I spend quite a bit of time watching people and taking notes. I’m not always the one talking in a crowd… in fact, I usually let other people have the floor. But I can tell you that I listen closely. In all of my experiences to this point in my life, there’s one thing that I can count on time and time again. If you spend your day trying to tell people how much you believe something… I guarantee that you don’t believe it. I will often stop the person and ask… who are trying to convince… me or yourself?

If you wag your finger at people at scream that your innocent… you’re guilty. When you become defensive and begin throwing darts at your accusers… you’re guilty. Why would an innocent person feel the need to accuse, defend, and fight back?

I have more respect for someone who will look me in the eye, challenge me, and confess that they don’t like me, my ways, my actions, and that I disgust them. At least we know where we stand and we both have convictions we believe in. I will afford no respect to anyone that hides behind a fake smile and pretend that everything is wonderful… only to backbite and pick people to death.

Our actions tell others who we are. Our entire body of work is an indicator of the place where our faith resides. The early Church (meaning the one that was built after Christ ascended to heaven) was built by men of action.

The action was in telling others about Christ Jesus. The action was telling the story. The action was doing regardless of the risk of death and persecution. There is a perfect model for how we can Live Bold. In the ministry of Christ on earth, He left us a picture of how we not only prepare ourselves for our faith, but how we act it out.

The question I asked myself when I read about the founders of the Church… was … how did they do it? What did they do? How did they act? If you remember, these men were students of Christ and they walked with Him and watched everything He did. The model that Christ left behind is how these men picked right up and continued the effort to tell others about God’s grace, love, mercy, and hope.

The book of ACTS in the Bible is the story of how these men went from being followers to leaders. It tells us how they pushed forward. It tells us how they were the Torch for God. It tells us how they Pushed against evil. My favorite verse in the book of Acts is the perfect summation of how we are to live our lives. The order is perfect, the actions are perfect, and the results are perfect. These men were emulating Christ and how He taught them to live… not by what He said… but how He lived among us. I wear a black wrist band that has the words inscribed: “Live Bold. Acts 4:31″. It reminds me everyday that there is an order to faith.

ACTS 4:31 – “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”

Here’s your bible lesson and your call to action. This is how you model your group of men. In this one verse, we have the picture of a group of men meeting. They had picked an intentional place to gather together to fortify one another for the task ahead.

What were they doing? Praying. Prayer is our connection to God and the conduit for the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom, courage, and strength. When we gather together for the purpose of Christ… God promises to be in our midst.

What happened after they prayed together? The ground shook. God was with them and they were vibrating with purpose and focus.

What did God provide? The Holy Spirit filled them and they were compelled to go talk about God and Christ in a BOLD way.

What is the order of things or what is the model for us to look at?

1. Get together and build a brotherhood. Find some authentic brothers that you know will have your back no matter what.

2. Pray. Don’t just hang out… have a purpose and a focus. I’m not suggesting that you bow your heads together for an hour… but put yourself into good company with men you trust and with people who are authentic. We don’t have time to put up with phony chatterboxes. Prayer is an authentic condition of your heart when you talk to God… Prayer is not a bowed head, clasped hands, and King James English.

3. Confirm each other’s faith and their strength in Christ. Allow God’s spirit to fill the air and each other. Praise the good… chastise the bad. Hold each other accountable to purge out evil from our life and our thoughts. Take that refreshing spirit, stand up straight, and push against the evil of the day.

4. Stand up for God’s word and your brothers and sisters of faith. God doesn’t need a defense system… but your family, friends, and community sure does. Speaking and acting your faith means that you are willing to shut down the crap that pulls your family away from truth. Be a man… do something about the injustices. Stand up for the defenseless… and go to battle with those who push around the weaker vessels.

This my friends… is Living Bold.

Your challenge is to get off your hands. Pull together and Act out your faith. Where would we be today if the disciples of Christ had just sat around and talked about faith with each other and not acted out their faith? Where will your children, your friends, your family be if we don’t push hard and act out our faith?

Is God not deserving of our best? Do you think God wants us to sit around talking about what we’re going to do… and nothing happens? Read the Story… God is action.

Faith is active. Faith is 99% more than going to church on Sunday. If you’re talking… take a look at what you’re doing. If you can’t see it… ask someone to tell you frankly… what they see you doing.

Are you with me? Can we do this? Are you going to leave me hanging out here on my own? I need some help. It has to start somewhere. You’ve been called.

Now. Go grab a brother or two or three. Meet. Get to know each other… pray. Stand up and do something about the things that God has shown you that need attention. It will be different for each of us. We are all called for certain tasks.

Do this. Your life will be changed. Your contentment will soar. Your blessings will be too numerous to count. And you will be called… good… faithful… servant.

It takes guts. Go do it.

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(You are reading the blog series by Live Bold. This is a living, unedited book being written in the wide open. Follow along. If you’re getting here late, go back to the archives under the LB NOW category and start reading. Each entry is numbered in sequence. Comments are welcome and some will end up in the final published book. May God’s hand be in all we do here at Live Bold.)

Whether you are prepared to admit it or not, I’m going to reveal something about all of us that will bring things into focus. We are leaners… not pushers. The word lean has connotations of weakness, tired, subordinate, passive, and lazy. The word push has connotations of strength, exertion, effort, action, and authority.

The picture that today’s church has painted of Jesus is one of gentle nature. We see this middle aged, white, Italian man with long flowing hair, white robe, and a lamb on his shoulders. We hang these in our churches and we accept this as Christ Jesus. We teach our children that this is Jesus. You wonder why men aren’t interested in following this guy? Did you know that men are bailing out of church congregations at a record pace?

The songs we sing in church talk about kissing Jesus on the cheek, leaning on Jesus, softly and tenderly, and many other songs that evoke a pretty soft view of faith and Christ Jesus in general. The Bible, God’s story, paints a completely different picture.

Christ Jesus was a carpenter by trade… hard work. He was smart… teaching the teachers by age 12. Christ quickly passed through all of the required, socially accepted, education to become a Rabbi by the age of 30… and He began His ministry. Christ experienced life as a man so we would not have any excuses… He showed us how to get the job done… and it wasn’t from just sitting around.

Christ Jesus did not have a lot of time to sit around… lean on the wall… and wait for people to come to Him with questions. He had 3 years to complete His work… He had to push. Jesus pushed on the established religion and the leaders, calling them sons of hell. He challenged the authority of complacency and man’s bastardized version of God’s story. Jesus called people names that in today’s vernacular would have equated to a few 4 letter words… really.

The idea that faith is something you attain by sitting around and leaning on the wall is not only wrong, it’s dangerous. There are millions sitting in their seats right now who think they’ve got it all taken care of. They heard a sermon, they said to themselves, “I can dig that”, and prayed a short prayer with the preacher… and nothing more.

Hmm, I see a problem with that. Do you?

Living Bold is pushing through. Living Bold is being authentic. Living Bold is admitting that you don’t have it all figured out, but you sure as hell are going to die trying. Living Bold is not just an attitude or a cool saying on a T-shirt. Living Bold is action.

Mental bubble gum:
Christians are programmed to be leaners. Christ Jesus was a pusher. Who are we emulating?

You accomplish Bold Living by standing up for your faith regardless the cost. In fact, what are you going to sacrifice to make this step?

I want to encourage you to stand up and take the first step. Push your faith out of the comfort zone. Stop leaning on the wall… turn around… put your hands on it… dig in your heels… and start pushing. You won’t be able to push it down alone, you need more pushers. Go get some. And together, start pushing on the wall. If you still can’t take it down… go get some more pushers… and repeat until you tear down the wall with sheer manpower.

We have all types of walls in our lives. We have walls that keep us out of faithful living. We have walls that keep us prisoners of addiction and shame. We have walls that separate us from society, culture, and “ugliness”. Here’s the pitiful part… we built the wall.

Stop blaming God for boxing you in, boxing you out, or separating you from joy. Stop blaming God for the circumstances you are in after you make bad decision. Defend God and your faith when you hear someone tell you that “God did this to me!” That is load of crap that disgusts me. Living Bold means you don’t blame other people for the bad decisions you’ve made.

Our communities are trapped and separated from each other because of their walls. Our job is to round up the crew and start pushing those walls down.

Push = effort. It won’t be easy… you cannot do this alone… you are not strong enough.

Live Bold is inviting and encouraging you to gather your brothers in your community. Forget denominations. Forget religion. Focus on faith. Men… we need you to come together and start the march in your home and in your community. It doesn’t mean grabbing bullhorns and brochures and pushing people around about faith… that has never worked… and it never will.

Are you up for it? Can you accomplish this task? Are you willing to stop leaning and start pushing? Here’s a little secret that will help: When you start pushing… others will rise up and help push along with you… you won’t even have to ask… they will ask you if they can help.

Living Bold is more than an attitude, it’s an action. More important than rallying people and building another “nation of faith”, Living Bold is about building your faith.

The push starts with action. Grab a buddy and start gathering once per week somewhere. Build each other up. You don’t have to talk about your secret desire to sew… just be there. It will evolve into talking about your faith victories and defeats. Then grab a few more guys you can trust. When you get enough, take on a project. Give yourselves a goal, a task, something worthwhile… and pray… pray… pray.

Tough guys pushed against culture and society and built the Church that Jesus established … and we’ve turned around and filled the church buildings with a bunch of leaners.

How do we sustain a bold faith and how do we Push? I’ll tell you in the final entry: Act.

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(You are reading the blog series by Live Bold. This is a living, unedited book being written in the wide open. Follow along. If you’re getting here late, go back to the archives under the LB NOW category and start reading. Each entry is numbered in sequence. Comments are welcome and some will end up in the final published book. May God’s hand be in all we do here at Live Bold.)

What in the world ever possessed us to think that happiness comes when we are satisfied with where we are and what we have? I’ll tell you what possessed us… evil. And here’s a newsflash… we’re still possessed.

If you’ve ever thought, “If I just knew God’s will for my life, I would be happy and content!” Listen to me closely… it ain’t about you. Read the previous phrase again and determine who the focus is on.

Every Christmas as a child, I was so wrapped up in what the gifts were going to be that I could hardly wait for Christmas morning. I would spend hours in front of the tree staring at and shaking presents… trying to guess what they were. The anticipation was amazing and waiting was almost more than I could bear. These days… I’m really not all that concerned whether or not I get a gift. Don’t get me wrong… I like my toys, but my true joy comes from sitting and watching my daughter’s eyes when she opens her gifts. I love it when my wife opens a gift and she’s totally surprised. For me… that’s joy.

Faith is like this Christmas story. When we just start figuring out that Christ Jesus died for you and me so we would not have to suffer the grasp of hell… we are amazed at the gifts God gives us. We cling to the things that come to us and we can’t wait until we get more of it. But as we start figuring out what Faith is… we slowly begin realizing that God calls us to stop taking and start giving. Our joy then shifts from receiving blessings to delivering blessings. In that delivery… we are blessed in return.

I was blessed to have gone through Hurricane Katrina’s massive devastation here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. In the days, months, years after the storm, our church received over 10,000 volunteers from all 50 states and 8 different countries. We told every person “thank you and that they have blessed us.” We heard the following statement over 10,000 times from all types of people from the US and foreign countries…

“No… thank you! We came to help and be a blessing… but ended up being blessed by God far more than we could have ever expected.” Over 10,000 times we heard this… literally… it was amazing to experience.

These people were exhausted, dirty, emotionally spent… but they were euphoric over the growth of their faith. There were people who came who really didn’t care if God existed or not… thay walked away believing in Him and they changed their life. There are church congregations that go over a year without changing anyone’s life ( I wonder what their focus is on?)

Church congregations are no different. As a whole… if your church isn’t growing it’s because you’ve cloistered yourself behind concrete walls and turned your focus inward.

I see some church services growing by the thousands and they aren’t your traditional, typical looking church. The new church movements are progressive, emotional, and supercharged. People flock in and the top thing they say when they leave is, “that church really gives me what I need”. That’s great… but how is that church teaching those people to stop taking and start giving. It will be a matter of time when these mega churches start crumbling due to the “me” focus. When that happens… the media will have a fun day at the fair over the collapse. (Note to the Mega church: You’re not better… you’re just bigger. That means your job is 2 times as difficult to keep the focus off of “me” and on God.)

The last time I checked… worship of God has nothing to do with how YOU feel. Here’s a gut check… anytime you talk about God, faith, and worship… the glory better fall on God or you’re wasting your time.

Let’s drill down to the point. True joy and contentment comes when you remove yourself from the equation and start giving God and others the focus. This isn’t an easy task. You’ll have to ask God to show you where YOU are the feature act in your daily life so you can begin giving God the top billing. This doesn’t mean that you beat people over the head with a bullhorn and a brochure. Simply give God the glory for what He’s done for you and through you… be humble.

Giving doesn’t mean money. You don’t have enough money… the top 10% of America’s earners don’t have enough money… Bill Gates and Warren Buffett don’t have enough money… to out give God. There is no amount that you can give to satisfy your ache if it isn’t done as an act of worship.

God showed us what giving looks like. God’s story is full of stories that center around giving. You will never be content until you learn to give. It takes a strong person with conviction to give their time.

Are you man enough to give up something you enjoy to give time to someone who needs it? Are you man enough to shut up about your conquests in order to listen to a brother who is struggling? Are you man enough to reach out to someone who hates you in order to show them what God looks like? Are you man enough to give up a hobby so you can give yourself to your family?

Giving money is the last thing you should focus on. Giving your attention, your skills, and your talents to someone or something will leave you so amazingly fulfilled that you can’t stand it.

Do you get it? God’s will is to serve others. In doing so… you are honoring Him, loving Him, and serving Him. In return… your focus is not on you, your problems, your worries, or your ailments.

This world is desperate for men to stand up and Live Bold. Your community is desperate to for someone to stand tall with a rigid spine and take one on the chin for your brothers and sisters. Your church is desperate for someone to stand up and say… “cut it out” to those who profane God and distort His story.

Are you man enough to give yourself to this? It takes a hell of a lot of strength to pull this off and you’ll need some guys around you to make it happen.

Are you ready? How do you get started? I’ll tell you how in the next entry when we talk about… Push.

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(You are reading the blog series by Live Bold. This is a living, unedited book being written in the wide open. Follow along. If you’re getting here late, go back to the archives under the LB NOW category and start reading. Each entry is numbered in sequence. Comments are welcome and some will end up in the final published book. May God’s hand be in all we do here at Live Bold.)