Dug Down Deep

So yeah this is a blog about crazy ramblings, musings on God's love, character, and nature, and just a way to share my poems and for me to get my thoughts on 'paper'. However, this blog is also about a journey. A journey we are all taking, whether you are a Christian or not, we are all going to end up at one place sometime, a judgment. Where God is going to 'put us on the stand'. Sad news. Bad news. We are all going to be found guilty.
Why?
Because God is the judge.
God's law is the jury.
We broke it.
All of us.
In one way or another.
Therefore we broke it all.
For some of us, Jesus is going to stand up and say, "That debt has been paid."
I can imagine Satan being there, after all he's been there before, remember Job?
And I can just imagine him yelling, 'Oh hold on Jesus... remember..." and then Jesus pulling out his hands and showing the scars of the cross, pulling up his bangs and showing the marks of the crown of thorns, lifting up his shirt (or robe) and showing the stab wound in his side, and then opening up the Lamb's Book of life and showing my name, your name... or maybe no name.

The most important decision, we will ever, can ever, make is to accept Christ, and assure that our name is in that book.
Christians for a long time, and perhaps it's because of the rise of televangelists, have all believed that if you say a prayer and talk to the ceiling saying yes to Jesus, that that is it.
You're SAVED!
Maybe it's the culture, the world, the lure of sin. Either way we liked the feeling of 'Hey, that's it, I'm saved. The devil can't touch me now!'
What we fail to remember, or maybe even realize is that the devil tempted Jesus, and Jesus was, well, God. He's as anti-Satan as you can get. But even more: Sin is still flourishing within us. In a battle of Flesh vs. 'Jesus in my heart and that's it Christianity' The flesh seems to always prevail. Sin still wins. Oh, but we're saved, right?
Maybe. But where's the change? Where's the new life? Where is Jesus in your life? Where was Jesus in my life?
The simple one prayer fix all idea is disastrous, because Jesus wants to be LORD, as He rightly should be, as He rightly is. He isn't our magic genie in a bottle.

I have to ask when did Jesus ever talk about praying a simple prayer, to 'ask Jesus into your heart'?
Actually, I remember Jesus talking a lot about repentance. I remember Jesus telling us to... follow Him. (That requires a bit of a change of lifestyle, it did for fishermen and tax collectors... I'd say things haven't changed.)
What has happened?
Well I blame it on surface, or sand living.
To add one more thing: I remember Jesus telling a lot of stories too.
There's one story I want to draw attention to, mostly because of a book I read last year.
It's entitled Dug Down Deep, and it's by one of my favorite authors/ pastors, named Joshua Harris.
I was introduced to Pastor Josh by a friend who mentioned a book about courtship, called Boy Meets Girl, another one of his books, and just his writing style, the way he organized the story, the message,  the I don't know, it just struck me. You could tell just by reading the words he wrote that he wanted to do whatever it took to get his life in line with God's perfect plan, even to the point to stop dating. I wanted to hear what else this guy had to say.
So after reading about Courtship, which will probably be a topic to discuss at a later date, I bought Dug Down Deep and I began to read. Not realizing what roller coaster ticket I just received. Not realizing that this was literally going to be a 'groundbreaking' experience for my faith.

The premise of the book is based off of one question:

What are you going to build your life on?

It's a slight autobiography of his life, his journey of 'unearthing what I believe and why it matters'.
He talks about the wise and foolish builders. I, like him could relate to hearing this story so many times. He says, "I've read it so many times that I almost don't read it anymore when I come across it in the Gospels. I skim it. I gulp down three sentences at a time because I already know what they say." (pg. 18)

I just assumed that I was a 'rock person' for the many years that I was a 'Christian'. I mean I had asked Jesus into my heart, I went to church, I dressed up for Easter and Christmas. I knew the Sunday School stories backwards and forwards... but I never let them sink in. I never dug down deep and laid my foundation.
Why did Jesus use stories?

Why this story?
Was it just to point out that being a Christian was better than being a non-Christian? Well, yes. As he explained, '...I suppose on a very rudimentary level, that is what it means. But I never thought about the specifics of what digging down to rock represents.'
The book goes on to explain the parable and how it truly began to impact his life as he learned to take up his shovel and dig down deep into the rock. After all the wise man dug down deep into the rock before building his house... and Jesus explains that this digging represents listening to His words and putting them into practice. The book was written to help others to understand what beliefs matter, and why. What grace really means to a person who can see how far off we humans can get.
I love the book because of the honest nature of Pastor Joshua Harris, we begin to connect with him on his journey, and really that's what the church is all about: Connecting with each other as we connect to Christ.
Breaking bread. Opening up. Letting our walls fall down. Binding our story to another person's story, realizing we aren't alone in our struggles, our misunderstandings, our failures, our questions, our doubts, our musings and ramblings.
But the question still stands, What will you build your life on?
Doing what your Lord requires of you? To act justly, love mercy, walk humbly before Him? To Love Him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength? To Love your neighbor as yourself? (Yes that even means the grumpy guy across the street, the gal who orders 20 coffees just in front of you while waiting at Starbucks, the coworker who is after your job, and the annoying little sister who is just looking for new ways to torture you.)
OR
We can carry on with our lives, desperately desiring the newest item that the world says we must have. Saying, "Lord, Lord!" But not living new. Not being reborn. Not living in repentance. Not putting Jesus' words into practice. Surface level living... where the waves and the storms of life can crash into us...our beautiful treasures, our amazing new technologically, top of the line advanced things, our sins, our desires, our impatience... and you know, sometimes we won't even realize it.
I'd like to close out with just a few quotes from the book that were my favorites, not in any particular order:

“God isn’t a bigger, better version of me.”

“Jesus Christ is the most famous, most powerful, most controversial and revolutionary figure in all human history. And he has promised to return.”

“We’re all theologians. The question is whether what we know about God is true.”

“Big doesn’t equal deep.”

“Any attitude that causes us either to add to our Bibles or edit our Bibles and live in reaction to someone besides God is unhealthy.”

“We’re either building our lives on the reality of what God is truly like and what he’s about, or we’re basing our lives on our own imagination and misconceptions.”

“How we relate to Scripture reveals how we view God himself.”

“Many Christians are more interested in chasing a feeling about Jesus than pursuing Jesus himself and reviewing and thinking about the truth of who he is.”

“The Cross wasn’t the tragic upending of Jesus’ plan; it was the fulfillment of his plan.”

“It’s not enough that we simply know truth. God wants us to feel it, to believe it, and to apprehend it in the deepest, most personal way.”

“If I love the Cross only for what it does for me, I will have reduced it to a monument to myself.”

“The Bible is both doctrine and narrative. It not only presents us with true principles and propositions, but also uses the power of story to show us how God works and acts in human history.”

“I think that a lot of Christians look around, see the diversity of standards, and assume that since nobody agrees, maybe it doesn’t really matter. So they do whatever works for them. Sadly, few check in with God.”

"Here's what deflates my arrogance faster than anything else: trying to live the truth that I have."


I'd encourage everyone to at least check out the book, it's not life changing as the Bible is, but it's a story of how getting into the Bible, digging down deep into it, can change lives. It's certainly helped me to pick up my shovel.