is so outwardly focused that most people are spiritually dead. They are so internally messed up they spend most of there time running from one distraction to the next.

We have a lot of things we can distract our selves with but as soon as we try to spend one minute with our selves we run like hell cause we can’t handle it, We wonder why there seems to be no purpose in our lives. And don’t forget about relationships… Why is there no depth? And have you ever tried to have a meaningful relationship with a person that cant spend a moment alone with them selves or always need to be finding that next distraction. “Good Luck.”

So here is where I tell you why we need God. I don’t want to preach but I need to share this with you all, and if you think God is crap then maybe this will just inspire you to take a look at things differently, or get you asking some questions. But please don’t blow this off. An open mind… is all I ask.

And as I said earlier, I try to approach everything with a “I could be wrong” mind set. I could be wrong, that could be a possibility. But I need to warn you now, I am pretty sure I am right.

Here goes…
This is where God comes in. He gives us the ability to deal with that crap. He gives us a sense of purpose, ito help people that are suffering and hurting out there somewhere in the world or next door. He teaches us to forgive people a helpful tool for any meaningful relationship.

I am not trying to preach and some of you maybe saying hey… woooh… hold on… I now people that seem like they are living a pretty good life and have meaningful relationships with people. And they don’t believe in God… Sure there are people out there that can do it. I think… I don’t really know any personally, and the few who pull it off really well only do so because they have learned either not to go to deep, or they are really good fakers.

Ouch, that’s not a nice thing to say, that is true, but I am not really afraid of being brutally honest with the people around me or myself.

Ok so how does God “fix us?” That is a process that at the moment I am experiencing first hand. The main ingredient is Grace, He gives us grace for our selves. So that, as we go through all our crap and fumble our way out the other side we don’t beat our selves up to the point that we just turn and walk away.

Second the only place that I have experienced a real support group is in a real Christ following community. Notice the lack of the word “Christian.” I am talking about people that really follow God, that are walking out what they preach. He gives the people around us the patience, to allow us to deal with our crap. And if they know God then they will have had some experience dealing with there own stuff.

God also has this way of showing us what real love is. I know it sounds like I am preaching, I guess I am oops. The funny thing is that you will have no idea about what I am talking about when I say Love until you actually experience Gods Love. I am only talking from my personal experience.

This is the last thing I want to leave you with, God has a way of transcending our experiences. Our experiences lie to us, they tell us what we want to hear. If I going on a trip and think it will suck cause we need to sit next to crazy Susan for the next five ours, then we will set out to prove ourselves right. We like being right. And if we think that something will be awesome we will go out of our way to make it rock. This is the power of the mind. And God has a way of getting through that to help us experience what he wants us to experience, I mean He is God and He kind of made the planet, so I think he can handle you and me.

Once we experience that real love and then start to mirror it, starting with our selves, things begin to change.

This is the a practical explanation of love and the way it works

Zigong asked: ”Is there any single word that could guide one’s entire life?” Te master said: ”should it not be reciprocity? What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others.”

Analects of Confucious

If you ask any person that is looking for some sort of spirituality or any person that practices some manor of spirituality, they will tell you love is the strongest force there is.

Why is it that everyone no matter who they are knows and respects Mother Teresa? Love my friends, is the answer. Love is the thing that changes us, that gives us the ability to have meaning and a life worth living.

Well now that I have blabbed about love and God, I hope that it sparks some conversation. or a search for something. I have said before if you are honest with yourself you will come to the right conclusion. You may not like them but they will be the right ones. I don’t know what those are for you… but honesty is key…

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I realized that I didn’t put any explanation as to the origin of this story, if you want some back ground follow the link at the bottom of this post to see what inspired this post.

a lone ranger twisted and decrepit walked into town no one had ever seen something or someone quite so hideous.

Narlac a loan orc had some how found his way to cave after the final battle of middle earth had ended. What he did not know was that this cave was a portal to another world. (kinda like the wardrobe of the lion the witch and the wardrobe)

He stumbled into this cave hoping to be hidden but found himself in a pasture on the out skirts of texas. He could see some smoke rising in the distant and smell the scent of roasting flesh.
He began to stumble his way into town. As we limped down the dusty main street he could feel eyes watching him.

Just then the towns sherif stepped out in front of him he looked up to see a six foot three man in chaps and a cowboy hat with to long arms of the law hanging from his belt standing at the end of the street with the clock tower behind him, it was almost noon.

“What you want there fella” yelled the voice of the sherif.
“Just to eat your young and kill everyone I see and maybe burn this town while I am at it” screeched the voice or Narlac. Narlac winced had he really just said that he was thinking it but had he just said it. At that moment the clock stuck twelve. Narlac felt to piercing pains in his chest followed by a thunderous echo of the sherifs to colt 45′s. Narlac dropped to his knees with only one thought running through his head. ” I guess I did, I guess I did.”

Stuffchristianslike.net

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If that’s not a bold statement… Then I don’t know what is… shock value is what I am going for here people… “Ok I take that back” He is very relevant but we need to find his relevancy.

God has a very different relevancy to you and me here in the wonderful bubble and safety of western civilization. Oh sure bad things happen to us, we suffer from lack of fast food or we can’t afford to buy that new out fit for our hot date at the movies, or God forbid we run out of gas money. I mean dang what if we had to take the bus…?

Well ok maybe some of us face some more severe problems and crisis’s, but the reality is this, we have created a society that takes care of us, need food worst case scenario you go the food bank, need clothes go to the salvation army, a large number of our homeless are that way by choice. ( a large number are there because of drug habits and mental illness)

But for most of us, and I am talking about the people like my self that work a decent job, make enough money to get the odd new thing, drive our car around town, hit up a coffee shop and then head home to pound out some thoughts on our laptop, while listening to music and eating cookies that we picked up for lunch the next day.

This is our life, pretty nice if you ask a lot of the world, beyond the wildest dreams an even larger group of people in 3rd world countries. Cookies… coffee… laptop… music… car… wow. Where is God in that, what do I need him for. As far as I can tell I am doing pretty well for myself.

Ok sure I can be thankful. I have my health I have the blessing of living in the nicest, safest country in the world. And I have the ability to learn, do and make something of myself.

So sure he is relevant in that aspect but if I get sick I have free health care, if I hurt myself E.I. and when I retire a pension plan. I don’t need God.

What do I ask him for when I go to bed? “God can you protect my jeep as it sits in my drive way with no roof…” “and God can you make sure you stick around so that when the S#!T hits the fan I can B!@ch and moan about things and ask you to help me out of a pinch…”
“Amen”

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I wrote a blog about giving God room in your youth group a while ago. The thought was, are we giving God room to show himself in our lives, or have we become so self sufficient that we forget to look for him or even forget to trust in his provision or plan for our lives.

I want to revisit this idea. I have had this idea to create a space for creative people to come together and help to inspire each other. I often spend a few hours at the local starbucks. The thought for me is that it is away from my house, away from the normal environment that I live in. The funny thing is that I would love to sit and just talk to people about what is important to them, to learn about there lives and share ideas.

However I am way to chicken to just approach people, what if they just want to be left alone? What if I think they are working on something interesting but really they are just doing menial work? I am to chicken to approach people with no real idea or even common interest.

We have not created a space that is conducive to meeting different people and the sharing of ideas. A place where everyone there has a similar desire to meet new people. It’s funny we get so caught up in our own lives we don’t create or allow room to share in others lives.

Our society is such an individualistic place when was the last time you met someone randomly, and actually began to get to know them?

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I dont like jumping on the band wagon but Pat Robertson is a joke. He spoke up and told the world that he thought God was punishing Haiti for making a pact with the devil. He describes the country and then makes his statement.

This is the video if you want to see it for yourself.

video

I will let you guys be the judge.

Here is my take on it
This is such a disgusting typical christian response, how often do you hear people say things like God is punishing me or them, or this is karma.

I remember when we had some major forest fires in my home town back in 2002, local churches and christians said it was Gods fire. And that we had brought it on our selves. Well ok maybe we live in a semi desert region and they hadn’t done sufficient clearing of dead brush but that is about it.

These disasters are the result of a fallen world, a world separate from God. This is decay, this is our world no longer perfect, this is not Gods punishment.

Lets stand up for the truth.

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(often mistaken for Chinese)

I love Christianese… “NOT.”(thank you Borat) I truly can’t stand it, you may have never heard this term before so I will quickly elaborate. Christianese is when Christians use “simple terms” in the context of Christianity, and if you are not a Christian you probably have no clue what they are talking about.

For example, the term saved, every Christian knows what this term means, but use it with a non Christian and they look at you, like, ” I need to be saved from what?” Or the term revelation, Christians use this term all the time, it is usually in the context of God having spoken something to them, I think we use it to make our selves sound as if we have really had something profound imparted in us.

Funny thing is, most of the time it is just common sense. I don’t mean to be overly cynical. Christianese is just language and phrases that really don’t make any sense to any one out side of the “Christian world”

The other day (any time in the last 8 months, this particular time being pre married) I was talking with a friend about my current relationship. We were discussing the idea of “knowing.” I knew it was where I wanted to be, but I was willing to give it up, if God asked me to.

Then the phrase, “holding on to it loosely” was used. When we value something we tend to hold on to it really tightly. The tighter we hold on to something the more God wants to take it from us. Not take it away, but he wants to be in charge.

So the other option is to “hold on to it loosely.” God has a plan for our lives and sometimes he asks us to give up things that are really important to us. He does this so that we can learn something he wants to teach us.

So if we hold on to something tightly, that would mean we don’t want to let it go, or wont let it go. We are usually looking for some sort of control over the situation. This often causes us to walk out side of Gods will for our lives. We end up missing out on something or getting our selves into situations that we don’t want to be in. So to “hold on to things loosely” means that we are willing to give them up if asked, it means that we are not seeking to control but are more willing to experience the situation for as long as God wants us to.

Here is my issue with this phrase. The idea of holding onto something I really truly value loosely seems rather careless, if you are holding something that is absolutely precious to you, are you going to be holding it loosely in your hands or are you going to make sure you don’t drop that thing? I look at my relationship with my wonderful lady, and if it is up to me I am going to hold on to that thing very tightly I am going to protect it with everything I’ve got.

I think there is a better option, one that seems to have disappeared with the emergence of this “holding on to things loosely” phrase. I know that if I hold on to things the chances are at some point I am going to drop the ball, (who dropped the ball? Oooh… I dropped the ball) so here is the other option just put it into Gods hands right of the bat. Don’t mess around; just give it up as soon as you get it. Now that doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy it because believe me, I am fully enjoying being with my girl. But all the pressure is off, it’s not up to me to protect it, it’s not up to me to try and make it into something, I can let go of control. IT’S NOT UP TO ME.

I have given it to God and now, its up to him, and because it’s in his hands I have to listen to him, if I want to enjoy everything that He has to offer. I have to follow his instruction if I want to see or touch it. And if I don’t, he will just take it away.

So what I am saying here is this, quit holding on to things, let them go, drop them, don’t put your hands on them. Pass it off as soon as possible, especially if you really care about it. Give it to someone that can take care of it and won’t drop it, no matter what happens. And that person is God.

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