What I Learned Outside of Church

What I Learned Outside of Church 9/23/12

I wonder if it’s a thing when ALL of the readings tie together as easily as they do this week. These readings are not picked by a pastor so he could match them to his individual message. They are sometimes seemingly random and difficult for even the most learned bible scholars to connect. Essentially, they provide priests with options for the Sunday sermon. Today, one message was clear. Maybe it’s because of where my life is now.

            This week, we start in the book of Wisdom. The first line of the chapter is the key. “For, not thinking rightly…“ We start out with a little hope and, when it doesn’t work out the way our impatient ego demands, that little bit of hope dies. Hopeless, we choose a life of vanity and ego. We become self serving instead of servants. After we have become self righteous people, we hate to see righteous people. They are reminders that we have given up hope while people still exist who have not given up yet and, likely, never will. It’s a form of envy. This hate says, “How dare you find hope where I could not find any!” It’s all ego. The Bible calls ego self/selfishness/flesh.

            The verse in James covers two chapters. So… You know what that means. Chapter three starts out with the power of the tongue. It points out one of my favorite Ras Kass lines. “I gave man dominion over the Earth, to master the wealth. But most of my children don’t have dominion over thyself.” Just like in Mark 7, it reminds and encourages us to be careful of what comes out of our mouths. “…but no human being can tame the tongue.” is not saying it’s not possible. It’s just saying that it seems that impossible. Of course it is possible. It’s just with so many people not practicing self(ego) control, it can appear that no one is practicing self control. Remember, we hate righteous people so we avoid them. We chose to be hopeless and the law of attraction is surrounding us with other hopeless people. Of course, looking around us, it would seem impossible to control our tongues because who around us does?

            The end of chapter three and beginning of chapter four we are warned of the dangers of ego. Jealousy and selfishness are obviously the fruit of ego and lead to disorder and EVERY bad habit. The ego is the cause of war and division. If you are only serving your self(ego), then the laws of abundance will be abandoned and, instead of cooperation, you will choose manipulation to get what you want. The ultimate form of manipulation is bullying which, on a larger scale, translates to war. Being around a bunch of hopeless people, we tend to distrust and bicker amongst each other. Why? Because we don’t have a common goal/cause. We are each serving our own egos and denying each other. Of course, we are going to hate on that and call each other haters.

            Even the disciples fall victim to ego. In Mark Chapter 9, Jesus catches them arguing over who is greatest. Sound like a dick contest? It was. Jesus took the opportunity to instruct them in humility. “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Even the churches today slip up with this one. They proclaim to the uninformed that Jesus had a favorite. Jesus Loved the world. That is the entire planet, not the ‘world’ as in worldly ways. Then he grabs a random child and reminds us all that giving up our egos is the only way we can achieve Godliness from a child through Jesus. We always use children as symbol of innocence. We should also see children as the last time we were egoless. It’s parents who instill ego into children, either directly or by modeling.

So we come full circle. Through children we can remember being egoless and hopeful. Now is the time to reflect on when we gave up hope and embraced ego. Maybe we haven’t given up hope totally and it’s situational. From time to time we just choose ego. It takes practice. The practice shouldn’t be selfishness but selflessness. The question in situations should be whether it is mandatory to hold on to our selves. It never is if we believe in what we say we believe in. Practice! Ask yourself ALL the time and EVERY time if you can serve God by giving up your self.

What I Learned In Church: Christmas 2011

You know the story of Jesus’ birth but do you know what the story is all about?

This week was my return to El Shaddai. I have a bond with El Shaddai. There is learning wisdom, growth and, most of all, Love in that church. For all the traveling I do, there aren’t many churches that make me feel as at home as El Shaddai. For it to have been so long and so much to have changed, El Shaddai is still vital to my development. I have been and will continue to thank God for the influence of El Shaddai in my life as well as the life of my family.

Let us pray.

Lord thank you for your influence. Thank you for El Shaddai. God bless pastor White and the White family. Forgive me my distractions. Thank you for keeping me focused on Your word and Your Love despite the many other distractions. I trust I will receive your word through Pastor White and that the message will continue through me to all who actively seek You. We always pray in Jesus’ name. Amen

Many of us have heard the story of Jesus’ birth so many times and in so many ways, that we don’t pay attention even when we are reading it in the Bible. I’ve read the Bible cover to cover many times and I admit to glancing over parts I’ve heard about before especially the Nativity Story.

Read Luke chapters 1 and 2 in the spirit of meditation and focus. Let God’s word inspire you to study more. Realize YOU must study. YOU! I can tell you but true revelations come from actively seeking God not from hearing sermons. Sermons should inspire us to build and/or strengthen our relationships with God.

Proverbs 4:5-9 says “get wisdom”, “get understanding”, “it is the principle thing”. Ask for it. Seek it. By principle we mean first. Everyone is running to prosperity churches, buying books, running debt, and chasing dollars everywhere they can.  But if they have no wisdom, they have nothing.

In my family, we have a superstition. If your right palm itches, you’re going to get some money. Take it from me. I’ve seen money come and go. If there is any truth to the superstition, when your palm itches, you better get in that Bible. Get some wisdom FIRST! A fool and his money are soon parted (not in the Bible but true).

Wise people seek Christ. Not only is money fleeting, it will not get you what you truly want. Most of us have been looking for Love our entire lives. We never get it and instead fill our lives with ‘stuff’. Eventually our lives become full of everything but Jesus. James Chapter 3 warns us not only of the power of the tongue but of the difference between God’s wisdom and worldly wisdom.

There is nothing wrong with knowledge. A ton of people confuse, mix up and interchange knowledge, wisdom and understanding (www.dictionary.com). Because they are all interrelated most people grow to believe they are the same and that if they have one, they have the other. Knowledge of Christ leads you to God’s wisdom IF you keep seeking. It is unfortunate that there is never enough stuff, but there can be too much God for us. It’s even sadder when we consider how little satisfies us when it comes to God, while we are never satisfied with the little things in life.

There is nothing wrong with enjoying the fruits of your labor. We work hard to get what we have and we should count all prosperity as a blessing from God. But when the ‘stuff’ gets to be more important than God, you fall into spiritual slavery to ‘stuff’. All of a sudden, your loving family and friends are not enough. Christmas stops being about family and Love. Christmas becomes a competition to see who has/gets the most ‘stuff’.

Through study, meditation and prayer we see that Jesus “was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that [you] through his poverty might be rich.” One thing I notice about truly wealthy people, the few I’ve met and the tons I’ve studied, is that they don’t make ‘stuff’ a priority. In the words of Dave Ramsey they – “Live like no other in order to live like no other”. On Sunday (it was Sunday more than it was Christmas) Pastor mentioned we must “go where we’ve never been to get what you never had”.

Now, let me be clear. My focus is giving my self up to God. I only look for opportunities to give and receive Love. My gift on Christmas was spending it in L.A. for the first time in five years. My gift was sitting with Pastor White at El Shaddai. My gift was seeing my changed cousin. My gift was a Snow Day with my girls. I also got to see my nephew act (well!) in A Christmas Carol. I got to see my niece practice and perform “What Christmas Means To Me” by Stevie Wonder. Above all I was blessed to be able to use my wisdom to keep Christmas full of Jesus and not ‘stuff’.

My one and only wish in writing this is that people who didn’t get those types of gift get them one day. Hopefully sooner than later. I pray that people, who became overwhelmed with ‘stuff’, find salvation. If it’s only salvation from ‘stuff’, I pray that’s the beginning of a total salvation. I pray that we reclaim the power that ‘stuff’ has over us, the power that makes us risk and give our lives, that hurts our feelings, that makes us be nice to douche-bags, to stress ourselves out and simply distracts us from God. We will have power over ‘stuff’ again.

Christmas and everyday can and will be full of Christ. And because I know better, I claim it all in the name of Jesus.

My Mission Statement

Jason Sloan

          My mission is to build wherever it is God leads me. From my inner-self to my outer-self, my family, whichever other families see fit to include me, my community, my city, my state, my nation, and the world which I eventually create for myself, these all deserve my best and highest effort. I aim to be an asset to every institution I touch. I plan to replace old cycles of material/spiritual poverty and despair with new cycles of growth and abundance. Whether I build from scratch or improve on existing foundations, I intend to inspire abundance and growth every place I find myself.

          To inspire abundance, cooperation, Love and Christ-like living.