Smog Blog 2

Hello SMOG. This is Issue 2 (or II for any Romans out there) of the SMOG BLOG!


I believe it is important for us as Men of God to understand exactly what we do while we are at church. Okay so essentially if you go to any normal church in the United States this is what happens: First the Lights are turned down real low. I love this part. This is where the intimacy with God begins! Okay so lights are low, CHECK.
Nextly, The drummer goes click* click* click* and the guitar comes in. Oh how I love the sound of the guitar! Especially the acoustic. It spells out love for Jesus in just four easy chords doesn't it?
Then, multiple girls and maybe a guy or two on stage begin to sing praises to God using words like, "Love, Amazing Beauty, Prince of Peace, Passionate, Glory, Heart, Joy etc.

Trust me, I am singing along right with them. I am feeling the Holy Spirit impact me like I have never felt him before. Then momentarily I open my eyes and glance around the room...only to find 95 percent of the other guys have their hands in their pockets and they look so ridgid, and...nervous.
I simply shrug this off and go back into my deep one on one with the Lord, and later as the message begins I spend a second or two wondering what the heck is going on in those other guys lives that they can't praise God. "Must be some evil kind of sin... I bet they smoke pot.

Okay so that was mildly exaggerated, but now lets do something we have never done before and go into the mind of the average man who didn't grow up in Church and went on occasion with his Grandma on Holidays.

*Lights go down* Ummm what the heck is going on?... Why did the lights just turn off in here.

* Click Click Click* Okay at least they have drums that's pretty cool, I can make it through this. I hope to God that he has a double bass solo. That would be flippin awesome.

*Girls begin singing* ... This is weird. I feel like I am at one of my little sister's sleepovers and they are doing some serious rendition of Justin Beiber's "Baby"

*Love, Amazing Beauty, Prince of Peace, Passionate, Glory, Heart, Joy etc* The lights are down, I got a bunch of girls on stage singing about all of these words that are comletely...not me... I mean I don't even tell my Mom I love her much less some Dude. Don't get me wrong, Jesus is pretty cool and stuff but this is EXTREMEY WEIRD.... And that one dude over there keeps on smiling at the ceiling then looking at me. I bet he thinks I smoke weed...


I say all of that to say this SMOG. It is not completely natural for us to be so expressive and intimate with God. In fact it is the very opposite. That is why so many Men around you at church seem uncomfortable. The church is doing something that is completely against their inherent nature. So we as Men of God, who understand intimacy, MUST show and explain to the other guys around us exactly why we do what we do. It is natural for the men in a traditional church setting to feel uncomfortable because we are doing something so unmanly. Wearing out hearts on our sleeves and rushing to God, and repenting openly and................This is the Kicker........are you ready?.........
LAYING DOWN OUR PRIDE!
It is very hard for us as men to do. But once we are free from the bondage of pride we will more openly show our love for God, and he will continue to show us his love in response! So next time you look across a room during worship and you are wondering why that guy next to you isn't engaging, why don't you turn you head back to God and quit judging him, because he is in a process of laying down something that is natural so that he may receive an unnatural Love.

SMOG! Some. Men. Of. God.
When I was 15 years old I had a serious problem. I found myself in the middle of the town swimming pool at 3 in the morning, stripped down to a pair of shorts with eleven of my closest friends. Some of which were wearing only their boxer's/whitey tightys.
Some of you say, "Well that doesn't sound like a problem to me! Sounds like a good time!" *Air high five with the loser next to you*
However, these weren't the only things present to present my issue...
There were also flashing blue and red lights with sirens wailing, and the sound of mud covered tires digging to a stop around us in a perimeter...
So I did what any God fearing christian, who had been raised right by believing parents, not missing a single day of Sunday School, person who prayed for all the people in the world with their issues because I didn't have any, would do.
I yelled, "COPS!!!" And Jumped the fence like I was trapped on the inside with 14 hungry lions and a skipping record of My parent's favorite music when they were young.

As my feet flew me at a speed I didn't know I could run, I took a glance back over my shoulder to observe my heavier friends with their hands up, and my less athletic friends still trying to get over the fence...and I admittedly felt bad for them.
Maybe I should go back? Would they do that for me?
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it was my 15th Birthday party and I was the one with the brilliant idea to jump into the pool in the first place...
So I decided it would be better to go back and face punishment, rather than abandon my friends.

And punishment I received.

I was police escorted home ,at 3 in the morning, with all of my best friends. One of them had broken his shin on a teeter totter pole, which I felt pretty bad about because I would rather eat a turd than break my shinbone, and I hope most would agree so I am not some kind of a weirdo... But I still remember to this day, the police calling the parents of all of my friends, telling them to come pick their children up for (Entering, and Trespassing). What that felt like to be the cause of so much distrust between families. WHat it felt like to cause friends to cry out of shame...

The police went down the list and saved me for last. I prayed my stepdad would pick up because he was full of merciful qualities (Just like Jesus!) But unfortunately he didn't.

*Click* (My mother's voice) "Yes sir.... Yes sir.....Yes sir" *Click*

I was done for. I imagined her in my head tearing the gutter off the side of the house a beating me repeatedly with it, like the she-hulk, until I went to see my Lord Jesus.... I imagined the absolute worst that could happen to me, but that's not at all what happened. In fact I probably would have taken the eating a turd route and the beating to death instead of what I got.

I got a mother whom looked at me for two minutes, seemingly without blinking, and then a stream of tears running down an emotionless face. For those of you that don't know this pain, I don't encourage you to push your parents to this point. I cried and buried my face in my hands, and acted like I was more ashamed than I was, hoping my Mom would relent. She only turned around and went back to bed.

I can tell you all now that I was deeply inpacted by that day, when i felt like my mother would never forgive me. She had every right to never trust me again. I had broken my pact with her, right? She would raise me right and teach me all the right things that I needed to say and do, and I..... Do them. No questions asked. Well what happens when we inevitably break that trust with people around us? What about when we say awful things to our family members who are supposed to be a blessing to. And when we talk to our parents like worthless trash, and don't obey our authority figures? What happens in all these situations? We lose trust and ultimately love from these people.

So what about with God?

God has no level of trust or distrust. !!!He is not a man!!! [That he should lie, or a son of man that he should change his mind.] Numbers 23:19

SO wait..If God never lies then whatever he says is true?

So you are telling me that whatever God speaks out of his mouth, the red lettering all over my Bible, when it says *AND THUS GOD SAID/SAYS/WILL SAY* Everytime it is eternal from the moment he speaks it to the end of the idea of time?

Yes

Well what kinds of things does God say?

I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.

I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered.

I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. (we are descendants )

The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness

(Jesus said) "No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God."

I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Amen! These are the promises of our Lord. The one whom we serve in and out of a comfortable season. The one whom serves us daily and waits for us to turn around ashamed of ourselves so he can lift our heads out of our trouble and into a perfect Joy. In fact Jesus WANTS YOU TO COME TO HIM after you have messed up. And he doesn't want you to be clean. He loves dealing with the dirty, and the filthy, and the ones who feel like they have too far messed up. Those are Jesus' favorite situations to handle? How do I know? I've read the Bible. He can't wait for you to admit that you did something terrible, because he will make Kicking in a fence and running from the cops a story that can make his kingdom grow.

[SMOG] Some. Men. Of. God.

We break the binding of the enemy over the purity of our generation, and stand on the promises of a sovereign God. We step out of our shackles and into your presence. Show us our weakness, light our ways, and walk with us. We declare we will not go anywhere without the Lord there by us also, waiting with Power and Dominion in his Left hand, and Mercy and Love in his right.