FEEDING ON CRAP by Alison Moore (A Guest Blogger)

Alison Moore is an amazing young woman with a contagious faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and a tremendous ability to share Biblical truth through writing.  Her blog today deals with a subject that all who consider themselves to be fully devoted followers of Christ should consider. Read what she says and then take a few to meditate on the truth that God reveals through the it.  

“As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly.”

Proverbs 26:11

I have a new appreciation for this verse as I now have a vivid mental picture of what it means.

There I am sitting out in the backyard with Mackenzie, our 8 month old Labrador Retriever. She’s wandering around sniffing out a spot to do her business. Occasionally she stops, squats, attempts, but nothing happens so she walks it off and moves on to a new spot, whimpering occasionally as though she were in pain… like she was constipated. Finally she squats and gets it out, and it’s no wonder why it was so difficult for her; her poop was full of grass she had been eating in the backyard. Now that’s weird and slightly gross already but just to up the level of disgust, guess what she did then… she ate it! Or she started to anyway, luckily my brother Jason was out there to severely reprimand her. I was too busy shrieking in disgust.

So, it wasn’t her vomit but it was her own excrement and it was horridly disgusting. It was shriek worthy it was so gross. It was angering it was so repulsive and pointless. She had no need and no business to be eating her own waste. We give her perfectly good food and a body excretes what is no longer valuable to its health so there was nothing to be gained by her returning to her crap.

And that, my friends, is what it’s like when we return to our own folly. It could be an addiction we can’t shake or worry or laziness or gossip or ANYTHING that belittles and dishonors God. We know it’s not good for us, it’s not providing any nutrients to our relationship with Christ and yet we feed off it.

Sometimes we even push past the pain and struggle of getting the crap out of our lives. But then, for whatever inconceivable reason, after removing it from ourselves we return to the crap and start the cycle all over again.

My reaction to Mackenzie was disgust. Jason’s reaction was anger. And there was the repetitive question, “what is wrong with you?!”

How many times does God have to ask us that question? What is wrong with you? When will we each decide that whatever our personal folly is, it’s not worth returning to? It’s not worth repulsing and angering our sovereign Lord, our master who provides us with all the food and nutrients necessary through Him.

So stop feeding on crap you nasty!

Alison's blog is called FEEDING YOUR BEAST.  I highly encourage all those who are serious about missional living to check it out and follow it. 

Check Out Alison's Blog

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ROAD BLOCK TO MISSIONAL LIVING: Trying To Hold Onto Everything Else In Life & Follow Christ

One of the major roadblocks to #missionalliving is trying to hold onto everything else in life and follow Christ at the same time.  Isn’t that what the Great American Dream is all about? “Going after it all and having it all”, isn’t that what we’ve been taught is what one should do?  There just one problem with this philosophy when it comes to following Christ, His mission and His purpose for you in this life!  And that problem is:  IT’S IMPOSSIBLE!  You can’t follow Christ and hold onto this world.  That’s right, you can’t do that, it’s just impossible!

In order to follow Christ wherever He leads you must be wiling to let go of your former priorities in life or else they will serve as an anchor that holds you back. Let’s take a look at when Jesus called Matthew to follow him:

“After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.”  Luke 5:27,28 (NIV)

The important part I want you to see from this passage is that Matthew “left everything and follow him”.  The combination of “leaving” and “following” cannot be overstated!  No person can effectively and closely follow Christ if they are still tied to the things of this world.  For Matthew leaving “everything” meant leaving his livelihood.  He was a tax collector and he received His call to follow Christ while he was at his job.  Isn’t it interesting that we do not hear any words from Matthew spoken to Jesus saying, “Let me first finish my work today and then I’ll follow you?”  We don’t hear anything of the sort coming out of his mouth.  Instead, what we do we read? ” … and Levi (Matthew) got up, left everything and followed Jesus.”  Matthew receives his call from Jesus to follow Him and without question HE GETS UP and follows.

This is the common pattern we see in all the gospels.  Jesus extends His invitation to “follow Him” and those who did got up, left everything and followed Him.  Peter, Andrew, James and John were fishing when they got their call to follow Jesus. The Bible says that they pulled their boats up to shore, left everything and followed Jesus (Luke 5:11).  There it is again!  We see the leaving and following joined together.

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Road Block To Missional Living

HOW NOT TO LIVE A MISSIONAL LIFE! By Guest Blogger Willis Loftin

A Friend of mine, here in Tucson, AZ, wrote this very thought provoking post that I think all Christians in general and particularly those Followers of Christ who intentionally are trying to live a missional life should read!  It give us a perfect example of 

WHAT NOT TO DO

in living a life on mission with Christ.  Read and be challenged or convicted which ever shoe fits!

"After a week of taking care of a sick and grumpy 2 year old, my dear wife told me to get out of the house for the weekend to relax and recharge.  Sunday morning I stopped in at a  popular local restaurant to have some food and a little quiet time to process what I've been learning over the weekend.  I popped out the ipad and keyboard and began to organize my thoughts by taking some notes.  

The restaurant had a hand full of people in the outdoor seating area where I was enjoying the morning breeze.  All of the wait staff were friendly with big smiles and even a little bubbly as they had a good time talking to patrons about sporting events and other happenings of the week.  The atmosphere was light and very enjoyable.  I got lost in my thoughts and a couple hours passed.  When I finally became aware of my surrounding again I found it interesting that all of the original patrons were still present, albeit a couple were getting ready to leave.  A couple more people had joined and were now eating their food.   

Then "it" happened.  A well dressed lady came waltzing in and was hurriedly looking for a waiter.  I was shocked at how she treated the wait staff like her personal servants.  Dictating how the tables should be arranged for her church group in a most obnoxious manner.  Then other families started arriving, some part of the "church" group and others not, but all were wearing the same type of attire.  I assume the churches had let out.  I started to leave to make room for more people in the restaurant but decided to stay for the experience.  What an experience it was...

I was surprised at how demanding this crowd was to the friendly  staff.  The families and group would order their food often with a unpleasant attitude, and then if the food did not arrive in perfect condition... wow I was embarrassed for these folks.   Another aspect I noticed is the apparent lack of interest in anyone else.  Sure they were all smiles and giggles toward one another as they shared the latest gossip, but the smiles would fade and the eyes dull when interacting with anyone else.  

The table closest to me was occupied by three older Christians.  They made their religious convictions clear by the load prayer with bowed heads.  They were actually some of the more pleasant ones in their interactions with others but I was intrigued by their conversation.   I'd like to get  some opinions about some of their comments:

"Missionaries came to my Sunday school class today... it was heart breaking to hear about all the AIDS, HIV and malaria that they have to deal with in their work.  It is obvious that these people have a big heart to even raise their three children in a place like that but I think the real problem is the evil at the top of all these nations, the governments just don't do anything for the people!  " 

Later on the conversation came back to the missionaries and my ears perked up again:

  

"If only the missionaries could impress the Christian ideal into the culture. The people just do not get it.  I know its  hard for the missionaries to change these cultures..." 

What do you think about these comments? 

On with my story though:  as the church crowd settled down into their meals I watched the staff.  I know they had been busy but they seemed more than just physically tired.  They took care of their guest with diligence but they didn't seem to enjoy themselves and the twinkle was gone from their eyes.  I hurt for them.  I wondered if they were feeling drained like taking care of a sick and grumpy two year old... ; - )  

As I was finally leaving I decided to pay a compliment to one guy that seemed to have taken the biggest swing in mood.  When I arrived he was all smiles and welcomed me with warmth.   Then for the last thirty minutes of my visit he had shuffled around with his eyes on the floor as he delivered food.  He was collecting the garbage when I walked over to him and said "Man I really appreciated your smile today! "  He stopped and looked at me - cracked a smile with the twinkle back in his eyes and said " What's up brother, its good to be seen!  Yes sir, its good to be seen!"  I have to admit I wasn't prepared for that response.  I probably looked like a deer in the headlights as I processed what he said.  After an awkward moment I finally said, "Look forward to seeing you next time"  and we parted ways. 

This experience, while not surprising to me anymore  is disheartening.  I understand John 13:34-35 states that we are to love one another;  that the world will know that we are His disciples by the love that we have for one another, but is this what Jesus was talking about?"  Willis Loftin

(This blog post was reposted by permission author)

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