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Recently, I was at a comedy show at Dallas Comedy House. I enjoy laughter, so I went with a buddy, and the show was quite hilarious. The comedian used a German accent for the first 1/3 of his show, I legitimately thought he might be German. (only for a few moments.)

The show reached a point where it went religious, and something happened that surprised me. The comedian questioned the audience. “Is any one here a Christian? Raise your hand.”

I didn’t raise mine.

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Grace, for the Chief of Sinners, and Fred Phelps

As of this writing, Fred Phelps is still alive, but the message will remain the same upon his eventual passing.

I’ve been seeing an alarming amount of posts on social media outlets, rejoicing about the coming death of Phelps. The majority of these people are people who would claim a relationship with Christ.

I am deeply saddened by this.

Immediately I’m reminded of 1 John 4:20. I’ll paraphrase it, You’re a liar if you say you love God, but hate your brother. (You might not agree that Phelps is your brother, but humor me.)

Proverbs tells us that hatred stirs discord/strife. As a Christian, your response should never employ hatred. Ever. There should be no desire for revenge, or payback.

Do I agree with the Westboro Baptist Church?

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From the Dark comes Light.

Darkness_LightIn the last couple months, I’ve been in a funk; both spiritually and physically. Consequently, my ministry began to suffer, and my leadership of those around, too. I’ve been in a dark place for a good bit of time, and have recently begun to see the Light. I received a kick in the pants(metaphorically) by my good friend Shane, who writes here occasionally as well.  My writing here won’t be as good as usual, I’ve not written in sometime. But here we go:

So begins a new journey, and pursuit of life intertwined with Christ.

Over the last few days, excitement and desire to serve Christ has been brewing. I’ve met some new people who are just as excited if not, more excited than I am, about ministry. Something profound that I’ve experienced is the desire to minister, brings opportunity.

Last night was such an opportunity.

I heard about a last minute concert that was featuring a band I’ve only ever dreamt of seeing. So, I asked an awesome gal, whom I met the day previously, to go with me. Can’t go to a concert alone, y’all.  It was a lot of fun, and we really, at least in my opinion hit it off pretty well.

After we left, we went into Dallas, and explored. We looked at Christmas lights, and walked around. We decide to run into Downtown, and look at lights there.

Up walks James, a man who is homeless. Now, prior to meeting him, myself and this young lady were talking about ministry and how serving people was important, and about ministry goals in serving the homeless was of value. No more after than 3 minutes after reaching the end of the conversation we’re approached by James.

Now, in this moment, I could do one of two things. Either I could pass him by, which is not hard to do, or I could respond to the call to serve. We chose the later.

James hit us up for a couple bucks, and I said, “I’ll do ya one better, let’s buy you a meal.” James energetically agreed. We walk a bit and talk to him. Turns out he’s a Vietnam War vet, lost his job and was in state jail for something involving alcohol, but from speaking with him and listening to his story, I can tell his life is back on the straight and narrow. Praise God.

We get to the restaurant and order him a meal, and continue to talk with him. Then enters John. Just a random dude, with a “COEXIST” tattoo on his forearm. John says to me, “Y’all are awesome, man. It’s cool to see people with compassion.” I got an opportunity to present the Gospel really briefly with this guy.

I pray that God will speak and work on both gentlemen, both James and John. Interestingly, their names are both Biblical.

All this to say, I feel as though God placed me in a moment to “put my money where my mouth was,” and serve Him through serving James and John. I feel as if I am back and where I need to be, to effectively minister for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It feels good to be home.

Dunk ‘Em Good – Thoughts on Baptism

Baptism seems to be a hot topic in church culture. We know that Jesus has commanded the act of baptism. But I think some people may have a misconception of what baptism is, and what it does. I know a ton of churches have analogies they use to describe what it is.

This post is designed mainly for the non-Christian, or young Christian, but I don’t think those who have been Christians for years and years can’t benefit from it. Clarification, I think it could benefit most everyone.

A little history on me, I was baptized on Easter Sunday, circa 1997. I did it for several reasons. First it thought it was the process of being saved, I didn’t wanna go to hell! Second, I chose to do it, based on recommendation of my grandparents. They always spoke of its importance. I wanted to do things right in their eyes.

Unfortunately, as kids who grow into adults, this is generally the reason, and we see so many people come for salvation and baptism, because, “It didn’t really mean anything then,” or “I didn’t know what I was doing.”

I want to be clear in saying that baptism isn’t required for salvation. “BLASPHEMY!” is what the person who stopped reading at the word ‘required,’ is saying.

Your salvation isn’t based on baptism.

As a follow up to my previous post regarding praying the prayer, and salvation, baptism is a follow up act of obedience.

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“Did you pray THE Prayer?”

image from dipity.com

Hello. My name is Jarin and I’m concerned about your soul. Is it going to be in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ? If not, let’s pray THE Prayer. This prayer is the only way you can know for sure if you’re saved. Let’s pray it, come on, let’s pray the prayer. Give your soul to the Lord.

The truth is, I am concerned for your soul. However, I won’t approach you that way. In fact, I won’t ask you to pray the prayer.

“WHAT? YOU WON’T PROMPT WITH THE PRAYER?” is probably what you’re screaming in your head.

The answer is, “no, I won’t.” I’ll show you scripture that lays out how salvation works. In fact, I plan on doing that here.

It’s been almost a couple years since this incident occurred, but I’d like to spell out the story for you.

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Funday School

Image from turbophoto.com

I have had some conversations with people in instrumental moments in my life. When my leadership was still developing along with my understanding of faith-based community, the issue of Sunday school came up. The question specifically asked: “is Sunday school necessary?”

At the time I immediately asserted that, “YES! Yes it is.” I had no basis for that answer, just the fact that I’ve always gone and been a part of Sunday school leadership. I stuck to my guns in the debates and discussions. I couldn’t understand church culture WITHOUT Sunday school, or that culture would vary so vastly. Unfortunately, my ability for communication and putting ideas together were poor.

(At this time, I admired greatly a guy named Joab. He was intelligent, creative, and wasn’t afraid of tough questions, or challenging authority. Joab has since been a person who I’ve admired. I learned a lot from him, and his finesse with words has rubbed off on me a little bit. So since the discussions I had regarding Sunday School, I’ve been trying to think like Joab in an effort to answer the question.)

The idea of simply sitting in a main worship service and listening to a preacher for an hour and going home, the main fellowship that special time of handshaking awkwardly for 10 minutes tops, seemed absurd. How do you get to know people? How do you invest in the lives of others?

I have begun to investigate if my stance was correct, and if I could effectively answer the question about Sunday school, either affirming it’s necessity or proving I was wrong in my stance and understanding.

Obviously, there’s not Scripture that says specifically that “Sunday School” must take place. “Thou shalt part-take in Sunday School. 1st Hezekiah 10:30” simply doesn’t exist. So, let’s get into what is actually in scripture.

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