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My Salvation Experience

Matthew Schoenherr
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5
My Salvation Experience

Like I said in my last video, God’s been working in my life something fierce.

So, following our first meeting, Scott and I have a couple more conversations. We made a commitment to keep the energy going, and so we started talking on the phone every Monday. I call him, we talk for an hour or more, and even those conversations were just awesome.

This man knows Scripture really well. Scott’s been a Christian for 25 years, and he’s been really active in his faith for the past 8 years. He’s had supernatural experiences in spirit. (Not that that’s any kind of benchmark, but… it is. In the Bible, it even says to seek the gifts. He’s actually experienced the gifts unlike most folks I know.)

We’re having these conversations and I eventually set up a time to go out and meet with him at his place. Again, it’s about 25-minute drive from me, so I head out there after the kids are in bed, and I arrive at his place about 9:00 p.m. Initially, we only thought I was going to be out there for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half.

I get to his place at 9:00 on the spot, and I don’t end up leaving there until 1:00 a.m. We just sat in his living room and talked the entire time. Really, it was him telling me more about his story and me telling him more about my journey. I had brought four books along just so I could show him all that I had been uncovering. I brought a Kriya yoga book, one of the books he had recommended to me (Jeanne Guyon,) a Saint Teresa of Avila book (Interior Castle,) and then a daily devotional that came to me as a Christmas gift through my wife. I presented my stuff, he presented his stuff, and it was just this awesome feast of sharing our spiritual journeys together.

One of the things that came out near the end of that conversation was this big question mark over me, however. He had told of his spiritual awakening, where somebody had witnessed to him during a party phase of his life, where he was killing lots of time splashing around the gutter. I had also had a splashing-around-the-gutter time in my life; pretty much my entire 20’s. That entire decade was just… yeah, a lot of going crazy. Having a good time, but going crazy and making a lot of dumb mistakes and bad choices. More on that later.

So, Scott was also in that low place in his life when he had somebody at work witness to him, and the witnessing… did something to him. He had said, “Oh, yeah, yeah. I’ll say the Salvation Prayer. Yeah, no problem. I’ll do it,” and then he hung up on the guy. Just being a turkey.

Over that next week, though, something began eating at him. And eating at him. And eating at him. Until finally—about a week or two later—he just melted down, went through the Salvation Prayer, renounced his sin-filled ways and he ended up committing his life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Right as soon as he finished with that prayer, Scott felt this massive unburdening; this big, uplifting, full of tears and elation, with these waves of love and light and…POW!

That’s when Scott turns to me and asks if I had ever experienced anything like that, and my answer was, “Well, not quite.” I’ve had a couple Christ experiences (which I haven’t shared with you yet,) but I hadn’t had that kind of dramatic awakening.

next steps to becoming christian

So, I left there with this big question mark like, “Shouldn’t I have this? Shouldn’t this be part of my journey? I would love to have a supernatural awakening.”

I’ve had some supernatural experiences in my past, but I never really… it wasn’t around salvation. I definitely hadn’t experienced what he had. I didn’t have the big “woosh.”

I went home and did a quick Google search on “salvation prayer”. Scott had already given me the recipe on the way out the door, but I wanted to see the recipe in print, compare notes and get a better sense for it. That night, I ended up going through the Salvation Prayer. I guess I was hoping there would be some sort of supernatural affirmation I had done it right.

One of the things that was different for me on the Salvation Prayer was the notion of turning my life over to Christ. Now, I had done pretty much everything BUT that, even with the Kriya yoga work. I had sought out Kriya yoga because I thought Christ meditated, and absolutely, I still believe he meditated, but the Kriya yoga path doesn’t involve Christ really. You can do the whole thing without Christ. Christ says, “The path is wide, but the way to the Father is through me. It’s a narrow gate.” (Actually, he said:

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
Matthew 7: 13-14

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6)

My experience of Kriya yoga said you can climb the wall to God without going through the gate, but the Bible teaches you’re not going to reach God without going through the narrow gate of Jesus Christ. I realized this was exactly what I had been doing. Through my meditative practice, I was trying to climb the wall to God, and I certainly wasn’t attempting that crossing through Jesus Christ.

So, why wasn’t I trying to cross through Jesus Christ?

I was born and raised Catholic. You’d think I would have this wonderful spiritual foundation. I did have a personal love for God; that’s true. Growing up, I was the only child I knew who would occasionally skip recess to go sit in the still silence of our empty cathedral and pray. But before I even graduated, I had a Jehovah’s Witness friend at work blow me out with some very good questions. She asked questions like, “If God is unconditional love, how could he let any of his children burn in eternal damnation? Why are their no women priests? Did you know the Catholic Church supports the pill? Why is it you have to go through the church to have a relationship with God?”

I was ill-prepared. I couldn’t answer. I wasn’t equipped to answer that barrage even after 12 years of Catholic schooling. Problem.

So, after that I pretty much went agnostic. I knew there was a God and I still talked with him, but Jesus eventually was reduced to a “good teacher” and that’s the way he stayed for over 20 years. To me, he became one of the master teachers the planet had seen. Yes, I believed in his resurrection. I believed in his miracles. I believed he was raised from the dead, but in my mind, we can do this too if we were to ever attain that spiritual height.

I don’t know how I had it all figured out my mind, but Jesus was not Lord.

I went through the Salvation Prayer. Where the Salvation Prayer says, “Jesus is Lord,” you take Jesus as your savior. You renounce all other paths, all other ways, and you zero in on Christ as that narrow gate through which you go.

It took a day or two for that to really sink in. I said the words the first night—and I meant it—but it was alien to me; the acceptance of Jesus Christ as God. I grew up around the Trinity, and I grew up around Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but somehow I hadn’t quite 100% agreed to it internally.

So I did the Salvation Prayer that night. Didn’t get the whoosh. There was no dramatic, “POW! You just entered some spiritual doorway.”

No woosh.

Yet there are experiences on YouTube where folks are talking about it, so I was feeling like, “Well, my guy had it. People on YouTube are having it. I didn’t get it. Hmm.”

Now, as it would just so happen, God had also placed another witness by me at my office. He’s a pastor, by trade. I went and talked with Tony. I said, “Tony, hey, have you ever had this salvation experience?” Tony said, “Yes.” (Everybody’s had this experience but me, apparently!)

Tony had a similar kind of story. Only instead of walking around with a really big grin on his face for a week and being filled with Christ’s love and affirmation, Tony was stricken by his sinful nature. He experienced that love, but a lot of his experience was anguish through the new awareness of his own sinful past. For the week after he answered an alter-call, he was wrecked emotionally. Sobbing every day, as he said.

So here I had two examples over the course of two days, and I still wasn’t getting the whoosh—the big emotional release. There was no spiritual release for me, so I did what you’re not supposed to do.

Now, I didn’t know this until it came to me later, but once you do the Salvation Prayer, you really should only do it once because—to do it two or three times like I did—it means you’re not having faith that God’s taken things over. You’ve renounced your past ways, you’ve confessed your sins, and you’ve given things over to Jesus, and now, you should be able to relax and rest for just a moment and let the Holy Spirit do his work. I wasn’t relaxing. Yeah, that’s not me, really, and I didn’t know that this was what I should’ve been doing.

Day two, I didn’t get my whoosh, but had received more validation that others have gotten the whoosh, and so I end up doing the Salvation Prayer again. I’m confessing more sins this time, and trying to give more of my heart, which that in and of itself is interesting. Through the past year’s meditation, I’ve been trying to remove myself, but bringing love—bringing myself up into a state of love for God—I was very weak at.

So day two comes and goes. No big whoosh. I’m a little crestfallen. I’m getting a little disappointed at this point. I’m like, “Lord, am I doing it right?”

The next day, Scott says, “Man, you should be… I’ve not really ran into a case where they haven’t had a big whoosh.” He said, “Well, maybe you need to witness to somebody else.” I said, “Alright, yeah, I’ll do that.” So I witnessed to a couple more people that day.

By the end of day three, I’m getting more resolve. I say, “Lord, I’m going to do this Salvation Prayer every day until you confirm that I’ve crossed over the door (that I’ve been accepted into the club essentially.)”

Right about then was when the message came to me (Did I read it? Or maybe Scott said something?) that you only say the Salvation Prayer once. The point is that you really need to have faith on the first pass and start diving into God’s Word, so I did more of that. I started diving into the Bible, which I had already started doing naturally.

Over the next couple weeks, I began to be consumed with a renewed starvation for God’s Word. I just needed to dig into the Bible more. I learned later the word is “regeneration.”

(By the way, by the third day I had renounced yoga. I had even renounced my Catholicism. I had renounced every other means possible where I had tried to climb the wall to God instead of going through the narrow gate of Jesus Christ.)

I didn’t get the whoosh, but it certainly was helping me get around to accepting the deity of Jesus Christ because that’s one place where I was super weak. I hadn’t done that yet. It was still a big question in my mind. I had spent so many years wondering if truly that was the case or if Jesus was human just like us and just had grown and evolved to the heights that he achieved. As I got deeper into God’s Word, I began accepting Jesus as the narrow gate, as the Lord and Savior, as the Triune God—not a created being, but as God.

Since then, things have been taking off, spiritually. I won’t go into everything here, but man, I’m on a track, kids. I’m on a track, and I’m looking forward to it. 2016 is going to be amazing. I’m already making plans to go out and start doing some street-side witnessing. That’s new to me. I’ve never done that before. I’ve never witnessed to anybody before, and now, I’m starting to do it on a weekly basis, and it’s really just me telling my story and sounding off where I’m at spiritually.

Yeah. This has been a big time for me, guys. I’ve got plenty more to talk about. I’m re-shifting my entire web practice to serve only Christian churches and faith-based organizations who point others towards God. If you don’t face others towards God, I’m not helping you with your web work anymore unless you are an existing client.

I can’t repay him enough. There’s nothing I can do. My best deeds are as filthy rags before of his holiness. There’s nothing I can do to repay him enough for the sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ. There’s nothing I can do.

Hope this is helping somebody out there. Let me know. Sound off in the comments. More soon.

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P.S. A couple weeks later I was sitting in church when I would have my question about my salvation experience answered. The pastor said that sometimes our salvation experiences are dramatic, yes, but oftentimes the experience is tender. Regardless of how God brings you in, you will know if you have genuinely converted if you enter a period of regeneration following your confession and commitment.

next steps to becoming christian

Salvation Prayer

Matthew Schoenherr
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Salvation Prayer

Ever heard of the Salvation Prayer? How do we become “saved” or “born again?” The answer starts here:

“That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
(Romans 10:9)

“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'”
(John 3:3)

What is the Salvation Prayer?

We have all sinned and deserve God’s judgment. God, the Father, sent His only Son to satisfy that judgment for those who believe in Him. Jesus, the creator and eternal Son of God, who lived a sinless life, loves us so much that He died for our sins, taking the punishment that we deserve, was buried, and rose from the dead according to the Bible.

The Salvation Prayer is an important step along the road toward your rebirth in Jesus Christ. To be born again you must confess Jesus as Lord and believe that He is. When you ask Him into your heart, you are allowing Him to be the Lord of your life. Salvation takes place when we listen to the salvation message, believe it, renounce our sins and decide to receive Jesus into our hearts.

Salvation Prayer – 4 Simple Steps

  1. Acknowledge in your heart that Jesus is Lord.
  2. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.
  3. Believe that Jesus died for your sins and was raised three days later.
  4. Repent of your sins and get baptized in the name of Jesus.

Salvation Prayer – An Example

The Salvation Prayer is not a ritual based on specific words. This is not the power of a prayer, but the power of truly committing our lives to Christ as Savior and Lord. The following is merely a guideline for our sincere step of faith:

“God, I recognize that I have not lived my life for You up until now. I have been living for myself and that is wrong. I need You in my life; I want You in my life. I acknowledge the completed work of Your Son Jesus Christ in giving His life for me on the cross at Calvary, and I long to receive the forgiveness you have made freely available to me through this sacrifice. Come into my life now, Lord. Take up residence in my heart and be my king, my Lord, and my Savior. From this day forward, I will no longer be controlled by sin, or the desire to please myself, but I will follow You all the days of my life. Those days are in Your hands. I ask this in Jesus’ precious and holy name. Amen.”

If you decided to repent of your sins and receive Christ today, welcome to God’s family. Now, as a way to grow closer to Him, the Bible tells us to follow up on our commitment.

  • Get baptized as commanded by Christ.
  • Tell someone else about your new faith in Christ.
  • Spend time with God each day. It does not have to be a long period of time. Just develop the daily habit of praying to Him and reading His Word. Ask God to increase your faith and your understanding of the Bible.
  • Seek fellowship with other followers of Jesus. Develop a group of believing friends to answer your questions and support you.
  • Find a local church where you can worship God.

next steps to becoming christian

What Do You Think?

Different people will have different experiences upon the heart-felt completion of this prayer. If you’ve truly come to the end of yourselves, you may experience a deeply emotional impact after saying this prayer. I know folks who have felt elated, as if the weight of the world was taken off them all at once. I know others who have been so broken by realizing the gravity of their sinful pasts, they’ve gone into an emotional meltdown for a week following their moment. These are what we consider dramatic salvation experiences.

My salvation experience was not dramatic. In fact, I didn’t feel anything. Then I did what you’re not supposed to do; I said the prayer again the next day–and the next day after that. Let me correct that notion now: You only say the Salvation Prayer once and you trust that the Holy Spirit has begun your regeneration as a child in Christ. What I did experience following the Salvation Prayer was a renewed starvation for God’s Word. I began to dive into Scripture more than I already had been. I was physically repelled from the living room during a violent television show. There were other signs as well, but know there are two ways you may have a salvation experience: dramatic or tender. I received the tender experience. What about you?
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Would you be willing to share your own salvation experience? Leave a comment below!

References

This post was largely copied from http://www.allaboutgod.com/salvation-prayer.htm so the All About GOD Ministries team gets all the credit for this one. I took liberty with some editing to tighten things up, but left the original prayer and directions intact. I wanted a copy here at the Levaire site in case they should ever pull their site down. Want to learn more about their ministry? Check them out!

I Meet a Brother in Contemplative Prayer

Matthew Schoenherr
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I Meet a Brother in Contemplative Prayer

Okay, wow. It’s been a couple months. Where do I start? It has been such an amazing journey at this point. I would say I can’t even tell you, but I’m going to try to do it anyways.

So..

There’s this weight bench, right? It’s kind of a big thing.. pulleys.. and it’s got 200 lbs worth of plates over here.. you’ve got the bench press.. you’ve got a leg press. It’s one BIG unit. It’s been down in our basement. Well, we had our basement flood last summer. That ended up with us getting all new flooring, all across the entire basement which was—thank you Lord—that was fantastic. It was a little bit of work on our part, little bit of money on our part, but essentially, we got our basement re-floored and painted.

Wonderful. A blessing, truly.

As all of that was happening, we ended up trying to get rid of this weight bench. I hadn’t used it in over a year (since I began my meditation practice, really, and then I was doing free-weights prior to that.) The thing sat there in the basement, in pieces, for months. I had put out a couple ads on Craigslist, and—nothing.

It wasn’t moving.

I would get phone calls. They’d say, “Oh yeah, it sounds great.” If I was lucky enough I would get a phone call again, and they would say, “Well no, I’m not going to come out. Thanks, I’ve found another one cheaper,” or whatever. I had dropped the price already, which I thought was pretty reasonable. This bench was a $700-$800 unit, retail. I was selling it for $100 bucks. Finally—after some time—my wife says, “Why don’t I see if I can run it through my channels, and maybe we can still get rid of it?” I said, “Great, go ahead.”

Sure enough, we get somebody who wants to buy the bench for her husband. We make arrangements for them to come pick it up. Just an interesting side-note, these people go to our same church on Sundays. That was kind of a weird coincidence. (But, we don’t believe in coincidences, right?)

So they come over, and as they’re hauling it away there’s a concern that maybe they don’t have all of the pieces, or maybe when they do get it home they won’t be able to get it all set up properly. I’m like, “Alright, well, absolutely. Here’s my number. If you can not get it set up properly, give me a call. I’ll come out to your place (a 20 to 25 minute drive) and I will help you put it together.”

A couple days go by. I finally get the text saying, “Yeah, I think there are bolts missing.” I’m like, “All right. Where are the bolts missing?” The husband described the place that we thought maybe bolts were missing. I looked up the operations manual, found the size of the bolts, went to Home Depot, bought the bolts, and then coordinated with him to drive out during a weekday, and help him put this thing together.

In the process of all that I had given him a call at one point. His voicemail said, “Hey, this is Scott, and oh, by the way, this is also the home of Inner City Ministries.” I said, “Well, that’s kind of interesting. I like to talk about God. I’ll file that away. Maybe I’ll ask him about it.”

I’m out at his place now. We’re in his pole barn, setting up this weight-bench. We’re just talking chit-chat. He’s very personable. I ask him, “So, what’s Inner City Ministries about? What’s this ministry thing I heard on your voicemail?” We start talking. He’s telling me that he goes out into the street and witnesses to others about Jesus Christ. I’m like, “Wow, that’s great. That’s awesome. I love that.”

He turns the table then, and asks me where I’m at spiritually. I said, “Yeah, I’ve been going through this spiritual awakening lately. I’m reading things like John Main and doing some Eastern meditation.. reading some St. Teresa of Avila..” and he goes, “What? St. Teresa? You’re the only Christian that I’ve heard of who’s even heard of St. Teresa. What do you know?” I said, “Oh, I love her stuff talking about contemplative prayer, the seven mansions of the spirit, and just that evolution towards God, and going within.” He’s says, “Yeah, that’s right, that’s it.”

What ends up happening next? We have this great sharing of spiritual journeys, and he’s got an amazing story. I’ll let him tell it at some point in the future. I’m not going to steal that thunder.

(It was funny though. I had the suspicion on the drive out to his place like, “Lord, I don’t know, but wouldn’t it be interesting if this guy turns out to be a lifelong friend?” It was an odd thought that crossed the mental landscape and away it went.)

So, by the time we got done talking, both of us had gotten near tears once or twice. It was just an amazing, amazing experience. I drove away shaking because of the evidence of God in my life during that conversation. It was wonderful. I just thought, “Wow God, you are the Great Orchestrator. The way that weight bench sat in my basement for so long, and then finally moved with this family. The issues, and the voice mail, and just the layers of things that had to stack up on top of each other—the thin threads that led me to having this conversation. It’s just amazing.”

It was amazing to me.

Oh, but there’s more. I’m going to stop here though. I have more to tell you about. This story gets even deeper. In my next post, I’ll be talking about regeneration, salvation—all sorts of stuff—you know, like renouncing yoga. Stay tuned.

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Cain killed Abel with a rock. It’s a heart problem; not a gun problem.

Matthew Schoenherr
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Cain killed Abel with a rock. It’s a heart problem; not a gun problem.

A billboard reads “Cain killed Abel with a rock. It’s a heart problem; not a gun problem. Jeremiah 17:9” I first shared this graphic on Facebook on October 3, 2015, after yet another school shooting. What came next was a brief but emotionally-charged conversation over gun control. A polarizing issue; some folks clamor for it while some reject the idea outright.

I say the gun, the bomb, the sword—they’re all just inanimate things with no minds or ill-will of their own. The issue is the intent behind their invention, continued production and use. If there was a true respect for life in humanity, there would be no need or desire for these things to even exist.

Therein lies the “heart problem”.

As I’ve entered a period of regeneration in my Christian walk, I’ve been getting clear on God’s guidance in regards to the hot topics that face our fallen world today. One of the ways I have been doing this has been by plugging into learned teachers of the Christian faith like Greg Bahnsen, Joel McDurmon of American Vision and Jeff Durbin of Apologia Church.

Since I’ve begun voraciously listening to the Apologia Church crew via their Apologia Radio broadcast, I’ve stumbled over a troubling pro-gun, anti-legislation stance that isn’t sitting well with me. I normally really respect the apologetic training and message these folks are producing. Their work has been vital in helping me clarify what I believe and why I believe it. Still, this “biblical” slant on the right to bear arms feels out of place when held up next to what is usually spot-on biblical interpretation. In his October 2015 argument against additional gun legislation, Pastor Jeff returns to one of his primary influencers, Dr. Greg Bahnsen.

During a landmark debate against Dr. James Atwood over the issue of gun control, Dr. Bahnsen attempted to illustrate God’s will for us to protect ourselves according to Scripture. The examples he gives are the following:

Exodus 22:2 – Killing a thief found breaking and entering.
While lethal force is not actually condoned by God here, this passage provides legal advice depending upon whether the thief breaks in during the night or by day.

Judges 15 – The story of Samson killing many Philistines with the jawbone of an ass.
This revenge story seems to be an account of God’s justice being meted out upon the Philistines through Samson’s berserker rage.

Nehemiah 4 – The builders of the wall armed themselves.
A historical account of the steps Nehemiah’s men took to protect themselves as they worked on the wall; not a call to arms by God. Though Nehemiah trusted God would support their efforts, he and his men were still worldly enough to hold fast to their weapons.

Luke 11:21 – “When a strong man, fully armed, keeps his palace; his goods are in peace.”
When taken in full context, this reads a bit differently. The text goes on to say, “But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.” The exegesis here is a reference to Satan being overcome by Christ and being “plundered” of his stolen souls. If anything, Christ is pointing to Satan’s error by trusting in his own power; not telling us we should go out and follow Satan’s self-reliant example.

Luke 22:36 – Where Jesus told His disciples to buy a sword.
Here Jesus is setting the stage for one of his last lessons before his death. Christ does not condone the use of the sword. This is evident when he admonishes the overzealous apostle for cutting off the ear of the high priest’s servant (Luke 22:49-51). Just as certainly as he understands his anointing for burial (Matthew 26:12) and foretells his betrayal (Luke 22:22-23), he obviously foresees the lesson of the sword. This is why he orders the apostles to produce a sword, even if they must sell their cloak and buy one (Luke 22:36). When they offer two, his response is, “It is enough.”

So, I don’t agree with Bahnsen and I don’t agree with Durbin and company. I don’t believe God ever redacted that pesky sixth commandment “Thou shall not kill” (Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 5:17). When the Israelites were led out of Egypt, did you ever notice it was God that doled out the justice? Not once was an Israelite citizen commanded to pick up a weapon and smite their enemy. I believe Scripture when I read:

For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. (1 John 3:11-15)

If we stop a moment and mentally follow the time-tested litmus test of WWJD (What Would Jesus Do), I hope it becomes obvious to us Christ wouldn’t be walking the Earth today carrying a concealed pistol. And if we truly believe he is the Truth, the Way and the Life, we know it is his example we are to chase and emulate; not an apostle’s, not Nehemiah’s, not Samson’s, nor that of anyone standing behind a microphone today.

Christ’s example to us was one of shocking love and meek sacrifice to sinners; not self-defense or self-reliance. Even as he prayed in the garden, his words were “Not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42) If it is God’s will you be attacked in the dead of night, may I offer what is likely to be a grossly unpopular response to this?

God has allowed this to happen.

If we truly believe in God’s omniscience and omnipotence, that not a molecule in the universe is out of place; and if we truly believe in his protection and plan for us, we cannot doubt that either

  1. we will be spared of any wrongdoing through the most elegant, divinely-orchestrated serendipity, or that
  2. God intends to use our purgation in a redemptive, meaningful way, or finally
  3. we’ve earned God’s wrath.

Lest we forget, we are not our own but His alone.

So, is deeper legislation the answer? Well, from a world-centered point of view, it may be a step in the right direction (depending upon the legislation, of course.) Through ensuring the right to bear arms, the founding fathers intended to keep a level playing field between the people and a wayward government or invading force. There is no way they could have foreseen the advances in warfare, technology and moral decline we’ve come to enjoy today. Still, this is man’s self-made law; not God’s.

So, is legislation the answer? It’s an aspirin to a headache. It treats the symptom, but it does little to address the underlying cause.

Yes, I agree tougher controls and legislation are needed in the short-term. Curiously, I’ve seen folks in this discussion make the leap to compare men and their guns with women and abortions (which is ennobled as ‘health care’).

(Retrieved from http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/uncategorized/epic-response-to-treating-abortion-like-gun-control.)
(Retrieved from http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/uncategorized/epic-response-to-treating-abortion-like-gun-control.)

There have been over 54,000,000 abortions in the US since it was legalized 1973. (For perspective, the WWII Holocaust killed over 11,000,000.) While gun control is definitely an issue, crazed assault weapon owners haven’t even scratched the paint in taking this many innocent lives.

I see both issues as ‘heart’ issues. Both gun control and abortion could be removed from the table completely if humanity’s heart was in the right place. The fact we mass-produce killing machines and glamorize violence in our entertainment and media is indicative of the same heart sickness we suffer when we fail to recognize the value of human life in utero.

If we, as God’s people, held a true respect for life, guns and other instruments of warfare would be reduced to relics in a museum; dusty reminders of a medieval mindset that took way too long to dry up and blow away.

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This conversation on self-defense and violence is continued in the post Christian Martial Arts? The Biblical Case Against Self-Defense.

Common Problems on Church Websites

Matthew Schoenherr
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0
Common Problems on Church Websites

Church websites are often underfunded. While not surprising–as most are are non-profits–this underfunding often leads to ugly websites. No one likes an ugly website. The enigmatic, ubiquitous “they” say the first couple seconds someone visits your site determines whether or not they’ll decide to stick around. If your church website is not compelling, don’t expect anyone to stay for long. Home-grown church websites have a tendency of falling into the following traps:

1. The Christian colors

Although the pastel collection of Easter colors are beautiful in what they represent, using them all at once on your website may not result in the look you’re going for. Websites like this usually end up looking outdated and just plain tacky, so we would recommend avoiding them on your church website. Try using subtle color combinations that are warm and welcoming. Reds, browns, and creams are good examples.

2. Let’s talk about your pictures

Many ministries try to expand their photos, adjusting them for the website. This often times makes them warped and stretched. Be sure to get some quality staff photos uploaded. This will help you be more relatable to your website visitors. And speaking of images…

3. Seeing double

Lots of ministries grab stock photos for their websites. This is a great temporary solution but don’t keep the photos up longer than needed. It’s important to accurately represent the church. People that know your faces are more likely to visit the building.

4. Everything plus the kitchen sink

It’s great to have a website filled with content (Google loves that,) but there are exceptions. All your content shouldn’t be on a single page, otherwise you’re coming on a little strong. Make sure to spread things out a little bit so when someone visits your page they don’t have such a full plate.

Having a website is very important but it’s almost better to have no church website at all than to feature an ugly one.

Levaire offers church web design (including other nonprofit and faith-based organizations)

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Are you a Christian church or faith-based organization? Our mission is to advance the Kingdom of God by leveraging our skills, talents and abilities. You be our boots on the ground and we’ll help you take more ground.

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Loving God Versus Loving God’s Gifts

Matthew Schoenherr
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Loving God Versus Loving God’s Gifts

Let’s talk about loving God and loving God’s gifts.

Now this is something I am really still struggling with a lot. Let me set some stage here.

I was talking with a good friend of mine recently and he was talking about how he didn’t want to go to a prayer group because he felt like his concept of God was wildly different from the more conventional Christian mindset. He gave an example where one of his friends in that worship group made a reference to adultery or sex. The friend said that absolutely he shouldn’t be coveting his neighbor’s wife but by all means he should be able to go home and make sweet love to his wife as much as he wants.

On one level you can say, “Well, sure. That’s in accordance with the commandment of not coveting another’s property or another’s spouse or anybody else’s relationships.” That’s all good.

God Versus God’s Gifts

But I think if you take it a little bit further, we have a tendency as humans of gravitating towards the physical. The physical: All of the stuff that we have around us—our cars, our homes, our clothing, our jobs, our friends, our social circles—the things we possess. Even our bodies—our physical appearances.

It’s all God’s gifts, right? You’ve got God, the Giver, the Creator and you have God’s gifts. I don’t know many folks who aren’t in this trap already, a daily trap of being fixated on God’s gifts.

We may occasionally be thankful for God’s gifts. We may occasionally show gratitude for God’s gifts. But usually we’re concerned about losing God’s gifts or we’re praying to God for more gifts. “Lord, please help me with my car because it’s making new sounds,” or “God help me out with a better job, a higher paying job, more responsibility, less responsibility.” “Help me out with my spouse. We’re fighting all the time.” “Help me out with my kids. Make them more harmonious,” or “Help me to put some more jeans in the wardrobe.” Whatever.

First, God is not Santa Claus, right? We can agree to that. God is not Santa Claus.

But then, two, are we loving God or are we loving God’s gifts?

I think for me, this was a recent revelation. I’ve been eyeing cars. I think my car is about to fail (maybe.) It’s making new sounds and it’s an older car. A while ago, I was listening to some Dave Ramsey material. If you don’t know who Dave Ramsey is, he’s a financial expert. Through the results of one of his talks, I said, “All right, Lord. This information’s coming in. I need to probably adopt it. I’m going to sell my Jeep Grand Cherokee.” I loved the vehicle; I loved it, loved it, loved it. But I was paying over $300 a month for it and that was not so acceptable, so I took the information that had come to me and I put it into action. I ended up selling the Jeep. I was a little heartbroken about that, but with the proceeds from selling the Jeep, I was able to go out and pay cash for my next car; an older Toyota Camry. I bought it with 171,000 miles on it.

Well, now it’s got almost a quarter million miles on it and it’s making sounds and the struts are gone. The car is only worth about $2,000 but struts will cost about $1,700 and now it’s making some brake noises. You start shopping. You think, “Ooh, that car looks good,” and “Oh, that might be a nice car.”

You Are Not Your Belongings

We fixate on other people, we fixate on other things, and so much of it comes from identifying with the body as being us. We think that this fleshy vehicle that we use to maneuver through our day is us. It’s not us. We are souls. We are not bodies. If you cut off an arm, are you still you? Yeah. You’re still you. Your body has one less arm. That’s it.

An outgrowth of being fixated on our bodies is being fixated on other people’s bodies, it’s being fixated on things to cover our bodies, it’s being fixated on our comfort, it’s being fixated on our appearance; all of these things—our homes, our cars, our clothing, our people—it’s all God’s gifts to us. We live in this experience. We surround ourselves, we collect, we amass these collections of stuff and it separates us from God. We start to fixate. I think this is why Christ says, “It is easier for a rich man to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven.” It’s because we’re fixated on all this stuff that we surround ourselves with.

“And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! …how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:23-25)

If you’re fixated on all of the material around you, where does that leave room for God?

What Is Your #1 Priority?

It is only by reducing our attachment to our stuff—to our bodies, to our clothing, to our relationships—who is the most primary relationship in your life? Most of you will probably say spouse. Many of you may say kids. You may say parents. You may say best friends. Ideally we would say God, but how much time do we spend with God as opposed to everybody else? Well therein lays your priorities, right? If God is your priority, what are you doing to close the gap between you and your Creator? What are you doing to clear away the clutter in your life in order to make more time for pursuit of God? Because guess what folks? We are intended to seek God. There’s over 40 references in the Bible to seeking God. It is not enough to be born again and to relax and rest and say, “Christ died on the cross for me. I’m forgiven. I’m done. I’m good. I belong to the club.” It’s not enough.

Begin Paring Back

If you are seeking God—if you’re seeking to close the gap between God and you, by continually diving into scripture, by meditating, by praying, by acts of service to fellow man and womankind—one of the other things I would suggest is to cut back on things that take up your time, things that take up your resources, things that separate you from God mentally and physically.

That’s my message today: Are you loving God or are you loving God’s gifts?

Are you in love with God’s gifts? Are you in love with the life that you have wrapped around yourself, the live you have accumulated for yourself? Yeah, you can say, “God’s given me everything and I’m really thankful.” Okay, but why do you do what you do? Is it to sustain the accumulation that you’ve brought to yourself or is it to honor and point others to God?

That’s the challenge. That’s what I’m struggling with. I would love an Audi A7. I would love a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. I would love to infuse more clothes into my wardrobe. I would love to take my family on more trips. I would love to do things to our home like new paint here or different maintenance things. Oh, goodness. You know, more vacations, more free time, more just more, more, more, more, more.

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (riches).” (Matthew 6:24)

When is it enough? Recently, I have found the most peace I’ve experienced in years in chasing after God. I have spent years on seeking to build businesses and build communities and do all this stuff and it’s all been about making a dollar, improving my own personal income, therefore my own household’s income and therefore quality of life. More comfort, more options.

None of that really reflects on being in it to win it for God.

The Meaning of Life Discovered

Over the past year, it’s been a real shedding process of getting things out, whittling down businesses, cutting off worldly business efforts and rechambering for God, really getting in and reassessing where I’m spending my time, where I’m spending my money and beginning to focus more on studying scripture, studying supporting documentation and even getting to the place now where I’m thinking of getting into a pastoral certificate or something along those lines. Just something, some work to get me closer to God. I’m doing lots of studying right now. Most of my evenings these days are turning away from supporting clients and money-making activities and is leaning more into garnering more of an understanding about God and creation and our purpose in it, which I’m coming more and more to believe, our purpose in this is to cleave to God.

That’s it. That is our game in this environment that we’ve placed ourselves. It is our responsibility. Our primary directive is to cleave to God.

That’s it. It’s that easy.

Why are we here? That’s the answer to life: To cleave to God.

All right folks. This is enough for now. This is Matt Schoenherr. If you’ve got any questions or comments or goodness, I would love to hear from you, so if you feel like you would bless me with your opinion, place some comments and open up the dialogue. I would love to talk with you about your thoughts on this post or any of my other posts. Let’s have a dialogue. That’s how we bring benefit to the world is by sharing our journey, sharing our experience.

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