Ariel Castro was arrested on May 6, 2013, shortly after the women were freed. On May 8, Castro was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape, charges that carry prison sentences of 10 years to life. And then a CNN alert came on my phone letting me know Castro’s bail was set at $8 million. Allegedly there are even more additional charges pending, including aggravated murder (for terminating the pregnancies), attempted murder, assault, a charge for each instance of rape, and a kidnapping charge for each day each victim was held captive. 

When I watch the video, I was crying laughing. As I’ve read the back story, my heart breaks for these girls. From tears of laughter to tears of sorrow, I just sit back and am in awe of how God can use anybody. After 10 years of HORRIBLE experiences, I’m sure the rescuer these girls dreamed of was not Charles Ramsey, but then again, wouldn’t you accept anybody to rescue you. I have to wonder what unlikely characters may be present in my life that I look past because they didn’t come wrapped in the package I normally look for.

And lastly, I look at the life of Ariel Castro. If I’m honest, I can’t help but rank myself amongst sinners. I mean… I’ve got a long laundry list of sins, but reading the second paragraph of this post makes me feel like I’m doing ok. And to watch our government put a PRICE on what would set this man free at $8 million I thought, “Who would care about this guy enough to drop that kind of cash on him?”. Only one guy, one God that would do that. Jesus. And it’s at this point that I realize that the wages of my own sin cost much more than $8 million. I deserved hell, and it’s a reality I need to embrace everyday.

I came across this video the other night and it made me smile, but also convicted me. The next day I drove past a Men’s Wearhouse and I thought, “I wonder who could be in there now?“.

Is your life built upon the idea that if you just play your part as best you can to make church awesome, then lost people will come? Or is this something in you that drives you to go find them? Is the goal to be like Bishop Jakes or fill in the blank with whoever is doing it “big” in your world, or is the goal to be like this lady who was just passionate about not letting one more person walk away from God?

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?” – Jesus.

I read the above and think, “That’s what a friend does.” That’s not what a Facebook friend does. That’s what real friends do. They help each other find strength in the Lord especially when they’re in a desert. You’re reading this right now and I bet you know at least one person who’s just in a dry place searching for God knows what. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

I’m challenged to be more than the average friend. Yes, let’s hang out, let’s laugh, let’s eat, let’s shop, let’s hoop, but could it be that I’m friends with the people I’m friends with right now for a reason? Could it be that God strategically placed them in my life and I in theirs for a reason? Come on. We’re better than we’ve been. We’re not meant to be just friends. We’re meant to come alongside each other and strengthen one another in the Lord to help them fulfill the mission that God has placed on their life.

I heard Bishop Jakes say, “Never give your stage to the devil.” He was referring to being very cautious about what outside issues you address in church and which ones you do not. When I think of discouragement, I think of a person’s mind being a stage, it’s open mic there, and the enemy is going to town. “You’re too young, you don’t have enough experience, you don’t enough swag, you’re too radical, you’re not unique and people want unique, you’re good but not great.” And here’s the deal, every single time you read the Bible, it’s like you’re giving God the mic on a stage in your head. 

Stop giving your enemy a mic in your head. It’s dumb. He doesn’t belong on that stage.

It just challenged my leadership on two levels:

1.)  To be where I’m suppose to be… when I’m suppose to be there. As the author sets up this story, is he telling us that David had a lust issue, or a placement issue? Or did he feel entitled to Kingship so much that he didn’t need to go to war? Had he killed enough and had so much confidence in his army that he thought they didn’t need him? I have no idea, but I simply can’t be afraid to ask myself hard questions about my own leadership and placement. The lack thereof only leads to disaster.

2.)  To fight more. There’s a season where kings go to war. There’s times where, as a leader, it’s not about giving the most eloquent, clear, and concise orders that make your followers melt in loyalty to your vision and instructions. At some point, people need to see a sword in your hand to keep them believing in the vision. Sometimes when we achieve great success, we live under the notion that our success merits more money, stature, fame, and… less grunt work, less fighting. Kings go to war.

That’s what I had to preach to myself after verse 1. What do you guys think about the Bible series? I loved the black Samson with dreads.

The second school of thought grades one’s spiritual improvement by: 1.) Their community. (small groups or life groups are key here. “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future”) 2.) Their philanthropy. (how much of their money & time they give to causes, responding to natural disasters, involvement in city programs and community engagement is critical here)

It’s a shame that these schools of thought have opposed each other for years, but I’m beginning to see a new school that has a balance of both. I don’t think you can make your bed in either school and boast about anything you’ve done. “Pentecostals” have way too often found themselves inside the doors of the church expecting lost people to want to come in. And “non-denoms” have way too long found themselves outside the doors of the church at ground zero of some lost people’s hurt and pain with no spiritual potency to actually do anything about their hurt and their pain. It’s almost become bragging rights to simply be around lost people.

You could provide scriptures to support whatever it is you want to do, but no matter who you are, we all could use a little balance one way or the other.

Mary Gillerstad.

Andy and Louie (pictured left) have been good friends since middle school, and I just have to imagine what it must have been like for Mary Gillerstad. As 60,000 college students pack the Georgia Dome to worship the God of the universe for 3 days (led by Louie Giglio) and as 25,000 people come through North Point’s campuses every weekend (led by Andy Stanley), one must conclude that you simply never know who you’re pouring into. It had to have been rewarding for Louie and Andy to bring Mary on stage last night to simply honor her. Louie said, “She always believed in us.” What a simple statement that is perhaps token and tossed around as if it weren’t often true, but when it is true, I guess you just never know what can happen.

I hope I can be like Mary Gillerstad. I hope that when people share their dreams and visions with me, that I’d be a person that believes the best for people. They already have enough haters to do all the other stuff.

What do you think?

I’ve just decided that the conversation I want to have with people close to me for these first couple of weeks isn’t about merely sharing what we’d like to be better at, but shifting the paradigm to how we might be able to help each other achieve those goals. The biggest mistake you can make with making New Year’s resolution… is thinking you can achieve them on your own. We desperately need our Jesus and we desperately need each other.

Is it your church home because you work there? As we grow up the variables change even more. The question goes from, “Is this the church for me?”… to… “Is this the church for my family?”

I’ve never been homeless, but I’d imagine that it would suck pretty bad. And I’d think that there’s some people out there that, perhaps, feel church homeless and maybe they walk through the doors of my church and yours this coming Sunday. And I just hope that we’re not trying to sell them on our pastor, our worship team, or our creativity. I would hope for two things: that we expose them to as much Jesus as we possibly can, and that we make them feel at home.

Whether they “join the church” or “become members”… is irrelevant, but my prayer is that we could be a people that would bring people in close to where they feel like they’re family whether they come once or they become regulars.

You’ve got two options: 1.) Believe Satan. 2.) Believe God.

Everything you say today is in agreement with one or the other. And when it comes to our conversations with other people, it’s not our job to bring people back down to earth OR to puff them up to believe unrealistic things about themselves. Our job is to find out what God has told them… About them… And encourage that. It might even cost us a little prayer.

Believe the God who sent Himself for you. Satan has never done anything to deserve believing him.