Monthly Archives: July 2024

Sick Day

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Sick Day

I’ve been sick and off work recently and one of the most frustrating parts about it is seeing all I could be getting done, having time to do it, but not having the ability. I simply do not have the strength.

It fosters an anxiety that I’m falling further and further behind to a point where I will be eventually left.

You know what this is also true for?

Poverty.

Because poverty is a disease. It’s a disease that’s commonly accompanied with other co-morbidities such as depression, anxiety, hypertension and substance abuse.

The very definition of co-morbidities indicate that these accompanying conditions worsen and make it harder to manage the primary condition: poverty.

So, I try to keep that in mind before assuming people are in a particular situation because they lack initiative or because “they’re not doing anything”.

Like me, I’m sure they’d be happy to do the things that they readily see and already know to do to improve their situation, but struggle to do because of the disease.

And before someone compares the poverty in some random place like Slovenia to the poverty here in America, and how their poor people behave, don’t perpetrate the same level of crime, blah, blah, blah, let me add that hunger in a place stricken by indiscriminate famine is vastly different from hunger in a place where food is abundant but not equally accessible. Hunger hits differently when someone’s eating in your face.

I believe a critical step in the right direction is to stop judging and demonizing people in poverty. That only makes the condition more debilitating.

I believe the extra mile toward healing is helping the sick with what they’re trying to do but just lack the strength to do.

I can speak to its effectiveness because it’s what someone did for me to help me heal.

52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #30 – Church

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com -

In Week 30 of 52 Weeks Of Gratefulness, I give thanks to God for safe places with authentic believers in Christ where the more sin I share the more I am loved.

They make 1 Peter 4:8 real to me, “love will cover a multitude of sins”

I don’t have to pretend.

I don’t have to be perfect to be loved, I am perfected by being loved.

This is not love that excuses wrongdoing but love that both warms my heart (affirms me) and burns away sin (holds me accountable).

I’m eternally grateful. #52WoG

This Is Not Church

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - This Is Not Church

These are not churches.

These are businesses.

They are places where you can buy justification, where an organization certifies that you’re a good person.

In exchange for your money, some spare time and the legitimacy that you lend to the organization, you get justification so that you can continue your worldly life, pursuing dead and worthless things, but with a certification that allows you to do it in God’s name. #industrialchurch

The authentic church is the church Jesus established made up of His disciples who believe, love, walk with and obey Him as the Christ, who do so at the expense of everything, whose obedience is evidenced by their going out and gathering in with the Master for communion —a coming together characterized by Love —a One-ification with God through Christ to the ever increasing glory of God.

Therefore let us be disciples, make disciples, seek each other out for communion, abiding in His love, assembling ourselves over food and drink in celebration of the breaking of His body and the shedding of His blood to make us One, endeavoring to keep the unity purchased by His blood, fighting toward each other, encouraging each other every day until that great day when we shall see our King face-to-face, the One whom our hearts adore, and drink it new with Him in the Kingdom of God.

That’s church.

Tough Love

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Tough Love

One dollar and twenty-five cents in quarters is all that I have. I take a deep, quivering breath, pick up the handset and feed the coins into the payphone at the corner of the gas station that would later become Strange Brew coffee house.

I push dial the number to call home to Jackson, Mississippi. The first ring lasts for an eternity. Mom answers. We exchange pleasantries and I nervously ask, “May I to speak to Dad?”

I’m starving. My head hurts, I’m so hungry. Then I hear the rustle of the phone exchanging hands.

“Hey Dad. I’m out of food. Can you send me some money for groceries?” The question hangs in the air a bit before my father calmly replies, “Welcome to the real world, son.” Click.

When I was younger, I shared that story to make my father out to be a villain. The hearer would often respond, “How awful. That’s cruel.” But, what they didn’t know was, at that time, I was living lasciviously, wastefully and in rebellion. Nobody could tell me anything. I did as I pleased and my situation was the consequence.

What is clear now that I didn’t see then, was that my dad’s objective for me was to choose a good and productive path. And before I could do that, I had to see for myself what a worthless and destructive path I was on. I had to come to a place where I recognized that my lifestyle, which seemed good (fun and pleasurable) at the time, was not good. I had to see that my choices were producing outcomes I really did not want. In the words of scripture, “I had to come to the end of myself,” (Luke 15:16-17). I had to realize there was a better way. I’ve been seeking it ever since.

There was no greater kindness than for my father to allow me to be confronted with my error rather than help me continue in something that would hurt me. Love “does no harm” and does not always look like hugs and kisses.

Originally posted by Paul Luckett to Facebook here.

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Our Fights Reveal What We’re Really Seeking First

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Our Fights Reveal What We're Really Seeking First

You can tell what we are truly “seeking first” by what we fight for and what we fight against.

The world seeks commodities. (Matthew 6:32)
They fight for “all these things”: food, shelter, clothing.
They fight against losing what they perceive as theirs or against others gaining more.

The children of God seek the Kingdom. (Matthew 6:33)
They fight for communion.
They fight against what hinders communion (2 Corinthians 10:4-6): those things that work to separate the family of God, including the Father and His lost children —sheep that are not yet of this fold (John 10:16).

I must pay attention to what I get defensive about and what I fight for (James 4:1-5). It will reveal what spirit I’m really of, whether I’m of the world or whether I’m a child of God, not as a condemnation but as an opportunity for correction -so that I can repent and turn from my way, or the world’s way, to Him (James 4:6-7).

If I were seeking first the kingdom of God, I would be fighting for communion with the beloved in God through Christ.

What do the reasons I fight tell me about what I’m truly seeking first and how I need to correct course?

If I Keep Sinning, Am I Really Saved?

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - If I Keep Sinning Am I Really Saved?

If I keep messing up, am I really saved?

Are you familiar with those challenges during a basketball game where if you make a shot from mid-court you’ll win a car, $100,000 or something like that?

Now imagine that instead of being awarded if you make the shot, that you die if you miss it.

Missing the mark is exactly what sin is, and killing us is exactly what sin does.

“the wages of sin is death” — Romans 6:23

It is important to understand that death is primarily a result of sin, not a punishment.

God’s desire is for us to live, not to die and He created us for this very purpose.

God is not lurking around every corner waiting for us to mess up so that He can punish us. We see in Christ that this is contrary to God’s very nature because Jesus, who is the Christ, proclaims, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” — John 10:10

Death is a natural outcome of sin because sin is missing the mark and the mark is God. It’s like a branch being separated from the vine, or if our planet were no longer in view of the sun -eventually, all processes of life would cease and everything would die.

Life is abiding in God.
Death is separation from God.

But God, desiring that we live and not die, sent His only begotten Son, Jesus. “His only begotten Son” means Jesus is the only direct and unmediated expression of God. He was sent so that the offense would be removed and the mark would be met, connecting us with God.

“In these last days [God has] spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person”
— Hebrews 1:1-3

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”
— John 3:16

Just as a man, Adam, missed the mark (sinned) and plunged everything in his dominion into death, the man Jesus made the mark (abides), tipped (more like flipped) the scales in our favor satisfying the debt of sin through His death, removed the offense (stumbling blocks – “lies block love”) by declaring the truth, and came as a King establishing the Kingdom of God that is taking by force everything that was sold under sin (redemption) -establishing an everlasting kingdom that we receive when we believe and that grants us access to God, resulting in everlasting life. This kingdom, with Christ as King, is advancing until everything that opposes Him is put under His feet to the end that Christ will present the subdued creation to the Father that everything will forever bask in God’s life-giving presence to His ever increasing glory.

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”
— Romans 5:19

“Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. … Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:24

“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.

And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious.”
— Isaiah 11:9-10

Jesus makes the mark so that we can be with God.

Not only that, He’s made it so that we can also make the mark without fear of failure, completely destroying the threat of death through His resurrection.

“But [our salvation] has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel”
— 2 Timothy 1:10

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit”
— Romans 8:1

To return to our basketball analogy, what Jesus has done for us is removed any risk of failure because He’s made the shot in our stead. In doing so, He’s removed all fear. Now we can just focus on becoming as great as He is.

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”
— 1 John 4:18

“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.”
— 1 John 4:17

So, to the original question, “If I keep messing up, am I really saved?”

Messing up -sin, is not necessarily an indication that there’s a question about my salvation.

We mess up because there’s stumbling blocks in our lives (pre-existing and those that are continually being put in our way) which are lies that block God’s love.

Everyone has sin (1 John 1:8) -the saved and lost alike.

However, God gives the saved capacity through the manifold grace of His Word, the revelation of Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit and His church, to discern these cancerous areas of rebellion in our lives, to confess them and to be healed of them. These are the weapons of our warfare to advance the Kingdom of God, starting in our own hearts.

Conviction, the very awareness of “messing up”, is a good indication of my salvation!

The key distinction of someone who is truly saved, returning again to our basketball analogy, is that they want to make the shot.

Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, is known for his exceptional scoring ability. He is also widely known for the sheer number of shots that he has missed. But despite missing over 9000 shots in his career, what we can be sure of is that he took each shot wanting to make every single one because he has a heart of a champion that wants to win.

Those who are born of God, as a new creature, have a new heart that desires excellence because He is excellent.

So, though we may mess up and miss the mark at times, those who are saved aren’t frivolous about it.

We don’t carelessly throw up the ball. We don’t foolishly throw it into the stands.

We want to make the shot.

But if Jesus already made the shot, why would I even bother shooting at all?

Because, making the shot -living as Christ lived, abiding in God’s love and being governed by it, brings God glory, and like Jesus, there’s nothing that authentic children of God want more.

Every time we take to the court, we want to contribute, increasing the glory of His already glorious victory. And when we have a bad game, we submit to the necessary practice and gym time to work out our bad form.

The aim is development, to be more and more perfectly aligned to Christ so that His life: His purposes, His power and His production shines through.

“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
— Romans 8:11

This is a work that God does in us, that when we submit to it, we can’t miss.

“for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
— Philippians 2:13

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”
— 2 Corinthians 2:14

So, the test of my salvation isn’t whether I mess up, it’s whether I want to make the shot.

Because of His life in me, I want to.

And because He makes it possible, I can

without fear.

Thank you, Jesus.