Beautiful Misery & Amazing Pain?

To those hurting,

Some of you may have strong feelings against me after reading this, but as a future pastor I think it’s necessary that I begin answering critical questions that a countless number of us have.  In this post I am going to attempt to tackle the tremendous burden of why pain/ or bad things happen?

This idea came to me today out of nowhere in the middle of my church’s worship service (ironically our senior pastor talked exactly about this just moments later!) I’ve heard a number of people ask why a good, loving God could allow so much misery and pain to exist in life. I myself have even asked God and others this multiple times. 

 Why do natural disasters destroy millions of lives and why does God allow this?

 Why do innocent people suffer death at the hands of a smoking gun?

Why does something as terrible as cancer exist?  And why did so and so get it?

Why do thousands of children’s lives get ripped out from underneath them each and every day?

However, the question has always been something I had tried to sweep under the rug. I know it’s a complicated mess and because of this, I figured out that I never had come to a conclusion beyond the vague “we don’t understand” response. This morning, as I was standing there in the row singing songs about God’s love, I realized something that suddenly dispelled any vague mist that I had…

How can we truly say we love God unless we can boldly stare death in the eyes and say, “Jesus I still love You?”

By all means I never do want to suggest that I know the whole answer or can understand God’s reasoning but think about it. What good is it to say that we love God unless we actually mean it? And when your life is on the line that’s when the truth that your brain believes is separated from the truth that’s in your heart. How can we say that we truly love Christ unless we can say it while staring at our mother’s casket? How can we say that we truly love the Lord of our Lives unless we can say it while the Doctor points to the clipboard that says our baby boy has only 2 months left to live? How can we say that we truly love our Messiah unless we can say that he is still the one thing standing true when our whole world has been swept away?

Now I by no means am saying that we can’t have true faith unless our lives or those close to us are threatened, but I am saying that when you hit that brick wall of desperation and have nowhere else to turn but to Jesus Christ, something magical happens to your faith

In a sense you begin to see the beauty in the car crash

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James 1:2-4 clearly tell us to “consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”  1 John 4:8 tells us that “God is love,” and if he is the very definition of love than everything he does is made out of a decision of love.

Maybe we shouldn’t be asking why God allows pain and trials, and instead start asking ourselves if we are aligned with the Father Heart of God.

Author Graham Cooke says “every time a tragedy comes my way I think “Good, an upgrade.””

 Do you view your pain and sorrow as misfortunes and injustices or as opportunities for God to strengthen you?

In times of trials and grief the Father comes to us way before we come to him

“God has a firmer grip on us than we do on him. Whatever is your greatest struggle is God’s greatest place of visitation.”

So the next time you find yourself drowning in a sea of grief take your loss to the cross and crucify it!

Merely,

Chris Gerac

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”  James 1:2-4, NIV

Pierced Hearts & Broken Walls

To those needing,

The idea for this post I must admit is not mine, but my good friend’s Zach. You see, both of us (and thousands of others) went to an annual mission’s conference this past weekend known as World Mandate.  We went in expecting to be overwhelmed by amazing worship and excellent words of wisdom but I don’t think either of us was prepared to accept the magnitude of the words spoken at the conference. Below is simply a list of impactful sentences given by empowered people. For those of you who did not get to experience World Mandate, or those who simply could not write fast enough, this is for you…

After an amazing time of worship on the opening night, one in which I found that my voice was already beginning to become raspy and weak (due to praying alone!) a man by the name of Jimmy Seibert took the stage. For those of you who don’t know Jimmy Seibert is the senior pastor and the vehicle God uses to shake the nations through Antioch Ministries. This is compilation of what he said in (black) and what I said (orange).

“The earth is shaking, and God is shouting.”

“Your ultimate accountability partner should be Jesus. Any other and you will fail.”

“God is not intimidated by our pain”

“The pain of hurting hearts is only second in magnitude to the God who heals hearts.”

“Often the voices of fear can destroy the destiny of masses.”

“The day Constantine made Christianity common is the day we became passive.”

“When God shakes the nations it’s time for transformation”

“Don’t watch just move.”

“Pray, Give, and Go that is the Church role.”

“The Spirit of Fear really is a Spirit, and if you don’t conquer it it will chase you for the rest of your life”

“A witness is more than a voice… it’s a life.”

The following morning we had the privilege to hear Max Lucado give a brief testimony…

"Never stoop to be a king if God has called you to be a missionary"

After another AMAZING worship session, we had the opportunity to hear Floyd McClung, and international missionary and servant of Christ, speak about running to the battle …

“A lot of us run to the battle because we are running from the battle of our hearts.”

“We should finish more on fire than when we started.”

“When the Kingdom of God invade our life the Kingdom of Self must die.”

“You can plant a church without making disciples but if you make disciples than you will church plant.”

That following night an older gentleman with long blonde hair walked on stage, and when he spoke it was like Jesus dropped an Atom bomb…

“If we do things Jesus’ way, we get Jesus’ results.”

“There’s no success without opposition.”

“The problem isn’t that the harvest isn’t ready but that the harvesters aren’t.”

“The danger today is that the Church isn’t relevant.”

“The biggest gap in religion is that Christians don’t like to hang out with non- Christians.”

“Around the World “formal religion” is rejected but Spirituality is at an all time hall.”

“If your Church closed down would your city miss you.”

Ouch

Why is it other religions do more Godly things than we do?

“What use is it to live for nothing when I can die for something?”

Last but certainly not least, a fiery Aussie whom I mentioned in my last writing took the stage and leveled the audience with what’s to follow. This is Christine Caine (at least how much my hand could scribble down!)…

“Our culture always says don’t hope for anything great.”

“There is nothing more dangerous than a generation who want people to play it safe.”

“Jesus didn’t save us to play it safe but to make us dangerous to the Kingdom of Darkness.”

“We’re not a product of time but of eternity.”

“God did not put us in the world to run away from the World but to transform the world!”

“Our goal is NOT to arrive at death safely.”

“We’ve confused empathy and sympathy with compassion.”

“We always say But God… We need a BUTectomy.”

“The priest in the Good Samaritan wasn’t a bad person but a busy person.”

“I love how we write Christian books to encourage Christians to not be Christians.”

Ouch!

“Sometimes who needs the Devil when you have a Christian?”

“It’s not about the size of the darkness but the Magnitude of the light living inside of you.”

“In Jesus, you can start bad and finish Amazingly good.”

May these words pierce your soul like they have mine

Merely,

Chris Gerac
"He must increase, but I must decrease" James 3:30 , NASB

Fools & Nation Shakers

“God did not put us in the world to run away from the world, but to transform the world”

-           - Christine Caine

Welcome to my weekend! 

Last weekend I attended this mission conference called World Mandate. I thought that having 4500 people crying out to God was good enough, but then I heard this fiery Aussie speak by the name of Christine Caine. Some of you may have heard of her, most of you haven’t. Christine is a teaching pastor over at Hillsong and also the starter of the A21 campaign, a campaign aimed at abolishing slavery in the modern 21^st century. But more importantly than both of these impressive statistics is the message she communicated. Never have I heard someone speak like her. Never have I seen someone as passionate about advancing God’s kingdom. Never have I experienced someone so in tune with the heartbeat of God. It was like every single thing she said pierced the deepest wellsprings of my heart. 

She spoke a lot of truth, but out of every God breathed thing that she uttered, what shook my foundations the most may have been overlooked by the majority of people there. You see her message was about running to the battle against the darkness and taking Christ to those who remain in bondage, but in addressing this issue, Christine touched on a subject that made my heart twinge: looking foolish.

If you have ever been to a Sunday service then you probably have heard that we are “supposed” to seem foolish to the world. In fact I’ve even preached on this very same subject. But something she said stirred a sleeping giant inside of me (I guess this is why the Bible is living and active Hebrews 4:12).

I knew that I was supposed to look foolish, but to this date I haven’t really been foolish. 

Sure I have knelt down in the middle of school to pray, sacrificed my spring break to go share the Gospel, and changed my major from an extremely lucrative profession to one that is laughed at by a lot of teenagers.  I have done a lot of things that may appear foolish to Americans, but I haven’t done anything that stands out as biblically foolish.

Where’s my ark?

Don’t you think Noah looked stupid when he was building an ark to protect the people from rain (which they have neither seen nor heard of)? Don’t you think Gideon looked dumb when he downsized his army to 300 men then went and faced a massive army? Don’t you think David looked like an idiot when he picked up a few rocks and said “Bring it Goliath?” Don’t you think Paul looked silly when he walked up to the house of Ananias and said, “I was about to kill you but now I want to help you?” Don’t you think Paul looked even more ridiculous when he got bit by a snake and pretended like nothing happened? 

Don’t you think Jesus looked foolish as he hung from a cross half naked?

Compared to these guys and the rest of the bible, all of my “foolish” acts look like filthy rags.

This weekend was more than just refueling to me, it was re-prioritizing.

What have you done to look foolish for God?

Where are you stepping outside of your comfort zone?

Are you transforming the world, or just merely running from it?

Where’s your ark?

Merely,

Chris Gerac
“We are fools for Christ’s sake…” 1 Corinthians 4:10, NASB

XX & XY

To those objectified,

I don’t know who, or how many for that matter, take the time out of their days to read what I write. But I would like to believe that some of you reading, wherever you are, are women. It is to these women that I write what is to follow.

I am writing this because I feel like women are in the dark when it comes to the mindsets of men as every bit as we men are in as yours. Many of you in fact may spend a large portion of your precious time trying to sort out the intricate complexities of the mass complex of confusion commonly referred to as the Man’s “mind”. It is for the sake of shedding insight and because I genuinely care for my sisters in Christ that I write.

It is by no surprise to you to hear that men are visual creatures. Everything around us from the news to our Sunday services tells us this is so (this reason is why Victoria Secret and other companies advertise the way that they do). I’m sure it is by no surprise that you have heard the famous studies saying men think of sexual things (not only the act of sex but of anything relating to the opposite gender) roughly every 2 minutes. However, what may come to a shock to you is that we don’t want to.

Men love adventure, being the hero that slays the dragon. Men love romance, saving the damsel in distress not taking her back to his place for a night. Men love beauty, raw, powerful, and magnificently awe-striking beauty, not the beauty created by caked make-up and artificial perfume. Men love a lot of things, but what they do not love is being labeled as pigs. I do not think any man particularly enjoys the idea of being a womanizer. They may embrace it or pretend that they do but deep down men just want to be liked, to feel loved, and to find meaning amongst the meaningless. 

Will some guys act like pigs? Yes of course.  Are some guys pigs? Of course! 

But let me clarify: men are not pigs because they are constantly involved in dirty affairs; men are pigs because they are often dumb enough to fall into snares.

 As I said men are visual creatures, and it is often because of this that men fall victim to lustful thoughts or womanization. Few men wish to become so but before they realize the traps they have fallen into they are stuck in a perpetual cycle of sin and shame. What I find most odd though is that we get blamed for thinking about sex every 2 minutes, but no one ever stops to think because that’s what our society, and particularly girls project every 2 seconds. I don’t wish to cause a protest; I am just calling it like I see it. But girls, if you are really looking for Prince Charming, or someone who will treat you like a queen, you will not find him by wearing shorts with pockets hanging out or shirts that don’t adequately cover anything.

 Speaking from experience 9 times out of 10 any quality guy, worth taking home to your family, believes the phrase modest is hottest.

So ladies, for our sake I ask you to think twice about what image you portray by the clothes you wear.

 Remember as Sisters in Christ, you are a Princess AND a Daughter of The King, you deserve to be treated so.

Don’t fall into the same traps we do.

Let a man sweep you off your feet, not into his bed.

Fall in love with God first and let him so you the true Mr. McDreamy.

Merely in love,

Chris Gerac

“A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies… Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.” Proverbs 31:10&30 NIV

The Me in Team & Atlas Struggles

To those overwhelmed,

Growing up my sport was always baseball. I don’t know if it had to do with my older brother playing or the fact that my dad coached every season, but as soon as I could walk I was swinging a bat ( a foam bat at least). When I finally met the age requirement my dad signed me up for tee ball at our local ball park. To say that I was ecstatic is a huge understatement. I immediately had grand visions of home runs, golden gloves, and MVP’s (at the age of 5 I had already assumed that the MLB was a guarantee). There was only one problem: after the try outs I thought that the rest of the players on my team were terrible. I considered myself to be the fastest, the best hitter, the best thrower, the greatest that Pearland has ever seen (for those that know me all too well, you’re starting to see where some of my more prideful moments originated). 

Bottom line, I thought I was the greatest thing since mac and cheese and there was no way I was going to let my team get in my way of stardom.

I didn’t trust them, and because I didn’t trust my fellow teammates the most peculiar thing would happen when my team was on the field: I would do all of the work. Literally, every time the ball was hit whether it was coming near my mound or not, I would take off running scoop the ball up and instead of throw it to my teammate at first base I would run the ball there myself.  The funny thing is it worked. I even remember grabbing the ball and running to 3^rd base and then all the way back to 1^st base and getting both runners out.

My selfish strategy  of doing all of the work worked well for a while, but sooner or later the bases got further apart, the batters got better, the kids got faster, and my baseball career went down in fiery crash.

How many of you are finding it hard to do all of the work? How many of you feel like an Atlas-like burden is slowly crushing you? How many of you feel like no one can help, that a certain task is only yours to shoulder?

I see these burdens harm people far too often. Many times I have witnessed people “burn out,” cry themselves to sleep at night, or suffer anxiety attacks because they refuse to let go.  Many times we aren’t willing to let others help us out or aren’t willing to put power into the hands of other people. We’re afraid of what could happen. Kings did this. Leaders do this. Church ministers do this. 

If you’re beginning to feel like the sea is rising or the caves are closing in, maybe it’s time to stop programming for people and start letting people program.

Jesus tells us that we can do even greater things than he did (John 14:12), not because we have greater abilities or greater faith, but because we have greater numbers.

Open up.

Allow communities to be actual communities.

Sacrifice doing it all so that others can lead

Merely,

Chris Gerac        

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24 NIV