Aaron Reddin onLife, Liberty, and Pursuit of Jesusness

Greetings friends, relatives, and complete strangers!!!  I hope this blog finds you in the middle of a fabulous day!  I just want to bug you all for a few minutes and I will go on my way.

Most of you know that I oversee all the men’s ministries at the Union Rescue Mission.  If you didn’t, well that’s what I do.  I say that to lead into the reason for this post.  As we begin to gear up for the fall, yes I said fall already, I’m looking to get a jump-start on seeking involvement for the Men’s Recovery Center. 

Over the next several weeks our numbers here will begin to increase and will remain high through the spring.  Not only will we be taking in more and more people, but we will be serving more and more people that are out on the streets and elsewhere.  As numbers and activities/outreach increases, so does our need for involvement from the entire body of Christ. 

Please take some time to consider having us come and speak to your church, small group, Sunday school class or any other organization that you may be involved in to let you know what we are doing to reach people and how you can be a part of it.  We would love to come and share about our ministries, share testimonies of God’s redemptive work in the lives of our men, or minister in any way needed. 

If you or your church/group would be interested, please contact me at 501-269-4550.  A phone call doesn’t obligate you, just let us share our vision and needs.  Thanks!!!!

Many of you have either heard me speak about, or read, my viewpoint on legislating morals.  If you are new to me or my blog, let me catch you up to speed.  I am vehemently opposed to Christian using all their time and energy trying to legislate our morals.  Let me tell you why very simply.  It’s laziness.  Christians are trying to get the government to do our work for us.  Instead of spreading the Gospel and showing the love of Jesus, instead of showing people a better way, we want to restrict them from having the option to “choose” the bad way. 

Let me explain why this tactic so drives me nuts.  If all we do is prohibit folks from doing the things that we believe to be “bad”, they never LEARN what it means to have the life that comes from the “better” way.  It’s taken by them as a slap in the face.  As an attack on them, not the action.  Most of them have never been presented with the TRUE Gospel of Jesus and thus can’t for the life of them figure out why “we” are trying to take away what they know!!!  THIS IS ASININE!!! 

God didn’t just tell Adam “don’t” eat this.  He told him “don’t eat this because it will kill you”.  He told him that there was death in it and destruction.  He made sure that he knew the consequences, and he also made sure that he knew a better way and why he should choose it.  Once he made it all clear to Adam, he gave HIM the choice to either “die” or go the way of “life”. 

Jesus didn’t just come to Earth and say “Hey people, pick me or die.  Thanks!”……NO he came and told them “Hey this thing you’re doing isn’t working for you so well.  I know a better way.  I have GOOD NEWS that there is a better way.  IF you want it, come on and follow me.”  Do you see where I’m going here? 

God never imposed (or imposes) his morals on us in this lifetime.  Jesus never imposes himself on us in this lifetime.  The Holy Spirit doesn’t just go around taking captives against their will.  I’m not saying that we will not face judgement.  Don’t even try to go there with me because that is NOT what I’m talking about.  

What I AM talking about is exactly what the Word of God says.  It says behold I stand at the door and knock.  Jesus says he will stand there and knock.  NEVER did he say that he was going to kick our door in and force himself on us.  He said IF any man should answer, I will come in. 

Here is what I am getting at.  We were commanded to go out and teach, educate, and give hope and knowledge of the Good News!!  We were never told to go out and petition the government to force our particular beliefs on others.  It is not in the Word.  If you find it, please correct me!!  I’m always open to correction. 

I was in Florida last weekend visiting my beautiful girlfriend Lane, and I was able to go to her church with her on Sunday.  She has a mentor that teaches their Sunday school class, and I finally got to meet her and got the chance to hear her teach.  What she taught that day, will stick with me for a long, long time. 

She was doing like a mini-series with their class on “the church”.  She taught on what the church is supposed to look like, be like, and do.  She took the teaching of Jesus and what he had to say about the church and put out some of the biggest challenges and charges that have hit my heart in quite some time.  I know that I have changed gears with this blog a little bit, but I’m still going to the same place that I was when started it.  Just hang in there.  In her teaching, she took us through what the Word has to say about our responsibilities are as “the church”.  Oh yes folks that’s right, we have responsibilities.  And guess what.  Imposing our beliefs and standards on people who have not come to believe is NOT one of them!!! 

Let me tell you what just a few of those responsibilities are.  Loving those nonbelievers.  Teaching those nonbelievers that there is a better way.  Having compassion for every single person that sucks oxygen on planet Earth is one of our responsibilities as followers of Jesus Christ.  Do you know the definition of love?  Let me tell you something.  Dictionary.com defines “love” as “affectionate concern for the well-being of others”.  Let me tell you something else, we as the church are NOT living up to our responsibilities.  We are not “being” the church.  We show up on Sunday and pay our tithes to appease our guilty conscience, and we go through the services and “do” church.  But we are not “being” the church by fighting tooth and nail to keep sinners from sinning.  We will “be” the church when we go out of our way to SHOW sinners a better way.  A better life.  Jesus said he came to bring “GOOD NEWS”!!!  Never did he say that I came to restrict the actions of those who don’t know a better way.   He said he came to show them and TEACH them what that better way was.

I have encourage her to try and format her revelation into some group study material.  Christians have got to come to an understanding of what it means to “be the church”.  We are failing miserably and that’s why some feel they have to fight for morals.  There is a moral failure in our society because we are not “being” the church.  We show up to a building and “have” church, but until we are “being” the church that Jesus intstructed us to be and doing the things that he has instructed us to do then we will never see the number of people come to Christ that we potentially could. 

Let me go ahead and say that my opinion about the legislation of morals does not reflect on what she was teaching.  That is merely my own personal belief.  I used her example because it flows in many of the same directions of some of the points that I’m making.  Her objective is to teach was Jesus says the church should “be” and “do”.  I’ve not mentioned her by name, because I’ve not asked her if I could do so. 

If this has ruffled your feathers, I will give you half an apology.  But if I’ve made you think about some things that maybe you had never thought about, well then I’ve done what I set out to do.

I swear the more I try to simplify my life and slow it down, the faster it goes.  I have several updates to give you all, and some major praise reports to give you regarding the great big God that we serve.

Let me start with mom.  As you all know, mom was diagnosed with breast cancer just a very short time ago.  And most of you know that she was to undergo surgery this past Friday.  So we all showed up to the hospital here in LR on Friday about 10:30AM and gathered in the waiting room.  Filled with anxiety, we all just kinda made eye contact that conveyed the exact same message back to one another.  It was a mutual feeling that just couldn’t really be expressed.  Mom finally went back a couple hours later and surgery began somewhere around 2PM.  A few hours after that they came to tell us that all was great.  They told us that they removed all the cancer and 2 lymph nodes that would be sent for testing just to be safe.  One more hour passed and we went back to see a very groggy and somewhat “high” mom.  HaHa!!  They said that everything went great and she is recovering well!!!  PRAISE GOD!!!!  Praise him for her surgeon who got up that morning and spent time in prayer to the Father about the work he would be preforming on my mother.  That means so much to a momma’s boy like me.  Praise him for a truly compassionate staff at Baptist Hospital.  I’ve never seen hospital staff that genuinely cared as they did.  Oh how they impressed us.  Her plastic surgeon even gave us his cell phone number “just in case”!!!  You don’t find care like that ANYWHERE!!!  So mom is at home today recovering, and I will be taking off work tomorrow to go and tend to her and be there for her as she has always been for me.  It doesn’t come close to repaying her for the times she has taken care of me, but hey, I will never be able to catch her there!!!

What else could possibly be happening you may ask me.  Well I’ve very happy to say that I’m no longer a single man.  I have a very dear friend of mine that has been in my life for a very long time.  We met in the 8th grade and have been best friends since.  Other than my mother, nobody has ever cared for me like she does.  Nobody has every stuck with me like she has, no matter the circumstances.  We have always know that there was an intense attraction and chemistry there but we never crossed that line in all these years.  Every time we started to in the past, for reasons that I won’t drag you through, I would blow it.  But I decided a while back that I wanted her and that if she would ever give me another chance that I would go to the ends of the earth to make it work.  I just didn’t know if she would ever give me another chance, but she did.  She made me take time to show her that I was serious.  That I wasn’t going to run off and get myself tangled up in anymore messes.  There’s no way it was going to happen.  I had made a major life changing decision.  So last Sunday night after she got home from a week in the mountains of GA, she called me up in the wee hours of the night to tell me that she was ready.  That I had shown her enough of my sincerity for her to be able to give me a chance to actually cross that line that we had always danced around but never crossed.  I jumped on it!!!  She told me that she was ready for me to be her’s and her to be mine.  My life has never made more sense than it does now.  If any of you are very close to me at all then you know exactly who I’m talking about.  Yep, you guessed it, Lane.  There is no way that anywhere in the world is a better best friend, and girlfriend.  It’s an unbeatable combination that I will never take for granted. 

The only hangup there is that she lives in Florida, and I obviously don’t.  But as I said above, I am willing to go to the ends of the world for this.  So I got a part-time job at Starbucks in the airport to help pay for frequent airline tickets for the time being.  It’s close to me, and very flexible in scheduling so that works out very well.  Not to mention that I can drink tons of coffee and enjoy my favorite hobby….people watching. 

So guess what!!  I’m going back to Florida Friday!!  4 more days in Florida!  Some of you hate me now since I just spent 9 days there last month.  But I’m not going to vacation.  I’m going to see my best friend!!!

Ok, I’m not here to push some heretical ideology on you and I want you to understand that before we begin walking down the road of this thought.  OK, so do you understand that?  Are we on the same page?  I’m not here to bash anyone; I just have some questions.  OK?  OK!  Let’s go!!

I hear people teach frequently that God is sovereign and that all work in a person is made possible by the Holy Spirit.  That we are to teach and preach the Gospel, and the Holy Spirit takes it from there.  Jesus even told us, go out and make disciples.  He told us to go out and teach and preach the Gospel.  To take care of his people, while taking his message to those who needed to hear it.  So what was that message?  John 10:10 clearly tells us that it is to bring abundant life.  Not condemnation.  I know, this sound like the same old song and dance of some young knucklehead preaching against the “gospel of NO”…….well maybe it is. 

I just don’t ever read about Jesus going around Jerusalem with a petition to keep gambling, drinking, gay adoption, or whatever issue off of the ballot.  I never heard him charge us to go and legislate our morals and principles.  I never read where Jesus told us to try and keep others from sinning.  I DO, however, read about Jesus charging us to go out to them and love on them.  To show them his life.  To show them that he has just what John 10:10 says he has.  He tells us not to compromise, but he never said to attack sinners.  He never said to try and get any governments to enforce Christian morals and law.   It’s not in there as far as I know.  Maybe you’ve read something like that somewhere and if you have, please correct me!!! 

I want to know WHY it doesn’t seem to be good enough to just share the “good news” with others.  WHY is the Gospel not working?  Why isn’t the Gospel spreading like a California wildfire like it should be? 

I think, ladies and gentlemen, that I already know the reason that the Gospel is NOT working the way it should be.  I know you think God is about to knock me off my chair just for saying that the Gospel isn’t working, but hear me out.  It’s very simple.  It’s not some deep profound discovery that I found at the ends of the Earth.  It’s very, very simple.  Are you ready for it?  OK…..

The number one reason that the Gospel isn’t working………is that we are NOT sharing it.  The majority of mainstream Christianity seems to be spending more time trying to do things that keep people from sinning.  Things that keep people from having the opportunity to sin.  To keep the temptation from being around.  We fight for legislation about this and about that.  We try to end abortion.  We try to keep this county dry and that county dry.  We fight bingo, casinos, and everything in between.  We forward emails, plaster billboards, and cover our cars with bumper stickers.  We want to make sure that 16 year old girl can’t go and get an abortion but I wonder what we are doing to make sure she has heard the good news of Jesus.  How much time have we spent praying for all those women to do the right thing, instead of trying to force the government to keep them from doing the wrong thing?  You will fight for your right to go and vote against it, but will you fight for an opportunity to go and minister to a young girl who is contemplating the abortion?  Will you fight for her soul?  Will you fight for the Gospel, or are you more concerned with just trying to make sure people CAN’T go against it; instead of making sure that they hear about a better way of doing things like Jesus taught? 

The Gospel doesn’t/isn’t working because we are not sharing it.  If the “good news” is really so good, shouldn’t it be enough to keep people from going and doing the things that you are fighting to keep them from having a way to do?  Why do we think God needs so much of our help?  We aren’t God.  Nor are we gods.  We are the Body of Christ that has been called to pass on his love and share his GOOD NEWS!!!  We were never called to fight the judicial system to force and impose our morals and ways on those who don’t agree, or who have never even had someone come and share a better way with them.  We must stop trying to BE God.  Trying to HELP God.  We must do what Jesus directed us to do.  Love people, love people, and LOVE PEOPLE!!!!!!  The Gospel only works when we SHARE it, and share it in LOVE!!!!!

I have always seemed to be a somewhat negative person.  You know, glass half empty kind of guy.  My mom has tried for, oh I don’t know…..years, to get me to try and look at the good instead of the bad.  The positive instead of the negative.  Sometimes I can, sometimes I can’t.  Sometimes I try, sometimes I don’t. 

This week I had a reason to look “on the bright side”.  Thursday was mom’s first visit to her surgeon.  Needless to say, up until this point we were all nervous wrecks.  Mom, as usual, has tried to be the positive one for the last two weeks.  We knew that her situation was going to require surgery and the removal of at least one breast.  But what we didn’t know was whether the cancer was spread into her body, the nodes or not.  Praying and declaring all week that the cancer would be confined to the breast, we walked in there expecting to hear such.  And we did. 

Praise God, what the Dr. told us is that the type of cancer is “non-invasive” but was trying to become “invasive”.  He said that he saw NO reason to believe the cancer was anywhere else, because of that fact, that it’s non-invasive.  It was so encouraging to hear him speak with confidence about being able to remove all the cancer with surgery, and there being no need for chemotherapy.  I can’t tell you how good of news that was considering the situation.  Yes, it sucks that mom has cancer.  Yes, it sucks that she will have surgery and loose a breast.  Yes, it sucks seeing her worry and stress.  But praise God for answered prayer.  I never spent time praying that God would remove the cancer.  The Spirit lead me to only pray that the cancer would be found only in the breast and would be easily removed.  PRAYER ANSWERED!!!!!   We serve such a great big God you guys.  I have learned this over the last year or so, when the Holy Spirit prompts you to pray about something specific or gives you something specific to pray, you better do it!!!  He doesn’t prompt us for no reason.  He doesn’t speak to us specifically for no reason.  When he says pray, pray!  When he says pray about such and such, pray about such and such!!!

This has been a good lesson for me, this whole looking at the good in the bad.  It’s not easy for me.  But I push myself more and more to do the things that aren’t easy, but are for my benefit.  I’ve come to realize that my negativity is just my doubt manifesting itself outwardly.  When I realized that, I was almost humiliated.  Now when I start getting negative, I try to divert my thoughts and words toward more positive options.  So, if you hear me being negative, be a good friend and tell me to shut up until I think of something positive to say!!!