chaseaustin

Hands Free

2009-02-18T01:17:00.008-06:00

Soooooo, my Mom got a new car last night, it's pretty cool - it's loaded with features - all of which are very cool, most of which we will never use...

Here are a few of the best ones:

The top feature in my eyes is the feature that keeps you in your own lane - hands free! Say it's the middle of the night, and you're on a long road trip... and you start to doze off. (Maybe you should pull over and get a room) But maybe you're hard-headed and so you keep on driving. The car will actually keep you in your lane, thus keeping you from running off the road and killing yourself! (You know I had to test it out - it actually works)
Another cool feature, one that I'm too freaked out to test... the car has a feature that will keep you from running into the car in front of you. If it senses that you are approaching something at a high rate of speed, and you're not braking, the car will begin to slow down and come to a stop for you - hands free! (well, technically, foot free)
The car will record up to 5,000 songs from CD's and play them by voice activation - totally hands free!
It will also call people from your cell phone by just saying their name - hands free!

I'm excited about all these features because they have literally been consuming me the last 24 hours. Being that neither of my parents are technologically literate, I have been the one who is charged with figuring out how everything works, and then teaching them how to use the features. (Sidebar, I'm also the one who loads contacts/speed dials into cell phones)

Anyways, I got to thinking about all this hands free stuff... the first thing I remembered, was this hilarious commercial....

lol - and i'll try to lay out my next thoughts in the remaining paragraphs of this blog...

We are a hands free people. If we can do it by voice activation we will not lay a hand on it; maybe it's the convenience, maybe it's just how cool it is, but we are obsessed with being "hands free". I don't guess there's really anything wrong with it (except for making us increasingly lazy :) )... but then again, as the video illustrates, this hands free approach doesn't translate into every area of life - this is especially true in our spiritual lives.

We want a "hands free" faith. We want a gospel that makes our life easier, a "lazy man's faith", a gospel that serves us, and doesn't necessarily encroach on our day to day lives. A gospel that we don't necessarily have to put our hand to: a voice activated gospel, if you will.

Maybe we've found ourself getting out of our lane, maybe we're moving too fast towards a collision, whatever the case may be... we then try to voice activate God.
"God, get me back in the right lane...", or, "God, get me out of this situation..."
We try and try to "voice activate" God, and then we somehow think that our faith or our God is defective when we collide with the troubles in life.

Or, some people would tell us that we can never speak a negative word... that maybe, if we speak enough positive words, everything will just work itself out. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe in speaking negativity and I think it's the wise person who has a positive word on his tongue but if that's all we have, then we don't have much. Words without action do not get God's attention. If we never put our hand to our faith, we will never see the results of our faith.
Faith is not simply something that we talk about, faith is something we DO.
It is not a passive possession, but rather an aggressive action.

Faith is not voice activated, faith is not hands free, in fact faith is only activated when we put our "hand to the plow."

Hebrews 11

v4 "By faith Abel offered"
v7 "By faith Noah... moved with Godly fear, prepared an ark..."
v8 "By faith Abraham obeyed..."
v17 "By faith Abraham offered up Isaac..."
v24 "By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter..."
v27 "By faith he forsook Egypt..."
v29 "By faith they entered the red sea..."

As we see - FAITH IS ACTION! I heard a great preacher say,
"Faith is not saying you believe in God, faith is acting like you believe in God."

Yea, it's more convenient to think that we can voice activate God - but it doesn't yield results.
Yea, it looks way cooler to walk around talking about big faith, rather than quietly going about the "work" of the gospel.
Yea, putting our hand to faith will encroach on our lives - it is supposed to overtake our lives.
No, putting our hand to faith will not be comfortable - it was never meant to be.

But it is when we put our hand to the plow of faith and start to act on God's word - that is when we get his attention. That is when he sees that we are serious about Him. That is when we begin to see the results of faith. That is when God's promises begin to become a reality in our lives.

So, turn your faith on, but it wont by happen by just talking about it. Make a fresh commitment to God, and then act on that commitment. Hands free cars are cool, hands free faith is a dream.

Talk to your coworker about Christ.
Pick up a family who doesn't have a ride to church.
Teach a Sunday School class.
Get in the choir.

Whatever you do, JUST DO IT!!!

-chase

20 Days and 20lbs later...

2008-01-29T14:03:00.000-06:00

At the end of December I was reading an article about Jentezen Franklin (google him if you're lost already.) The article was talking about an annual fast that he and his church family participate in every January - as I was reading the article God impressed upon me to participate as well - and I knew it was a good idea, being that there are many areas in my life that I need to completely dedicate to Gods will. My birthday was on January 9th - so I decided that beginning on the 10th I would embark on my spiritual journey of starving the flesh... The first few days were tough - I literally dreamt about food and eating for the first 2 nights lol and i had a migraine that wouldnt quit for the complete 2nd and 3rd days... by the 4th day I was getting into a groove with it - keeping a book or the bible around at all times, so whenever I felt my hunger getting the best of me, I would get re-encouraged to continue my fast...

So, over the past 20 days, here is what I believe God has revealed to me through reading, studying and praying during my time of fasting:

A Hungry Flesh = a Hungry Spirit
Lets go back to dawn of civilization, all the way back to Adam and Eve. Do you remember the story of the "fall of man" when Adam and Eve sinned? What did their sin entail? You guessed it - EATING. The very first sin, the single act that caused man to fall and the curse to be let loose on the earth involved EATING a fruit that God said was "off limits". Isnt that interesting???

Okay.... Lets fast forward several thousand years... to Jesus... the one who would redeem us from the curse of Sin.

In the Gospels we can read about the baptism of Jesus, the spiritual act that would signify the beginning of the ministry of Jesus... as soon as he came up out of the water, the bible says, He went off into the wilderness and fasted for 40 days.

Lets jump ahead in His life 3 years...
As Jesus was dying on the cross, giving His life to redeem man from the curse of Sin (the curse that Adam and Eve brought on the world) some of the last words that He spoke before his death were, "I'm Thirsty".

Jesus was the Son of God, God manifested in the flesh, there has never been and never will be another as deeply spiritual as Jesus - and yet at the beginning of his ministry He made himself hungry...

Why? ... because a satisfied flesh cannot hear the spirit.

How much more necessary is it for those of us who are imperfect followers of Jesus to make our flesh hungry so that our spirit can come alive within us?
Notice that Jesus began his ministry and ended his ministry Hungry and Thirsty...... This brings new meanings to the words that Jesus spoke in the beatitudes when he said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled."

It's time for those of us who claim to be followers of Christ to become Hungry and Thirsty for righteousness. I'm not preaching at anybody, but to myself. Desiring righteousness is opposite of human nature, ALL human nature... the bible says that the "flesh and the spirit are at enmity with one another" - they will never get along... but as Children of God - we must learn how to shut the mouth of our flesh and feed our spirit - so that we can walk in righteousness and lead others in righteousness... which is our purpose on this earth as Christians!

Let God guide your life by the spirit - if you don't hear from the spirit or haven't in a long time... maybe its time to say "no" to your flesh so that your spirit can flourish. There is no greater walk with God than one that is walked in the Spirit. Check out Hebrews 11 - it talks about those of the faith being strangers in this land, aliens on this earth; they are longing for a homeland, a better homeland, one that is heavenly, one that is spiritual.

I encourage you to seek God like you never have before... just because you knew God as a child does not mean that you are walking in His will for your life - Just as our flesh hungers for the next meal, our spirit should hunger for God. Give your spirit a chance to come alive and lead you - there is no fulfillment in the pleasures of the flesh, but there is no other joy greater than the fulfillment of the spirit.

Tomorrow is my last full day of fasting, it will be the 21st day. I don't talk about my fast as one bragging, I was hesitant about even mentioning it... but God has seen me through every single day... and as a testimony to you of His faithfulness, God has brought me to a brand new place in Him, through the Spirit.

p.s. I would encourage everyone to go and buy the book, "Fasting" by Jentezen Franklin. A lot of what God showed me about this spiritual journey of fasting, he brought to life through the pages in this book.

God Bless...
Chase

"Always"

2008-01-18T00:50:00.000-06:00

"Always"

Jesus You're my everything,
The cross you did that just for me
So whatever you take me through
I promise you, Ill spend my always with you...
Jesus my whole life has changed,
since that day I cried your name,
For every time you brought me through
I promise you, Ill spend my always with you...
-Kirk Franklin

I'm grateful to my friends for putting up with me, my strong opinions, and my know it all attitude.
I'm grateful to my family for every lesson that I've learned from them.
I'm grateful to my parents for raising me in the ways of the Lord.
I'm grateful to many people, for many things - so many that I couldn't possibly mention them all....
But as the days go by, I find that I'm more grateful to Jesus than ever before.

As I search myself, I continually find that I don't measure up. I find more disappointment in myself than I do pleasure.
As I peel back layers of my mind, my will, and my emotions - i find memories, habits, skeletons - things that I'm not happy to admit still live on the inside of me.
The more introspective I get, the more I'm disappointed in myself........

BUT... the beauty of that is....

With every disappointment I find in myself, with every time I find that I fall short, with every habit that I can't seem to break - I become more grateful to the God who created me and sent His Son to earth to bear the shame of my disappointments. From creation He knew exactly who I was going to be - everything that I would struggle with and every time I would fall short... and He still took my place in sin, in shame, in death.

Jesus You truly are my everything - there are no words to explain the emotion welling up inside of me as I look at the ugliness of me, and think about the beauty of your mercy and love. My whole life is changed every time I cry to you. No tear is lost in your presence. My comfort when people turned their back on me. My solace in losing my best friend and my big brother - You have never failed to be all that I need. Forgive me for focusing on the here and now, and not on what is most important - Your will. You've brought me through so many of my messes - you've seen me through so many dark times. You rejoice with me when I win, and you are standing beside me, waiting to pick me up when I lose. You see me when I rise, and when I fall - and yet your love for me never changes.

There is no life outside of You - You're my everything.
There is no joy without You - You're my everything.
There is no peace without You - You're my everything.
There is no hope without You - You're my everything.
I never want to see another tomorrow without You - You're my everything.

So, whatever You take me through, for everything You've brought me through - I'll spend my always with You.