Biker Pride!

Read 1 John 1:8-10

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."

So, today I got into a lil bike accident. I know...me and that bike, boy...I tell ya. I’ll pause for gasps and “OMG’s”. :-) I’m okay, though. Seriously. The bike is fine. I’m fine. Aside from a few scrapes & scratches to the brownskin; a bruised forearm and shin that I’ll feel a whole heck of a lot more of tomorrow, I’m good. I’m really good. It coulda been much worse, believe me. I got “car’d” - as I heard someone call it. Not, CARD. But CAR’d. Being CAR'd is basically when a biker rides down the street and a person in a parked car opens their driver’s side door at just the right time to have the biker smash into it. Thankfully for me, because of my crazy, supa-ninja, cat-like skills, I was agile enough to steer the bike just enough in the nick of time to where I saved the bike and only collided the right side of my body against the car door. Again....I’m fine. I’m thinkin’, though....maybe if my skills were just a lil doper....I could’ve basically avoided the car, altogether. Eh...that’s neither here nor there. C’est la vie. It hurt...but not nearly as bad as you may think.

So, how it went down was, I hit the door. I’m not quite knocked off my bike because I managed to stick my left leg out to brace myself....(again, fam, the skills are like, “WHOA”). ;-) So, I’m standing there in pain, right - hunched over, holding my forearm in obvious, unmistakable, barefaced pain - and I look back and the guy in the car begins to slowly edge toward me with a sort of casual ambivalence and says dryly, almost nonchalantly, “Hey, you should watch where you’re going”. Without missing a beat, I put on my “threatening Black man voice” (most of us have one ;-)) and barked at this dude, “Really!? That’s the first thing you gon’ say!!? Not ‘SORRY’?!” Then he kinda goes to say, “Oh, I’m sorry”, but I didn’t even stick around to hear it. At that point, I was through and I just waved him off and pedaled away; holding my right forearm in pain.

I rode away hot, y’all. I mean...ya boy was angry. “He knew he was wrong”, I kept thinking. And he WAS! I had the right of way. I was on the right side and going in the right direction. Had on my helmet, too! The man just didn’t look. Point blank. And the truth is, I may have even accepted that we BOTH could’ve shared the blame - that we both could’ve been a bit more vigilant....(even though I WAS!) But the truth & root of my anger came from the fact that this man would have the audacity and cowardice gall to divert his obvious wrong and somehow come out of his mouth and initiate our exchange by saying that I should watch where I’M going. This man chose to first try and place the fault and blame on anyone other than himself - namely, ME -  instead of simply apologizing.....which I would have absolutely accepted. He should’ve “confessed” and said that he was sorry. I deserved that! THAT’S why Warner was mad! The injustice of it!

As I continued to ride, though - with my amped up “righteous indignation” and entitled victimhood raging in my eyes; with just a dash of self-righteousness - my ever teaching, ever reaching and always loving Father convicted me by showing me myself and bringing a recent transgression of mine back to my remembrance. You see, on the previous night...I responded - no, reacted - to something; a circumstance that gave me a choice of whether to sin or to not. I unfortunately & regrettably chose to sin. I didn’t kill anybody and no one was in physical danger or anything. But I KNEW I was wrong and I did it anyway. To add, although I knew it was wrong, I began to coddle my sinful reaction by rationalizing & justifying in my head that I was in some way deserving of that reaction. Although it was clearly wrong and I knew it....I attempted to pacify myself by saying I had a right - however small - to it. In my mind, I’d even apologized to God for it. Sincerely. Yet to my disappointment and shame, it wasn’t truly as sincere as I’d liked to believe because my apology was mixed in with a bit of self-commendation. Like, “I’m sorry....buuuut I kinda, sorta, in a small way deserved it.” I was just like that man who’d hit me with the car door: knowing in my heart of hearts that I was wrong, but because of embarrassment or pride or ego or all of the above, was unwilling to confess the wrong and simply ask the Father for forgiveness.

Such is the subtlety (and diabolically wicked potency of ‘pride’). Pride is a doozy, man. It really is. A underrated and dangerous doozy, at that. And it’s so easily and so frequently undetected because it masquerades as something noble and is often excused in oneself or tolerated in someone else. Look, most sins begin and/or are founded in pride, fam. That extreme place of: ‘I deserve’; ‘I’m entitled’, ‘I know what’s best’, etc. There's no greater place for sin to hide and fester than in the undetectable, vastly overlooked and easily disguised place of pride. It’s the most unassuming yet destructive of sins. It’s caused kings to fall and relationships to crumble. It’s what ultimately lead to Lucifer's fall, Adam & Eve's transgression and Judas' betrayal. In all those circumstances, it was pride that was at the root. It’s pride - not lust, not murder, not hatred, not greed or envy nor any other thing - that God pronounces as "coming before the fall". (Proverbs 16:18) It is the proud person with whom God resists - (Psalm 138:6, Proverbs 29:23, Matthew 23:12, James 4:6 & 1 Peter 5:5) - because it is pride that is ultimately at the root of an errant mindset that declares, "I'm not that bad" OR "I'm certainly not as bad as they are" and ultimately, "I don't need or require a Savior".

To ask for forgiveness can be the most easy and yet hardest thing to do. I know this...trust! ;-) Yet it is at the foundation of any & all great & important relationships....most importantly, your relationship to God through Jesus Christ. It requires a certain amount of maturity but most of all...HUMILITY.

"....Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” Therefore submit to God...." ~ James 4:6-7

Again, it is the proud man that says, “I don’t need God or require a Savior”. The humble man, however, declares, “I know that I consistently fall short of Your glory and standard and am a sinner before You, God. Help me. Save me”.

There’s something to be said for a habitual self-checking/examining/evaluating of yourself in relation to pride. A daily practice of considering your ways. Why not ask the Lord God to search your heart to reveal and then root out any pride that may have hidden itself inside you and disguised itself as something noble. Check it before it ultimately and inevitably checks YOU! Dig it. Amen.

1 John 1:8-10 (Amplified Bible)

"If we say we have no sin [refusing to admit that we are sinners], we delude and lead ourselves astray, and the Truth [which the Gospel presents] is not in us [does not dwell in our hearts]. If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action]. If we say (claim) we have not sinned, we contradict His Word and make Him out to be false and a liar, and His Word is not in us [the divine message of the Gospel is not in our hearts]."

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"For if we are beside ourselves [mad, as some say], it is for God and concerns Him; if we are in our right mind, it is for your benefit." ~ 2 Corinthians 5:13 (Amplified Bible)

What's Goin' On?

Read Ezekiel 36:26-27 NLT

"And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.  And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations."

So for these last couple days - aside from it being hot as all Hades outside - I’ve also been havin’ a time getting my thoughts together to post a blog entry. More specifically, I’ve had some difficulty translating all of what’s been goin’ on in my head regarding these recent “judicial events” and collecting them into coherent, linear thought on paper (or blog). I’ve attempted to wrangle my thoughts together whenever & however they come and jot down whatever random stuff surfaced. In other times, I’ve attempted to turn down the volume of my own thoughts & opinions and really check for God’s voice and His infinite wisdom regarding these recent events amongst the cacophony of voices vying for “our” attention in the news media or on social media. On most of the major social media outlets I use, I’ve come across a singular theme in one form or another. A consistent, unified thought that has been more common than not. It’s rung louder to me and has been for the most part, the center and nucleus of the cries and criticisms and complaints of many. I’ve read and listened to folk’s laments of the horrors of “evil people in the world”. Statements ranging from: “How could this happen!?” “What kind of person could do something like this?” “Where’s the humanity?” “Why can’t there just be peace?”....to sentiments, like....“The laws are jacked up” “This justice system is jacked up”. “The government is jacked up” “America is jacked up” “The WORLD is jacked up”!!!! Of course, "jacked up" is a relatively tamed replacement for the much stronger 4 letter wording that was really used. ;-)

But seriously, though, fam...I feel & share the pain; the angst, frustration and sadness of the many who’ve voiced their passionate convictions. The stuff I here on the news on the daily angers me, dude. It really does. It gets to a point where I gotta click off and unplug from it.  I hear the words of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" buzzin' in my head and consider the fact that a song written in '71 is still as relevant in theme over 40 years later. Really? No one witnessing the cruelty, the genocide, the isms & schisms, rape, bullying, murders, unjust practices, etc. that we witness worldwide would doubt that there is something truly awry and outta wack with this world we live in. Folk want change, man. Revolution, even. Why can’t there just be peace? Why do things have to be like this? Why can’t folk just get it together, fa' goodness sake? Stop the foolishness! Why do all cruelties and injustices - of any kind - continue to exist AND escalate in frequency? If people are so smart and we have all this information - more than any other generation, prior - why does it seem/feel like society is regressing? There are whole genres of books written to address issues like these. Political pundits, social philosophers and self-help ‘gurus’ are paid big bucks to give “expert insight” into the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ of it. Gosh, man...various religions will teach that we have some sort of problem that needs some sort of solution. They’ll differ on the problem and even on the solution but there is one thing that is constant among them all.

• in Buddhism, for instance, the problem is desire and you ‘save’ yourself by ceasing all desire;
• in Confucianism, you ‘save’ yourself through education, reflection, self-cultivation and moral living;
• in Hinduism, you ‘save’ yourself by detaching from your separated ego and living in unity with the Divine;
• in Islam, you ‘save’ yourself by living a life of good deeds;
• in Orthodox Judaism, you ‘save’ yourself through repentance, prayer and working hard to obey God’s laws and being a good person;
• in the New Age (or Integrative Spirituality), you ‘save’ yourself through seeing yourself as part of the Divine Oneness and seeking to live in harmony as part of the One.
• in Daoism, you ‘save’ yourself by aligning with the dao to have peace in you and harmony around you.

All of these religions and schools of thought, respectfully, will posit that the problem is different - i.e. sin or a lack of consciousness or inner-connectedness, etc. So, the solutions are different. But one constant remains the same: THE OBJECT OF YOUR FAITH IS ALWAYS YOU. Did you catch that? YOU are always the object of your faith. YOU “SAVE” (or reconcile) YOURSELF. YOU learn something. YOU do something. YOU experience something. Ultimately YOU - the imperfect, flawed you - are the object of your faith....and your faith is only as good as the object in which it is placed, so go figure. ;-) While religion comes along and says, “here’s what you do to ‘save’ yourself.”.....Christ flips the whole thing and says, “No...it’s not about what YOU do. It’s about what I, Jesus, have done FOR you. Place ME as the object of your faith...trust in Me (God in flesh) and in what I've done FOR you. It’s not about YOU saving yourself. It’s about you being saved by a Savior”.

So, Warner.....what does all this nerdy, comparative religion, mumbo jumbo have to do with recent events? Welp.....I’m glad ya asked! :-) The most voiced solution for society’s ills are to change or create and enforce better laws that would, in turn, better serve & protect society as a whole. 

“Maybe if we just change the laws, people will act better.” And if we’d just adhere to these various laws - both public rules of conduct AND personal ethics & mores - then society would be better. Because after all, humanity is basically good. Right? If we’d just live by the “Golden Rule” - like Jesus said - then this world would be a better place.”

Well....I’d humbly submit that while just laws & order and personal ethics are indeed absolutely imperative to achieving some sort of civility...it is essentially impossible to effectively legislate morality. You cannot legislate the human heart. What I mean by this is that while you can convince someone intellectually on what the “right thing” to do is  - and in some cases, you could even force them do it - you cannot supernaturally change the essence of who they are in their heart...which is what ultimately needs to be changed. Laws, ethics & morals, at best, deal with the symptoms of a depraved heart of man. They don’t fix it, at all, fam. They don’t repair the breach. It’s like treating a gunshot wound with a brown bottle of peroxide while leaving the bullet sitting inside. The peroxide IS good....but it won’t keep the wound from infection or festering and getting worse. The fact is that you cannot control nor change human nature. It is God and God alone who can supernaturally change the human heart. Only God can do that. Only He has that power. The world only truly changes when human hearts change...and only God through His Spirit and the redemptive sacrifice of Christ can accomplish that.

You see, Christ gives the most accurate description of the condition of our hearts. He doesn't tell us that we are immoral. He doesn't tell us that we need more education. He doesn't tell us that if we just do our best to live by the “4 Noble Truths” or the “8 Fold Path” or by certain hours of inner reflection & meditative disciplines that we will eventually get "there" and be better. Jesus tells us that our core problem is by no means ethical and therefore isn’t something that will ever be able to be solved through human effort. The REAL issue is within our hearts...within the very core of us. Sin has so devastated all of humanity. All of humanity is marred, morally corrupted, infected and affected by sin.....we're ALL in that same condition. Nothing in ourselves can ever attain the solution to that. THAT is the human condition. And the purpose of the coming of the Son of Man/Jesus into the world is to rescue sinners - you and I - from this condition with its inevitable result. Jesus bore our sin in His body on the cross and paid for them in full.  Out of love, He took the judgment of that sin that we deserve upon Himself and anyone who trusts in & takes what Jesus did on the cross as their own will have their sins removed. Debt paid. Because of Christ's goodness....not our own. Thus begins the divine heart transformation...aka sanctification. And that's what makes the "Good News"...good news! :-)

Before change in policies or change in gun laws, mental health, better parenting or even (dare I say) prayer in school, lay the unflinching, unchanging issue of humanities indwelling sin nature (or the breaking & rejection of God's holy moral law. That lay at the root of ALL the horrific and terrible things happening in the world. It’s real easy to point out the evil in the world around us...but have YOU recognized the evil in your own heart? At the core of the problem of evil in the world is the problem of evil within us....ALL of us. If you want to pause long enough to raise the question of “Why is there evil in this world?”, you would do well to first try and find an answer to the evil within. Men/women won't change - can’t change until hearts change. And the ONLY heart changer is God through His Living Word...THE GodMan...deity in flesh, Y'shua HaMoshiach....Jesus Christ.  Every other "way" is only temporarily addressing or dressing a symptom.

It's a terrible thing to be lost and not know it. It's wonderful news when you know you're lost and somebody says, "come with me. I'll get'cha outta here." And that right there is the Gospel, family: that Christ takes you & me out of our lostness & sin and into the glory of His presence in which He created us. Beautiful...

"Diary of a Mad Christian: A Cross Reference" is available on BarnesandNoble.com & Amazon.com and ALL E-Reader devices (iPad, Kindle & Nook)

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"For if we are beside ourselves [mad, as some say], it is for God and concerns Him; if we are in our right mind, it is for your benefit." ~ 2 Corinthians 5:13 (Amplified Bible)

A Psalm of Joseph - Petitioning Rescue; Offering Praise

Read Psalm 34:18,19 AMP

“The Lord is close to those who are of a broken heart and saves such as are crushed with sorrow for sin and are humbly and thoroughly penitent. Many evils confront the [consistently] righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”

A Psalm of Joseph when he was in the wilderness of Brooklyn...and in-between jobs. A prayer.

I feel like I’m literally in the middle of the ocean

with nothing but ocean and sea as far as the eye can see

generic mountains shrouded with fog and ominous clouds in the distance

indistinguishable from the next

no landmarks to speak of

or maybe there are and I just don’t recognize them as such

when I perceive that something could be a vestige, I doubt myself

maybe I perceive it to be a landmark because I simply WANT it to be a landmark

something that will affirm that I’m going the right way

I wish for signs

I hope for a boat to come save me

take me; sail me the rest of the way

my arms feel weary

but I’ve truly gone too far to turn back

turning back may be the death of me

so what have I got to lose.....besides my life and wasted time

the latter being more terrifying

loss of life would mean a peaceful slumber

but loss of time???

Well....it’s just time lost

Savior, save me!!!

help me, please.

sustain me.

chart my course and grant me wisdom to decipher Your direction

be my Compass

show me where north is from south

give me the strength and tenacity to swim despite what I see

despite what the voices in the wind and sea tell me

let the breath & wind of Your Word push me towards land and safety

my Rock of Gibraltar

my Savior

my Hope rests in Thee

Following God's way often means some rough times, man. Wow....what an understatement! But true! Some real bumpy, turbulent waves OR some still, lonely waters can be exactly where God wants you to be. Trying circumstances, ostracization & rejection, resentment, loneliness, etc - can and most times are all part and parcel of walking in step with the Most High. Following His Way, in faith, may mean being out there in the middle of the proverbial ocean for a season...alone without any affirming landmarks or mileposts other than the peace that comes with knowing that you’re in the eye of His will AND the certainty that, in Him, there is truly safety. There are no cheerleaders. There are no neon signs avowing that you're headed in the right way. Just you and the Son. Whether your on the road or in the ocean, our Heavenly Father takes us through those valleys of the shadow of death in order to break us down (of self-reliance, pride, self-centeredness, immaturity and anything that's unlike Him) and builds us back up to ultimately make us more and more into that which He desires...the image & likeness of His only begotten Son, Christ. (Romans 8:29)

Look...affliction is normal. Suffering, is normal. Heck, we know it’s normal because Jesus, Himself literally assured us we'd have it when He explained to His disciples:

"....I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]" ~ John 16:33 AMP

See, we gon' have trouble, fam! It's a fact. We gon' have fatigue and all that come along with being His and living for Him. (John 15:20) We gon' have frustrations and those rough seasons if for nothing else than the fact that we live in a fallen world that is infected and affected by sin. (Romans 8:20,21) But see, we’re already promised that we have ultimate victory over all of it because our beautiful Savior - our Advocate - has already overcome this world. And by & through relationship to Him....so have we! And that's where (and who) our hope rests in. You see...our struggles as Christians simply push us towards the grace of God. The truster AND follower of Christ has hope IN suffering....NOT INstead of suffering. And that ain't just some positive affirmation, either...but rather a hope that we can bank on. This hope is the root of our joy. This joy is the power of our endurance. And this endurance is the means by which we continue on to that which God has called us to do and to be. So.....just keep walkin': right foot in front of left foot in front of right foot in front of left foot. And just keep swimming...just keep swimming...swimming, swimming, swimming....;-)

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"For if we are beside ourselves [mad, as some say], it is for God and concerns Him; if we are in our right mind, it is for your benefit." ~ 2 Corinthians 5:13 (Amplified Bible)

A Time 2 Forgive

Read Colossians 3:13

"bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you." ~ (Colossians 3:13 NASB)

“Be gentle and forbearing with one another and, if one has a difference (a grievance or complaint) against another, readily pardoning each other; even as the Lord has [freely] forgiven you, so must you also [forgive].” ~ (Colossians 3:13 Amplified Bible)

So a few days ago, a truly long, lost former best friend came back into my life. This person literally returned to my doorstep. Our “reunion” was not unlike the stuff you see on television. Something like how when Oprah reunites adopted children with their biological parents & siblings...or like, if Dr. Phil were to reunite an elderly World War II vet with a long, lost comrade who’d been thought to have been killed in battle all those many years ago. Like....it was THAT extreme of a reuniting....at least, for me it was....in my head....on my end. ;-)  It had been about 10+ years since I’d last seen this person face-to-face, although they’d only lived about 25 miles away. The circumstances surrounding the cessation of any contact and the deadening of our friendship is a very long, dramatic and - quite frankly - a bit of a tragic story....too long to really get into in this context and unrelated to this devotional entry.  However, I can share that once we began catchin' up, there were many tears wellin’ up in the eyeballs from ya boy....and a lot more tears being masculinely held back!. ;-) But to my point, when I received this totally unexpected call from my friend and the subsequent request to come see me; followed by our eventual meeting; then going through the very sincere pleasantries and then getting caught up - among the first words that came from their lips were, “I’m so sorry”.  Throughout our hours long convo, my friend would occasionally apologize for missteps they believed they’d committed against me throughout that long 10+ year span. Fam, there are times when hearing those words - "I'm sorry" - can present a certain satisfaction or are met with a certain vindication, as to say, “YES! I was right! You were wrong! Ha!!!”. However, this time...in this situation...with this person....what I felt could not be any further from that. I truly regretted that on this particular issue, my flawed insight actually had some validity. I truly regretted how much being correct in this instance cost this person.  But if that weren’t enough, I hated that my recently returned friend actually sought to forgive the person guilty of causing them the pain and trauma that they now must work to rid themselves of. For me, to forgive my friend wasn’t even a thought.  I mean, it was nothin’.  In my head...there was truly NOTHING to forgive. It was water under the bridge - as they say. A bridge that was about a million miles away.  However, this other person...this culprit - the person that had been the major catalyst as to why my friend went through all they did; the decade long lapse in communication - well, let’s just say that grace wasn’t the first thing that I was inclined to give’em! ;-) Real talk.  A violent action that rhymes with “a glass heatin’” was more in line with my first thoughts of what I truly wanted to give'em....believe that, Jack! I’ma keep it one hun’ned. Lord help me. Truly. ;-)

Once I came to myself, though...I was reminded of this quote:

"Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive..." ~ CS Lewis

Deep. In other words, most folk are cool with being forgiven. We all want it. All of us. When we have wronged a friend; when we have betrayed the trust of a loved one or when a wrong choice resulting in sin has damaged our fellowship with our Heavenly Father - unmerited forgiveness can be as refreshing to our souls as cool water is to our body on a hot day. However, when we flip it around and put the shoe on the other foot; when we ourselves are placed into the position as the ‘forgiver’, we - sometimes unbeknownst to ourselves - take a far less benevolent stance. Yup. It's those times when we are called upon to forgive a great hurt, deep disappointment, betrayal, etc. that forgiveness becomes an unbearable...even an unthinkable notion.

As not to belittle the legitimate challenge of forgiveness, I 100% acknowledge that the act of forgiving can be as hard as Hades, man! It truly can. Time - and what time can ultimately help produce: distance & perspective - can absolutely be a balm in making even the possibility of forgiveness more realistic and easier to digest. And that’s valid, dude. However, most of us know those people who have carried the burden of unforgiveness for a lifetime...without any resolve. I know I've carried my share. Maybe YOU have, too. There are circumstances and people that are simply far more difficult to forgive than others. Some seem nearly impossible.

Yet in spite of circumstances, though, two constants still remain:

1. we ALL need forgiveness and have desired it at some point or another from someone AND 
2. Christ has given humanity an awesome example of what ultimate forgiveness looks like....as it pertains to you & me and His work on the cross. 

From where I sit, fam...regardless of whether or not something or someone is easier to forgive, it becomes hard(er) to hold a grudge against someone when I consider that the holy and righteous Judge - my Heavenly Father; YHWH - forgave and continues to forgive me of so much via His Son's perfect sacrifice on the cross. The example of unmerited, undeserved forgiveness through Jesus Christ is glaringly blinding and makes it pretty awkward to ignore or justify you or I being unforgiving to someone or regarding something....although, so many of us habitually and rebelliously continue to do so. It's kinda hard to NOT forgive when you realize that you've been forgiven of so much, ya know....again, undeservingly, I might add. I'm very thankful for the Living example I have in Christ Jesus.....and also from those who've chosen to follow in His footsteps....like my (re)new friend. :-)

“We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.” (1 John 3:16 NLT)

#forgiveness=loveinaction #PDL #grace #nolovewithoutsacrifice

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"For if we are beside ourselves [mad, as some say], it is for God and concerns Him; if we are in our right mind, it is for your benefit." ~ 2 Corinthians 5:13 (Amplified Bible)