Da DA Is Back

For anyone interested I re-resurrected my Steve's Daily Account postings. Newer blogspot posts can be found here. Old-fashioned posts can be found here.

The DA is basically for a more personal look into the life of Steve. Don't peer too close or too long, it has been known to cause tumors.

The Mayer of Tech Support

Although I am saddened by our culture's (and often even my own) obsession with the celebritae ("celebrity" said like you're cool) world, I do enjoy seeing these walking idols living as if they were just like you and me... well you anyway.

I am an Apple fan, so I visit their rumor sites quite frequently. I found this video very funny because it reminds me of a much taller, sexier, more talented version of myself doing what I am ALWAYS doing. That's right, giving step-by-step computer instructions over the phone.

Let's see how John Mayer does.

Are You A Risk Taker?

::Note, this is mainly for dudes, but girls will probably find a way of relating it to themselves too::

I have been pondering risk. It came up in a conversation the other day, and then I read an article refuting many ideas in the book Wild at Heart, along those lines.

In a world surrounded by extreme sports, heroic movies, and Nike's "Just Do It" campaign, we feel a need to exercise a life of taking risks. This is especially true of men. As we are weighing it out, we are overcome with the responsibility as MAN to risk our life, limbs, and character to secure our status as "manly."
It is our ability to take risks that determine our strength, valor, and value to ourselves, to others and to our God(?). Risks prove to ourselves that we can do it. Mind over matter. I AM CONQUEROR! THIS IS SPARTA!!! So in short... it's pride. It's me in my ability overcoming fear and doing whatever I set my mind to.

In relation to others, we may now combine our pride with competition and acceptance. Men are always sizing each other up. Sometimes literally, others more abstractly. When I enter a room I always take stock of height in that room and where I rank. This is probably more common being a short guy. We do this in other areas of life too. Who can take the biggest risk and still land on his feet? It's a competition. I think competition might be the most widely used drug in America. It is everywhere; sports, business, church, family... we want to be the best, more impressive than the next guy... but often in the wrong way. And when you land that "jump" of life on your feet everyone will admire you and/or be jealous of you... the thing every guy desires.

Being the best Christian is a game we often play before God. We take the biggest risks in "faith" knowing that if we do it we are going to score some major brownie points with God, and once again the other people in our church will be either admiring or jealous of us, SLAM DUNK! This is a delusion. God is not a risk. He is the anti-risk. He is the safety net. From my standpoint, it seems very hard to not equate faith with risk. Faith is hope in things unseen, it seems to have a risk right there, because I don't know, I can't see what's there. If we believe in the word though, we know there is no risk. Still without faith this is hard to swallow. We see many men and women have been killed for their faith, or have encountered extreme hardship despite or because of their faith. That looks like a risk to me.

If you are a Christian you risk the possibility of hard things like these. NO! These things are guaranteed! Not risk, guarantee.

The real underlying question here is who/what do you fear? A risk is determined by fear. Am I afraid of not being good enough on my own, am I afraid of what people will think of me, am I afraid of regret in life?

28Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny^[a]? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. 30And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

32"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.

34"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn
" 'a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law -
36a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'^[b]

37"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

- Matthew 10:28-39

The Bible clearly says repeatedly that we are to fear the Lord. As we fear the Lord, He proves that all else is not worthy to be feared, because he has authority over all. We all should fear for our souls. Living a life apart from complete faith in God introduces a risk far surpassing anything we can incur in our current state.

We must not consider our faith a risk or an opportunity to show our own greatness. Rather it is a time for humility, to revel in God's faithfulness and authority in keeping to His promises. We have enough witnesses to know not to doubt, for God is not a risk taker. So let's grow in patience that is often very lacking in our "risk-taking" lives. Let's know we are avoiding the largest risk by keeping small and true under Christ's vast righteousness.

I was largely inspired to write this after reading a passage out of the book of Sirach. I'm going to end with that chapter.

1 My son, if you come forward to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for temptation.
2 Set your heart right and be steadfast, and do not be hasty in time of calamity.
3 Cleave to him and do not depart, that you may be honored at the end of your life.
4 Accept whatever is brought upon you, and in changes that humble you be patient.
5 For gold is tested in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.
6 Trust in him, and he will help you; make your ways straight, and hope in him.
7 You who fear the Lord, wait for his mercy; and turn not aside, lest you fall.
8 You who fear the Lord, trust in him, and your reward will not fail;
9 you who fear the Lord, hope for good things, for everlasting joy and mercy.
10 Consider the ancient generations and see: who ever trusted in the Lord and was put to shame? Or who ever persevered in the fear of the Lord and was forsaken? Or who ever called upon him and was overlooked?
11 For the Lord is compassionate and merciful; he forgives sins and saves in time of affliction. 12 Woe to timid hearts and to slack hands, and to the sinner who walks along two ways!
13 Woe to the faint heart, for it has no trust! Therefore it will not be sheltered.
14 Woe to you who have lost your endurance! What will you do when the Lord punishes you?
15 Those who fear the Lord will not disobey his words, and those who love him will keep his ways. 16 Those who fear the Lord will seek his approval, and those who love him will be filled with the law. 17 Those who fear the Lord will prepare their hearts, and will humble themselves before him.
18 Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, but not into the hands of men; for as his majesty is, so also is his mercy.

Finding God From The Needy

I realized today that I have blogs linked on my blog that I have not visited for quite some time. Upon noticing this I clicked on the Jenlemen blog link. I browsed through some titles and skimmed some writings. Although I had forgotten much about the blog, but remembered her poetic writing.

I chose to read an entry about her time in Rwanda. It kind of relates to my last blog, but is also different.

I recommend reading it now. It's very neat.

We think God is something we need to trick people into believing. Our statements must be intelligent and without flaw before they will respect Him. Our music must be professional and moving for them to open up to Him. And our Jesus must be relatable and offering good solutions for them to partake of Him.

We forget it's God genuinely flowing through us, and his Spirit touching the heart that will bring respect, openness, and repentance. It's simple. And we are too often a distraction, complicating God's simple message delivered by His Spirit. When there is nothing but love for God and each other, I think the message comes through much easier than when there are microphones, amplifiers, lights, staging, pride, selfishness, and appearance to worry about. Instead let the little children come and let the love flow.



Girls Singing in Church in Umutara, Rwanda from jen lemen on Vimeo.

The World Is Hungry

I started reading a book today called Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger.

I was told I would really like the book and have trouble putting it down. Although I'm not even into the meat of the book, I know it's true.

I'm really just going to pull some quotes from the book that I felt conveyed ideas of importance.

"The Alarins are a poor Filipino family. Mr. Alarin makes 70 cents on good days as an ice vendor. Several nights a month Mrs. Alarin stays up all night to make coconut sweet that she sells on the street. Total income for her midnight toil is 40 cents. Cooking utensils are their only furniture. The family had not tasted meat for a month when the president of World Vision visited them and wrote this account:

'Tears washed her dark, sunken eye-sockets as she spoke: "I feel so sad when my children cry at night because they have no food. I know my life will never change. What can I do to solve my problems? I am so worried about the future of my children. I want them to go to school, but how can we afford it? I am sick most of the time, but I can't go to the doctor because each visit costs two pesos [28 cents] and the medicine is extra. What can I do?' She broke down into quiet sobbing. I admit without shame that I wept with her."

"A former president of World Vission visited the home of Sebastian and Maria Nascimento, a poor Brazilian couple whose home was a one-room, thatched lean-to with a sand floor. Inside, one stool, a charcoal hibachi, and four cots covered with sacks partly filled with straw were the only furniture. He wrote this heartrending account about his visit:

'My emotions could scarecly take in what I saw and heard. The three-year-old twins, lying naked and unmoving on a small cot, were in the last act of their personal drama. Mercifully, the curtain was coming down on their brief appearance. Malnutrition was the villain. The two-year-old played a silent role, his brain already vegetating from marasmus, a severe form of malnutrition.
The father is without work. Both he and Maria are anguished over their existence, but they are too proud to beg. He tries to shine shoes. Maria cannot talk about their condition. She tries, but the words just will not come. Her mother's love is deep and tender, and the daily deterioration of her children is more than she can bear. Tears must be the vocabulary of the anguished soul.'"

"Before he got AIDS a hardworking father sold milk from his goats to provide for his wife and family. When he fell ill, he used the children's school fee money to pay for traditional medicine. Finally, he sold two goats so he could visit a clinic--only to discover that it was AIDS that was devastating not only him, but his wife and their toddler. His wife sold another goat to pay for his funeral. All the goats were gone by the time the wife died.
Two daughters, nine and ten, were left to take care of their dying brother. When they visited their grandmother, she told them they must take care of themselves, becauseh she was already caring for five grandchildren orphaned by AIDS. All she could give them was a cardboard box--a coffin to bury their dying brother."

"The most potentially explosive force in the world today is the frustrated desire of poor people to attain a decent standard of living... The Commission believes that promoting economic development in general, and overcoming hunger in particular, are tasks far more critical to U.S. national security than most policy makers acknowledge or even believe. Since the advent of nuclear weapons, most Americans have been conditioned to equate national security with the strength of strategic military forces. The Commissin considers this prevailing belief to be a simplistic illusion."

- The U.S. Presidential Commission on World Hunger

"What will Christians do in this time of swelling affluence and persistent poverty? Will we dare to remember that the God we worship tells us that 'whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord' (Prov. 19:17)? Will Christians have the courage to seek justice for the poor, even if that means disapproval by affluent neighbors?"

...

"In an age of affluence and poverty, most Christians, regardless of theological labels, are tempted to succumb to the heresy of following society's materialistic values rather than biblical truth. Advertisements offer demonically convincing justifications for enjoying our affluence while neglecting billions of poor neighbors."

These are issues I've felt convicted about lately. I've done much less about it in my own life than I have done speaking about it. I think this book will continue to paint a picture of what it looks like to practically follow Jesus in response to the poor in this world, as well as give the motivation to change accordingly.

What are your feelings?

Saving Your Bracelet

This past week I attended Heatwave, Youth For Christ's summer beach trip for the NE part of the country. I have been there many times before, but more times as "video guy" than a Campus Life leader for students. This year I was both. I felt extreme responsibility to be 100% dedicated to both duties, but it was extremely hard to balance the busyness with remaining spiritually open to God's voice. But despite all that I was doing I formed relationships and witnessed other friendships develop. I sat with the everyone else on the porch during our group meetings and listened to students pour out about their lives; who they are (good and bad), what God is showing them, and the witness that has come from friends on the trip.

Last night as I prepared for my Campus Life meeting, I was feeling restless about the topic I chose. I thought, "I need to bring an important element from Heatwave to our meeting tonight," especially since none of the students that night had gone to Heatwave. As I cleaned out my car I found my bracelet from Heatwave. It's a dear thing to the kids, and I know many are still wearing it even after the trip. Why? To remember. What would students say if you asked them what the bracelet helps them to remember? I can almost garantee two answers would soar above them all. 1. What God showed me this weekend. 2. The friendships I made and the closeness I felt in them.

All of this was stirring around and I felt like it was on the tip of my tongue, how it all fits together. I finally got to the point where I was down on my knees praying for direction. Within seconds it came to me. Confession.

I had even been talking about confession the night before, in regard to trips like Heatwave and even life, with my friend Kelly. For some reason I never considered to speak about it though. Confession is what separates Heatwave and trips like it from other camps and whatnot. Many students feel safety and trust and expose their soul for all to see. They stop pretending they are someone they aren't, and desperately want to be free to be, coming clean before God and everyone else.

"The one who covers his transgressions will not prosper, but whoever confesses them and forsakes them will find mercy."

- Proverbs 28:13

It comes so natural with our sin to hide. The shame and the fear cloud any reason we might see of how to remedy the situation. We pretend like the cancer doesn't exist, but it continues to eat away at us inside.

1 Blessed is he
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.

2 Blessed is the man
whose sin the LORD does not count against him
and in whose spirit is no deceit.

3 When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.

4 For day and night
your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was sapped
as in the heat of summer.
Selah

5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, "I will confess
my transgressions to the LORD "—
and you forgave
the guilt of my sin.
Selah

- Psalm 32:1-5

Even the first sin in the Garden of Eden was immediately followed by hiding from God (Genesis 3:8-10). God questions Adam, "Where are you?"

Where... Are... You?

Isn't that the question our spirit cries sometimes? WHERE AM I? We have become so out of touch with who we are by pretending. We notice our actions as if we were an outsider and wonder who that person is, because we know it's not us. But at the same time we are so afraid of addressing our sin. We are so afraid of what those around us would think if they knew what we've done, what we quietly think in our minds, and how distressed our spirit is. Maybe we're even afraid that they won't even care when we express this.

Yesterday I visited a site called PostSecret.com. Here, people anonymously send in post cards with their secrets. It's a form of confession, of saying things they are too afraid to really share with anyone. Here is one that struck me.

"I have a secret inside me. It hurts like hell, and I want to let it out, but I don't know what it is."

I feel like that's me. I feel like its all of us, with our unconfessed sin. Sins we have grown so accustomed to, that we have tucked away out of sight for so long, that we forgot they were even there. But they are still wasting away our bones, and we feel them all the time. We are unfulfilled in our fear, shame, and ignoring of them. We need to let them out! But first we need to know them.

Speaking with a friend recently, she told me how horrible things had been coming out of her. This woman who seems like the perfect Christian is saying how much sin was pouring out of her over a few day period. The neat part is that she journals and was looking over her journal from a couple days prior, where she prayed that God would search her heart and show her what was in it. There was sin hurting her inside that she was unaware of, and from her asking, God revealed it so she would then deal with it. Seeking out your "secret," asking God expose it, and listening to His response are steps in discovering what's in you. Most of the time it'll be hidden (because you're great at hiding things) so it won't be evident, other times you'll be very aware of it.

Once the secrets are known, we need to confess them to God and to each other. When you ponder those actions, the first seems more easy to swallow than the second, but they can't be apart.

Because God doesn't gossip, blog, or usually speak audibly to the people we know, we think He doesn't pose a threat to our little charade. But this is not taking into consideration the heart of confession. The heart of confession is acknowledging before God and man that I am broken, that I am sinful, and that I need God's forgiveness for what I've done, and his Spirit to make me righteous. It is embracing my acknowledgment that I am not perfect, and that I cannot pretend I am. If that is what my confession is, confessing to man will only help me to establish more tangibly that I am not IT. It's a testimony that all have fallen short (especially me), and it is only by God's grace that any can be deemed righteous. Confession is absolutely necessary for repentance and salvation.

"People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: 'You brod of vipers! Who warned yu to flee the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say t yourselves, "We have Abraham as our father." I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children fr Abraham. The ax is already at the root f the trees, and every tree that does not produce god fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.'

'I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come ne wh is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.'"

You need to be real. Otherwise you are a brood of vipers. When we don't confess to each other, the sincere followers will be overwhelmed and downcast. It creates a religion of needing to be infallible, and if you mess up, you must not be as good as them, rather than of faith of mercy, forgiveness, and perseverance.

Lastly, we need to confess before each other because we need each other's help.

"So confess your sins to one anther and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness."

- James 5:16

How can we be there for one another when we don't know who our friends really are or what struggles they are going through. Often times prayer requests at church consist of the superficial problems that we aren't embarrassed to admit. How does that do any good in helping the deep hardships, questions, situations, and sins that are eating us away inside. We need to pray with one another. It is effective and it's the action we can always perform to help those we love.

I spoke this message last night at Campus Life. Coincidentally Matthew Paul Turner's blog has a very related post today.

If we are to be a church, we must bring no condemnation toward people. We need to love by doing what will bring the best for them, and allow them to be free and real. If we, being confident in Christ, openly confess our shortcomings, our wrongs, our sin, and God's forgiveness, how much more open will everyone else be to admit their sin without feeling judged and believe God can forgive them as He has forgiven you.

Let's make confession a regular occurrence in our churches, youth groups, Campus Life groups, small groups, friendships, families, etc, etc ,etc. When we do I think people will come in flocks for the opportunity to finally be real, set free from the shame and fear of sin and judgment. Let your life be a living reminder of the real Church, be a living bracelet for all to see.