From my heart...

Here's the thing, I love the church. I love what it is supposed to be and I love what it could be but the fact of the matter is that so many churches just straight up are missing the point. Church is meant for community and coming together as one to worship the same God and to hear a teacher who has meditated and wrestled with a passage of scripture and has gone in depth with it. In my eyes, it should be filled with passion and joy. Too often I see churches try to tell people they have to fit a certain mold to be accepted. NEWS FLASH: if there is a mold for what a Christian should look like, it is unworthy, broken, desperate people who need the Lord. Last time I checked, that includes every single person on this earth. The pre-requisite to be a Christian is that you are human. The end.

Today one of my friends told me about how she became a christian in mid high school and the church she went to first of all told her she was different and they saw her as not like the usual Christian. Jesus was a homeless man who looked arabic and probably didn't bathe but once every other month and probably wore the same clothes every day and never changed his underwear. Get over the thought that what matters is what you look like. Even if you don't care what someone looks like, but you are more concerned about their history, let's take a look back at Jesus. He comes from a line of whores, adulterers, murderers, liars, and a seriously dysfunctional family. God doesn't ask perfection of us. He delights in our brokenness and our honesty and that is what is important.

Second of all, this friend also told me that the people in her church straight up told her that her enthusiasm and passion for the Lord would die down when she got older. The thought of a brother or sister in Christ telling a new Christian that her zeal for the God who gives us new life and saves us from destruction would soon fade away made me want to vomit. It literally makes me sick that people think that. One of the most beautiful things that I got to experience is being able to worship with my 87 year old great grandma on Easter Sunday who hardly ever stops smiling and was raising her hands as much as she could during the worship service. Another thing is my grandeddy. Every single sunday you can find him at the Summit waving his arms and dancing around praising God. Now try to tell me I am going to lose my passion for the Lord over time. That is a straight up lie. God's mercies are new EVERY morning and each and every moment we have on this earth should be spent in awe of his grace and love and power. Passion for the Lord is not simply a phase "young people" go through. It is a lifestyle that we all choose the moment we accept the forgiveness of our great God.

One last thing and I promise I'm done. This is for the men...
Can you all please start fearing the Lord? Honestly, the most attractive thing on this earth is a man who is head over heals in love with the savior of the universe. A man who fears God and respects himself enough to not be consumed with the thoughts of women. A man who meditates on the joy that God gives him and expresses that freely and unapologetically. A man who will trust the Lord in every aspect of his life so that women want to follow him. There is a massive deficit of men who are in love with the Lord and it is seriously concerning me. Not because I am looking for a man, but because the Lord calls up men to lead and to be intentional. How do you expect women to want to serve if there are no men who are trustworthy enough to serve? A wife is to submit to her husband, yes, but the husband is to love the wife as Christ loved the church by sacrificing for her. If a man is constantly sacrificing to serve his wife, what woman wouldn't want to submit to him? If he is fearing the Lord and seeking the Lord's face through all aspects, what woman wouldn't feel loved? The passiveness of man is deadly and destructive. Men are supposed to be creatures of action but there is such a lack of men who are taking action to serve the God who loves this world. I just want to encourage you all to man up and put your sissy ways away and start falling in love with the Lord.