This is our son Roman (he’s going to kill me).

Originally posted on Facebook on Thursday, May 5, 2022.

This is our son Roman (he's going to kill me).

I told him the budget for his car and that anything extra he'd have to pay. He started applying for jobs the very next day. He's already earned $500 dollars. And, now he's looking for another job!

I am posting this in case any of my Starkville friends can help him out.

The kid is driven:

He wanted a gaming computer. He saved for a year, bought the components and built it himself.

He wants to join the Air Force and heard they fancy Cross Country athletes. He joined the Cross Country team and has run for three years.

He wanted to go to The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science. He initiated and completed the application process by himself.

He wants to graduate the Air Force Academy ready to buy a house. He saved $1000, met with Barbara Runnels Coats and opened a mutual fund at 13 years old.

I could go on…

Roman is putting in applications all over the place, but if any of our friends in Starkville are hiring or know of any opportunities for a smart, respectful and driven young man, we'd be grateful if you pass them along. He's ready to start immediately. Please feel free to message me or Melissa Luckett.

His resume can be viewed at the link below:
https://bit.ly/3P32ICs

52 Weeks of Gratefulness #16 – Fruitful Words From A Friend

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com Thankful For Fruitful Words From Josh T Taylor

In Week 16 of 52 Weeks of Gratefulness, I give thanks for a fruitful word from a friend, Josh “T” Taylor.

I want to advance the Kingdom of God.

But, how we imagine the Kingdom and what it actually is are often starkly different.

It is easy for us to be deceived by appearances, to busy ourselves with religious activities, to feel affirmed by big crowds and large projects, but all the while having done nothing for the Kingdom. (Matthew 7:21-27)

I have struggled with wanting to do something “big” and feeling like I’m not doing enough… that is, until my brother, Josh “T” Taylor, shared a word that has been setting me free.

“T” and I attend a marriage ministry together. It is a small group but it is very rich.

One day, we were talking about the role our marriages play in the Kingdom by glorifying God in how we as husbands and wives reflect Christ’s love.

In that moment “T” pivoted and said something that completely shifted my view of ministry. He was sharing water that he had received elsewhere but it was particularly refreshing to me because it was filtered through his sincerity, his love for me and his applying it in his own life.

He said, “The Kingdom of God advances at the speed of relationships.”

That word immediately affirmed itself. My heart was set on fire as much by the messenger as by the message.

It was illuminating. It revealed, among many things, how I often get distracted seeking outcomes while God seeks hearts. And, we reach those hearts, not by large, flashy ministries but by Spirit-filled, sacrificial, longsuffering love for people as they come to us, which is most often one at a time.

I repent. Not my will Father, but Your will be done. (John 6:38)

This word from a friend and dear brother has been a great ministry to me. I will go forward in service to the Father, seeking to be faithful with whatever He places in my charge -one talent or five, and trust God with the rest.

Thank you “T”. I love you.

I’m grateful. #52WoG

The Real Enemy

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com The Real Enemy

The threat to the church or to my effectiveness as a kingdom citizen is not systemic racism, wokeness, injustice or the advancement of the LGBT agenda.

There is nothing external that can stand against the Church.

Or, did we not believe our Lord when He established the Church and said, “the gates of Hell will not prevail against it?” Matthew 16:18

Satan knows this well, which is why he instead tries to work from the inside.

“For I know this, after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.”
– Acts 20:29

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.”
– Matthew 7:15

The threat is not external but internal.

Jesus did not say, “Beware those who vote for Trump” or “Beware CRT” but, “Beware the leaven of the [religious establishment] which is hypocrisy.” – Luke 12:1

Hypocrisy: the presenting as one thing while actually being another.

Two of the most pernicious forms of hypocrisy in the church today are the industrial church and cultural christianity. We’re losing way more of our children to this than to Disney.

We wrestle not against flesh and blood. Our hypocrisy is the real enemy.

Therefore, let us put away the leaven (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Let us come out from the #industrialchurch. Don’t go to church. Be the church.

Let us come out from #culturalchristianity. Don’t just claim Christ’s name. Seek Christ’s heart.

Beware Cultural Christianity

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com Unity Is Not Conformity

Cultural Christianity is the reduction of Christianity to an identity.

Cultural Christians share language, conventions, and practices around Christian themes but do not recognize the deity of Christ nor submit to His authority as evidenced by their dissimilarity to His Biblical account.

The key characteristic of Cultural Christianity is the preeminence of the group. Cultural Christians prioritize membership to the group above submission to Christ.

Being a Cultural Christian does not require regeneration, belief or any lifestyle change besides participating in group-sanctioned activities that signal their affiliation. Membership is granted on the basis of conformity to the group.

Cultural Christianity adds members largely through cultural assimilation: the often unconscious adoption of the positions and behaviors of others whose acceptance is desired. It seeks cultural belonging and influence, not the Kingdom.

Beware #CulturalChristianity

If I may be real, for years I struggled with whether to share my…

If I may be real, for years I struggled with whether to share my faith with my children. First,…

Originally posted on Facebook on Thursday, April 28, 2022.

If I may be real, for years I struggled with whether to share my faith with my children.

First, because I was wrestling with whether I truly believed. I still am. (It is they that endure to the end that are saved.)

And second, because the most detrimental thing I could do to my children's prospect of authentic faith was have it based on mine (rather than on Christ).

It is too easy for my children to accept what I say and mimick what I do because they love me, trust me and want to be accepted by me, rather than thoughtfully examining the claims of Scripture and coming to their own authentic, personal, battle-tested faith in Christ.

One thing I did decide early on was to convey that I would love them the same regardless of what they believed, not only because I want to remove any stumbling blocks to my children coming to sincere faith in Christ, but because it is true.

Beware #CulturalChristianity

Unity Is Not Conformity

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com Unity Is Not Conformity

Something that is not lost on me is how different the disciples were.

Letters attributed to Matthew, Peter and John are starkly different (yet harmonious) perspectives of the same Jesus.

A dear brother, Tim Boden, once said of the body, “It’s as if we’re all peering through a keyhole and in our sharing what we see, we get a fuller picture of Jesus.”

What sets my heart aflame is that Jesus chose these different men intentionally, purposefully and strategically! (John 15:16, 1 Corinthians 12:18)

That’s how Jesus chose you!

Oh, what a revival we’re missing because we fail to see that unity is not conformity. (1 Corinthians 12:4-7) But moreover, because we do not trust the Holy Spirit.

Oh, that we would repent and believe the Spirit that Christ gives us so the Church would be revived!

52 Weeks of Gratefulness #15 – A Mentor’s Admonition

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com Thankful For A Mentor's Admonition

In Week 15 of 52 Weeks of Gratefulness, I give thanks for a mentor’s admonishment.

Our long time friends, pastors and mentors Pearson and Gloria Liddell were moving thousands of miles away.

As we were seeing them off, I asked Pearson, “What do I need to work on?” “Where do you see I need to grow?” Pearson being Pearson studied the question for a moment before giving his thoughtful, heart-felt response. His reply to me in a word was, “Compassion.”

My wife remarked how she loved the response because Pearson expanded the scope and rather than make it about me personally, he gave me something for ministry.

I took his words to heart and have studied them ever since.

I could write a book from my takeaways, but the condensed summary is this:

If I don’t love you, I’m disqualified from ministering to you.

But, I do love you or at the very least I want to because Someone I love dearly loves you even more.

Pearsons admonition challenged me to always seek to have the love Christ has for everyone I encounter. It is timeless yet a timely reminder for me in this season.

I’m grateful. #52WoG

Being black, in my experience, is to be incessantly asked the…

Being black, in my experience, is to be incessantly asked the question, "Do you belong here?"…

Originally posted on Facebook on Sunday, April 24, 2022.

Being black, in my experience, is to be incessantly asked the question, "Do you belong here?" Unless of course you're in prison, in poverty or a position of subordination.

It's a question that makes my soul tired.

Even some of those who purport to be allies or to "help" readily relegate blacks to the lower rungs in their world or to the head of diversity.

It all swells in me a near infinite anger, one that would not be exhausted even if I were to kill everyone and raze everything to the ground.

This is yet another way I know there is a God to keep such a consuming fire in check. More than that, to also give me compassion for those by whom the offense comes -the perpetrators of my pain, because the enemy is not flesh and blood but sin that enslaves. I was once a slave.

My vision for my people are to have spaces (distinct from being in spaces) where our belonging is never a question but a necessity.

Let it start here and with me. Black people, I need you and don't want a world without you in every part of it.

I used to be offended by the resurrection.

I used to be offended by the resurrection. The notion that a man died and came back to life was an…

Originally posted on Facebook on Saturday, April 16, 2022.

I used to be offended by the resurrection.

The notion that a man died and came back to life was an insult to my sensibilities and was a major stumbling block to my accepting wholesale the claims of this man called Jesus.

I would not have believed had the Holy Spirit not intervened through the Spirit-filled preaching of the Word, the Spirit-filled ministry of believers and other various means.

My encounter with the Spirit prompted questions I had not sincerely considered before:

"Is this all there is? Could there be more? And, what if this man called Jesus is not just a man? What if He's more?"

I'm eternally thankful for His intervention because without the resurrection, the Christian faith is just another philosophy. But there is power –not just for some future mystical event, but power that is real and at work in my life today because Christ died and was raised.

Christ's dying as the perfect sacrifice satisfied the penalty of sin so I'm no longer condemned,
His being raised conquered death undoing for me sin's ultimate effect,
and His living established His kingdom where sin has no power and I'm given power over sin.

So, because of the resurrection, today I live free, with power to resist sin and I have this hope for tomorrow to attain to this resurrection, being eternally free from sin and death and to live: enjoying God without hindrance or limitation forever.

So, to those in Christ I say, "Happy Resurrection Day!" And, to those being saved I say, "Come. You are invited into the joy of our Lord!"

Again, "Happy Resurrection Day!"

#ressurectionday