Redeemed…

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect -1 Peter 1:18-19

“Redeemed”. It’s a term used quite a bit around Easter time. I believe we have a general understating in American culture about what true redemption means. But our cultural use is just a bit off. A movie review might read, “The surprise ending redeemed an otherwise boring movie.” We’ll hear about a sports team “getting redemption“. But, this kind of redemption comes only through experiencing failure then success. It is entirely a self-help, self-determined concept. The movie redeems itself, the team redeems itself. The Red Sox lose for almost 100 years, before gaining redemption by winning the World Series. But what happens when they lose the next year? Are they still redeemed? In Shawshank Redemption, Andy is wrongfully imprisoned but uses his time there to redeem myself by both escaping from prison and harming those that put him there. Andy redeemed himself. So in this world there are areas in which we can act as the redeemer. However, God is not of this world and Jesus’ kingdom is not either…

Christianity and Homosexuality…

Easily the biggest debate currently among both the church and state culture is homosexuality. I want to start this conversation by stating simply that I believe whole heartily that practicing homosexuality is sin**. But, I also believe that it is not different than premarital sex, pornography and heterosexual lust among other things. Before offering my opinion on the issue allow me debunk a couple common myths:

Leaving it All On the Field…

So it’s been a while since I’ve written. I could offer several excuses about how the busy season at Charlotte Athletics started. Just this weekend alone I put in about 35 hrs between Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I could say that I’m also coaching and doing CrossFit any time that I’m not working at Charlotte. But, ultimately my excuse is nothing more than the fact that I haven’t been making time for God. It took me longer than it should have to realize this fact. In the past it’s always been very apparent when I slacked off from my reading and prayer time. I always seemed end up in what I call “car-wreck sins”. You know the kind that make you instantly realize how far from God you’ve strayed. The times where you know you screwed up big time, and seriously question how many more time God is willing to forgive you. You start to do the math to see how much “70 times 7” actually is. Well that didn’t happen this time. I haven’t read the bible or prayed in over a week, but no train-wreck happened. I’m very thankful for that, and attribute it to the work God has done in me. Instead of getting into the car-wreck, I just hit the guardrails.

Looking Upward, Not Inward…

So this sort of piggy-backs off of my previous post regarding God’s ability to carry us through our weak moments. It is a phenomenon that God pointed out in my life a couple years ago. Looking back I can see that I was really at a major cusp in my faith. I was at a crossroads in my life, and didn’t even realize it. During the summer of 2012 I was in the process of helping plant Mercy Hill Church in Greensboro, NC. This moment was a turning point in my faith and really jump started one of the best years of my life, in terms of spiritual growth.