IN or OUT.

if you live by faith.  your life should like different.  your decisions should look different.  your responses should look different.  your very heart should look DIFFERENT. God should look different because you experience him through faith in him and not your intellectuality of him. 

i look around and i don't see many lives that look different.  people that claim to follow Christ and yet want most things - if not everything - to be linear, common, and efficient.  they want it to be easier. less rocky.  and they want it all to feel good.  and if it can't feel good all the time, well then, they want it to feel good most of the time.  all while wanting the easier road (and probably not admitting that they do), but yet wanting the blessings of the harder road; they want to see miracles, experience the supernatural, and witness the Glory of God like some of "those" people do that they know and have heard about.  they want to experience the intimacy and greatness of God, but how can they do that if he's walking on water and they're in the boat?  answer me this...how will you get any of this "experience" if you refuse to plunge into the deep waters of faith?

                                                                   you won't. 

and you'll live your life on the shoreline.  watching the warriors sail off to battle.  you'll be talking about a big God as they sail away.  teaching about a big God.  bringing others into the family of a big God.  but as far as you're concerned, he is still very small.  he is very safe.

your faith dies at the tip of your tongue.

how long are you going to willingly live like that?

faith is not shallow, inactive, linear, or easy.  and if you want it to be, then leave now, because it never will be.  it is deep because it requires the Spirit of God in you that lives in your very depths to empower you to walk forward when you're fearful, confused, and probably kicking and screaming that none of this makes any sense.

faith does not operate under common sense, popularity, or the goodness of your reputation.  faith doesn't care one lick about what it makes you look like, so long as it makes you more like Jesus.  and if you're not willing to be thought a fool for him, then what are you doing here?  why choose this Way and live a lie?  why choose this Way and be a hypocrite?  why even bother if you aren't going to do this ALL the way?

are you really going to be satisfied with being "lesser than" to what he is calling you to? 

do you really think you're going to be satisfied with ordinary and normal and conventional and the fairy tale life?

are you honestly willing to sacrifice a life of wild abandon and abundant, dangerous, fearless faith for a life of conventionality all because you're a little scared that God won't come through for you? 

"oh you of little faith...why did you doubt?"

                                                   STOP EXERCISING YOUR FLESH.
take note...

if you live and follow by faith, much of what you do and will be asked to do won't make sense most of the time.  it would do you well to remember that. it runs contrary to cultural belief.  it runs contrary to popular opinion and wordly "wisdom" and common sense. faith will make you appear as if you are absolutely illogical.  batty. incongruous.  ludicrous.  nonsensical. screwy. nutty. unreasonable. and even stupid.

but remember this: it will only appear that way. 

you and your God will know what's TRUE.

aside from what others may say and circumstances may tell you, you will know with a steadfast and immoveable faith, way down in your deep, what he is calling you into.  and you hold onto that.  you hold onto it no matter what. you hold onto it through the storms of wind, rain, hail, sleet, and snow.  through the desert of deadly heat, up the mountain of sharp rocks,  and in the valley of loneliness and loss.

(for isn't that where faith is formed?)

you hold on when others try to pull you away and when Satan tries to tempt you with the easier and entitled road.  you hold on when your knuckles are bloody and the arrows are flying all around. you hold on when the sweat is dripping from your brow and burning in your eyes, when your back is tired, and your feet hurt. you hold on when everything in your flesh tells you to let go because this is too hard, too dangerous, too ridiculous and its taking too long.  you never give up, you never stop digging for the truth and strength he's placed inside you, and you never turn your back on him.  ever.  you don't put down your sword, you don't take off your armor, and you don't doubt what he once revealed because you're in the testing fire of affliction.

"now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen."

the faith you say you have must become an experience.  and if you don't allow that to happen- if you don't choose that way- it will only remain a distant, romantic, and even poetic concept that you can tell others about.  your faith will remain shallow- and by sheer definition faith cannot be that.

it should change you. it should transform you. it will grind you down until you feel like you have nothing left and then you still stand.  you stand in the gap between a promise given and not yet fulfilled.  you stand in the gap between a revelation from God and the fruition of that revelation.  you stand in the gap between a conflict and a resolution.  you stand in the gap between what you once truly heard from God and now what your fear and flesh tell you.  that kind of faith screams out to God from your deep and echoes into the deep of God; it holds him to his Promises and his Word even when you feel like they're failing you. it is in these moments that you are exercising and living by the Spirit.

by your fruit, people will know the depth of your faith. 

by your fruit, you will know the depth of your faith.

take a look around and what fruit do you see? 

how faithful, how brave, how authentic, and how willing are you? 

how deep will you go, how tall will you stand, and how long will you wait?

as deep.  as tall.  and as long as he asks.

no, it is not easy.  no, it is not safe.  no, it is not common.  no, it is not what you thought it would be.  no, it is not conventional.  you are either IN or you're OUT.  there is not room for mediocrity, "sometimes" or half-wayers in the Kingdom of God. if you're going to fake it and pretend, then go believe in something else...because the truth is, if that's the case, then you already do.

let the fire of affliction burn as it might in the depths of your soul and trust in the infinite, all-mighty, and powerful God to rise up from the deep inside you and prove himself faithful as you trust and stand in him and HIM ONLY. 

he cannot, no he will not, let you down.