Is It Possible That I'm Not As beautiful As I Think I am?

The cast of Seinfeld make me laugh, but they provide enough examples for deep spiritual analysis to last a lifetime.

If your a fan you'll recall today's dialogue.

Jerry: What's the matter?

Kramer: It's over! 

Jerry: What's over?

Kramer: Me and Lola....

George: The woman we bought the wheelchair for?

Kramer: Yeah, she dumped me! 

Jerry: She dumped you?

Kramer: She dumped me! She rolled right over me! Said I was a hipster dufus. Am I a hipster dufus?

Jerry & George (hesitatingly): ... no...

Kramer: Said I'm not good looking enough for her. Not good looking! Jerry, look at me, look at my face, huh, am I beautiful? George, am I beautiful?

It's a funny scene. On television.

In real life it's downright sad.

"Am I beautiful? Am I? Am I beautiful?" 

Somewhere in there is a desperate cry for help. For validation.

However, it gets downright scary when the person who is asking the question is really trying to get you to agree with their over the top self-grandizing assessment of themselves in all their glory!

Narcissism.

Rampant narcissism. It's worse than rampant B.O.

And it's at epidemic proportions.

Never have people with so little to say of value been so listened to by so many.

Never have so many with so little going on in their lives been so revered by so many.

What in the world is happening here? Insanity is the new normal.

Something is radically wrong friends when "Octo Mom" is getting her own TV show.

I have to touch base multiple times daily with the One True Source of normalcy to keep perspective.

What does Jesus have to say about this?

"Love your neighbor as you love yourself."

Love myself? Isn't that the problem here? People loving themselves too much? No, it's loving ourselves too much and never letting it spread outwards.

Jesus would never tell us to enter into a narcissistic love relationship with ourself. 

That's left up to the psycho babbling self-esteem boosters.

Here's another term that follows on the heels of narcissism. Self-esteem, or better yet, "low" self-esteem.

Good grief, we don't need more self-esteem, we esteem ourselves to highly already.

What the world needs is a dose of "Christ esteem."

Back to Gal. 2:20 again. - "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."

Self put to death. On the cross. With Jesus. We died. He lives. I'm still dead. See Jesus . Not me.

The complete and total antithesis of self-esteem and narcissism.

More of Him. Less of me. I must decrease so that He may increase. John the Baptist knew that. He turned all his followers over to Jesus and backed out of the picture.

There is no sin apart from selfishness. All sin is rooted in selfishness. Lose yourself in Christ and offending God goes away.

Run your ego past Jesus and see how it stands up.

My prayer for you today is that you would see your beauty in Christ because He thinks you're beautiful. Know that He loves and adores you today and I guarantee it will be enough. There is no need to chase after the world for selfish gain when the Master and Creator of the universe thinks you're special!

Be blessed today and pay it forward in prayer!

Keepin' it Real,

Pastor Kevin <><

www.reallifect.com

Get Over Yourself

When you get this, you really get it. It flows over you like a wave. Wraps around you like a warm blanket.

It makes you feel well. Excited. Like you have really discovered something.

I'm talking about when a particular truth of God is revealed to you in all it's clarity.

Clear. Concise. Weighty. Deep. Profound.

I remember when I found out I'm a weakling. Cowardly. Lazy. Irresponsible. 

I'm really not "all that". I'd like to think I am. But I'm not.

That's the reality of it. In truth it's who I am.

I had to be put back in touch with that. I had been thinking maybe I was a lot of things I'm really not.

I had to get past me.

I forgot where all my success, strength, happiness, joy, peace, comfort, bravery, etc. really lies.

It's in Christ, and I realized that I have been robbing Him of the credit.

2 Corinthians 12:10 (Amplified Bible) - "So for the sake of Christ, I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities and distresses; for when I am weak ]in human strength], then am I [truly] strong (able, powerful in divine strength)."

Take pleasure in? Are you kidding me? I've spent my life trying to escape those things.

I've even twisted the Word to say the opposite. 

Check out verse 9: - "But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me!"

I think there is a portion of the church today that is full of false bravado. Sort of like beer muscles.

We have become afraid to express our weakness, and therefore never become strong.

Spiritual anemia.

Paul's words have been hijacked. If Paul's been hijacked then so has Christ. And that ain't good.

Is His grace really sufficient for you today? 

Do you really believe that the weaker you are the more perfected God's strength and power is in you?

And here's the kicker... can you, without fear, reservation, or embarrassment (that's the big one), declare your weakness before others?

It does not come without penalty. The world will look at you as something to devour. Even some in the church will look at your weakness and not the strength of God.

I think we like to pay lip service to the weakness, but when the chips are down we will not be as bold as Paul.

Paul kicked and screamed against his thorn in the flesh, and then he had a little parlay with God.

God essentially told him, "Paul, you're a human weakling, and you always will be. The difference in you is that you have Me. That is where your strength will always be. It's something I do for you and everyone who believes in Me."

How can we get so far from that?

Well, for me I was beginning to revel in God's favor in my life. I realized that I had a boastful attitude about it. I was smug. Oh, maybe it didn't appear that way to others, but in my quiet spirituality I sometimes felt superior over others who didn't appear to have the favor of God upon them.

I was becoming a Pharisee who would look at the wretch pouring his heart out to God in all his sins and be thinking somewhere deep in my spirit that I am glad that I am much more favorable to God. Not consciously, but certainly it was in there somewhere.

Nothing wrong with boasting about God, but make sure you are boasting on Him, and NOT your ability to lay claim to God. There is a difference and the wrong choice can be fatal.

So...yes...I am weak. Anything I am, or ever hope to become, rises and falls on His grace toward me. I am nothing, and He is everything.

My prayer for you today is to not lament over your weaknesses and shortcomings, but to allow God's all sufficient grace to flow over you and fill you. Allow Jesus to pitch His tent over you today! Therein lies your strength and power to overcome and conquer!

Be blessed!

Keepin' it real,

Pastor Kevin <><

www.reallifect.com

These Are The Good Old Days

I tend to measure everything existentially now days. Not religiously (thank you Jesus for freeing me from that). If that means being genuine, then I'm that. We need a genuine Christianity. I don't like the generic media generated greed based religious definition. It doesn't represent the Church I serve, or the Christ I love.

The popular religious form of Christianity is narrow, malnourished, religious, and anemic. It's just a historical representation as one of the three major world religions. It always seems to be in competition.

It lacks.

I always notice that many times the emaciated church refers to itself as in the past. That we need to "get back" to the "way it was." I used to think that until I realized the church that is entertaining that line of reasoning essentially is not the church at all. It is the malnourished, anemic, starving shell of what the Church is. To be clear here and not confuse, there is THE CHURCH, and there is the sham version. The sham version gets all the press. It tickles the senses. It entertains.

Measure it against the ideal of "without spot or wrinkle" and you tell me.

If the Church is the living organism I believe it is, and that it is eternal and comprised of the Living Stones which are the "true" believers in Christ, then it can't be "the way it was", but has to be "the Way it is"!

The shriveled up misrepresentation of the church is sad. It's a spiritual good 'ol boy network propagating and keeping alive an erroneous and deceitful network of messages and dog and pony shows. Circus Maximus. Shiny objects that attract. Comedians with phony baloney credentials passed on by others with phony baloney credentials. It's an infectious disease that's not fooling God.

It's closer to a pyramid scheme than a church. It's being bought and sold in the market place to the highest bidders. It's Enron. It's AIG. It's a failure. It's bursting at the seems with greed and avarice.

A wise man once said, "The garbage is getting piled so high on Calvary that we can hardly see the Cross!"

When it comes to the Church, the Way it was is the Way it is. It IS the Way. The Way is Jesus. In other words, it's alive and functional. It's just not the one that most people ever get to see. We don't have to "get back" to anything. The true Church of Jesus Christ has never been less than it ever was. 

John 14:6 (Amplified Bible) - "Jesus said to him, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by (through) Me."

It's a simple yet concise creed. He is everything. 

Look here:

John 15:5 (Amplified Bible) - "I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing."

There it is. The way we are, not the way we were. If the Way is the way, then the Way is the way it is. The way it always has been. The way it always will be. Now and forever.

Apart from Jesus we are nothing. Never have been. Never will be.

I am in Him so I really am. Existential? So be it. But it's real.

I love being me. The same person I always have been, but redeemed in Him. A better version of reality.

I suppose that's what Jesus really meant when He said we have to love ourselves in order to love our neighbor (each other). Anything short of that is a total abject failure.

My prayer for you today is that you are vibrantly and completely attached to the Vine. That your fruit is abundant, and that you are in vital union with Him! Run it all past Jesus today, and be blessed!

Keepin' it real,

Pastor Kevin <><

www.reallifect.com

Life In The Snow Globe

One of the most vivid childhood memories I have is that of receiving a snow globe while I was sick with the measles. I was sick, really sick. They say I almost went blind. I remember the pain, the itching, the scratching, the fever. I was only about eight years old. My dad came home from work one day and brought me a snow globe. I was intrigued by it. It was a scene with a little house, a fence, and a small child sledding in the yard. Every time I would shake it, it would snow. I wanted to crawl inside and live there.

Life in the snow globe.

Peace. Serenity. Comfort. Protection.

Nothing goes wrong in the snow globe.

No matter how good we have it, the snow globe is better.

No sickness. No poverty. No crime.

There's only one thing wrong. It's not real. Duh!, right?

Well the non-realistic element is exactly what attracts us, especially when things get hectic.

It's also the place we can be where we are in charge.

It's what we really want you know. To be in charge. To control.

C'mon, be honest. Some are saying right now, "That's simply not true! I am not a control freak, I do not want to run the show!"

Being in control doesn't mean you have the characteristics of a control freak. You could be a closet controller. That's the category most probably fall into. 

I think it's perfectly normal. If you want to live a sensory oriented life.

We are not intended by God to live according to the flesh. We are called to live according to the Spirit.

We are not called to live normally. We are called to live supernaturally.

Supernatural should be the norm for the Body of Christ.

Romans 8:1 (Amplified Bible) - "THEREFORE, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit."

There it is. It's not exactly a snow globe, but it offers one really great quality that removes a lot of the anxiety of life.

We are not condemned in our sins when we are in Jesus Christ. We move from one spiritual realm to another.

We move from spiritual death to spiritual life. 

Even for the Christian sometimes, it's not good enough. They still feel the need to have control over that as well.

To those I say, take your snow globe and smash it to the ground. Break it open. Destroy it.

It is death to you.

In the spiritual realm the snow globe is the flesh.

Crucify it as all ways of the flesh needs to be.

Here's the passage I live by more than any other. It's actually tattooed to my forearm.

Galatians 2:20 (Amplified Bible) - "I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me."

Most people who know me longer than an hour generally find that out about me, lol!

I gave up control to Christ long ago. For me I could care less who meets and remembers me. I want them to meet me and remember Jesus. I no longer exist, but Christ exists in me.

My snow globe had a crack in it. It wasn't doing the trick anymore. When I couldn't control my addictions any longer I knew I had to do something.

Jesus was and remains the answer.

Run it all past Him first.

Be blessed today!

My prayer is that I hear the sound of snow globes breaking everywhere today. Start with yours. It's not real. It's a facade. If you think you are really in control of your life you are living a lie. You deserve to live the Truth. You deserve all the supernatural benefits that come along with the Truth. Jesus loves you today, and so do I!

Keepin' it real,

Pastor Kevin <><

www.reallifect.com

Moving Forward

There's a term that is getting worn out fast.

"Moving Forward".

There is some truth attached to it though. Particularly as it applies to the New Testament believer.

It compliments "never go backward".

I hate when people go backward.

2 Peter 2:20-22 (AMP) 20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through [the full, personal] knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again become entangled in them and are overcome, their last condition is worse [for them] than the first. 21 For never to have obtained a [full, personal] knowledge of the way of righteousness would have been better for them than, having obtained [such knowledge], to turn back from the holy commandment which was [verbally] delivered to them. 22 There has befallen them the thing spoken of in the true proverb, The dog turns back to his own vomit, and, The sow is washed only to wallow again in the mire.

I can understand the errors, the mistakes, even the sins. 

What I cannot understand is going back to what didn't work in the first place.

It's like the devil laughing and saying, "Thought you got away did you?"

Peter says it would have been better you had never known the right way then to have known it and turned away from it.

How can a person return to that big ol' pile of steaming vomit, which was their old wrong way, and be able to say, "Well, here I am again."

Moving backward.

Oops. Wait, it's moving forward isn't it?

Believers are ALWAYS moving forward.

IF your following the One who never goes backwards.

Jesus says, "Follow Me", after all. 

Oh, how the canyons of hell must echo with cackling delight of countless minions of Satan.

Nothing delights Old Scratch more than failure.

Amidst the sulphuric aroma there is the lingering fragrance of failure. "Smell that?", Satan bellows. " I love the smell of failure in the morning!"

I trust you're "Moving Forward" today. 

If you should pass a brother or sister going in the opposite direction, would you turn them around and point them to the right Way?

Keepin' it Real,

Pastor Kevin <><

www.reallifect.com

Leakers

You can't keep a leaky bucket filled.

Neither can you inflate a basketball with a hole in it.

Some people are the same way. I call them "Leakers".

I don't think any of us make it through this life without getting a few holes punched in us.

The difference is if we are willing, or even capable, of being patched up.

Therein lies the rub. Also the difference.

Chronic leakers cannot (or will not) be consoled. Consoled is another word for "patched up".

Leakers won't let you or Jesus. Perhaps the leak rate is too fast. They are like a sieve. The minute one leak is sprung, before you can get to it to patch it, another one erupts. Then another. And another. And... well you can picture it.

I don't think it's so much that any more happens to them than anyone else on the average, but rather how they handle what does happen to them. Even the most insignificant or inconsequential difficulty becomes a mountain when the consolation of Christ is not getting through. The most minor of problems can run their train right off the rails.

"Oh, but pastor...you don't know what I'm...". Uh...yeah, I do.

Leakers.

This is why Paul appears to be so adamant in Philippians 2:1-2 (Amplified Bible). Stay with me on this, it's awesome!

Philippians 2:1 -  "SO BY whatever [appeal to you there is in our mutual dwelling in Christ, by whatever] strengthening and consoling and encouraging [our relationship] in Him [affords], by whatever persuasive incentive there is in love, by whatever participation in the [Holy] Spirit [we share], and by whatever depth of affection and compassionate sympathy, (2) Fill up and complete my joy by living in harmony and being of the same mind and one in purpose, having the same love, being in full accord and of one harmonious mind and intention."

Paul is admonishing us to "fill up" in joy. Allowing ourselves to be filled (same mind and purpose). To be filled we have to stop the leak. Stopping the leak means to be consoled.

Strengthened. Consoled. Encouraged. By the brethren who mutually dwell in Christ along with you!

Participation. Harmony. Incentive. Affection. Compassion. Sympathy. Joy. Intention. Love.

What a bunch of great "buzz" words!

It's all the stuff the leakers avoid or don't subscribe to. They choose instead to bleed out all over the place, and replenishment never comes because they won't be CONSOLED (patched).

I know that "WON'T" sounds so obstinate and harsh. Well, it is at times just that, but sometimes it's ignorance, habit, or tradition. Melancholia, moroseness, gloominess, and depression (which is anger turned inward), are also culprits. Hey, at the end of the day, it's all selfishness preventing Christ from doing His work.

Junkies don't get well until they want to. Drunks don't get sober until they want to. Nothing in this world is strong enough to battle your free will! Jesus won't even attempt it. In the gospels, those who didn't receive were those who didn't believe.

You cannot be filled if you continue to leak.

Step outside your problems today. Put them where they belong, on the back burner.

Allow this word from me to you today to be your consolation, your "patch job". It's not me really. It's Christ. It's always Christ.

Be comforted and know that it will be ok. It will get better. 

If you do not need to be comforted today, then be a comforter to someone who does.

It's all got to get past Jesus first!

Keepin' it real,

Pastor Kevin <><

www.reallifect.com

*Blink*

Being a Christan is not cutting yourself off from real life; It is entering into it more fully.

This is one of those quotes that make you blink once or twice when you read it.

Well, maybe depending on how you were introduced, or "inducted" into the Christian faith.

If you were raised in a home where "keep holy the sabbath day" for example, meant not even reading a newspaper, let alone watching tv or playing with your friends, then the above quote might pose a problem.

I'm not particularly knocking that attempt at personal holiness, as I know some folks practice that sort of thing out of deep conviction toward what they think the bible and Jesus and the saints expect them to do.

However, my personal realization is that for me it is nothing more than a shallow attempt at religiously keeping the Law, which I have been freed from. I rank it up there with thinking that the Sabbath day has to be on Sunday. *blink*

Someone just blinked on that one.

I find less restraint, less bondage, in Christ than I ever had from the world. (should be lots of applause here)

I found it through the teachings of Jesus.

For example:

Matt. 15:7-11 - (7) "You pretenders (hypocrites)! Admirably and truly did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said: (8) These people draw near Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts hold off and are far away from Me."

Bland religious observation. *blink*

(9) "Uselessly do they worship Me, for they teach as doctrines the commands of men."

We often find ourselves adhering to the doctrines of men rather than the teachings of Jesus. Jesus says that is "useless". *blink*

(10) "And Jesus called the people to Him and said to them, Listen and grasp and comprehend this." 

*lot's of mass crowd blinking*

(11) "It is not what goes into the mouth of a man that makes him unclean and defiled, but what comes out of the mouth; this makes a man unclean and defiles [him]."

*blink* *blink* *blink*...

Jesus goes on to expand on that truth by basically explaining that it is the condition of the heart that determines the holiness or unrighteousness of a person.

Not religious actions or activity.  *blink*

Good and pure things come from a good and purified heart. 

Not washing your hands before eating is not a crime. Neither is failing to utter a religious mantra before eating. *blink*

Picking a grain of wheat off of a stalk on the Sabbath is not a crime according to Jesus.

Neither is reading a newspaper, having the family over for a big dinner and some whiffle ball in the backyard, or taking a nap. *blink*

Mark 2:24, 27 - "And the Pharisees said to Him, Look! Why are they doing what is not permitted or lawful on the Sabbath?" *gasp*

(27) "And Jesus said to them, The Sabbath was made on account and for the sake of man, not man for the Sabbath." *blink*, and maybe even some associated *gasps*, and perhaps a few hearty "harumphs".

Sometimes I wonder if we don't suffer from some sort of Religious Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (ROCD). *blink*

That means we do things repetitively, over and over and over again, because we THINK we are pleasing God. Yet all the time they have become so routine that they simply have lost all meaning and do nothing to honor and glorify God.

I hope you're getting my drift today. 

We do this in our personal spirituality. We do this at church when we routinely "do" anything.

Is it any wonder that the salt (us) loses its effectiveness?

By the way. Blinking is a good thing.

I hope I made you do it.

1 Corinthians 10:31 - "So then, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you may do, do all for the honor and glory of God."

There it is! Right there! The freedom is in doing it all for Him!

Run it all past Jesus today!

Keepin' it Real,

Pastor Kevin <><

www.reallifect.com