Fightings Shadows — New Book in Hand – By Men FOR Men. By Jon Tyson, Jefferson Bethke

Sharing an except from a new book, for which I got an advance copy! The book is by Jefferson Bethke and Jon Tyson. Bethke went viral with the video “Why I Love Jesus but Hate Religion,” years back. I was in my senior year of high school, I remember the YouTube video going viral. After watching it many times over since then, I see he is not advocating for the abandonment of Christianity at all, rather is clarifying the mission and attempting the unshackle the true religion—relationship with the Father through Jesus—from all that’s overshadowed it and fogged the lenses. He was trying to bring Jesus back to the forefront where He belongs.

Jon Tyson pastors a Church in the heart of NYC. He is responsible for the book, “The Beautiful Resistance: The Joy of Conviction in a Culture of Compromise”. I know not much of him or his work, but I just saw him speak the other night for this book tour for Fighting Shadows. I

n one of the most powerful sermons I’ve heard, he preached on biblical manhood and the “Shadow of Apathy” we must fight. Here are some quotes from the chapter I’m currently reading in the book:

“Ungodly ambition destroys community, commodifies love, and turns brothers into opponents.” —Jon Tyson

“Kingdom questions lead to kingdom vision. Selfish questions lead to a smaller life.” —Jon Tyson

Excerpt from Ch. 6, the shadow of Ambition by Jon Tyson:

“A whole generation of men has been raised on the need for distinction. In a recent study, 86 percent of young Americans said they want to be social media influencers—kill and crush, notice and narcissism, domination and recognition—a delirious pursuit to post everything online.

The shadow of ambition is standing tall over a generation of men.

With so much damage done by worldly ambition, it may seem wise for Christians to banish it from our lives. Maybe we should focus on other virtues that dont cause so much damage, But Smith noted this kind of overaction can do its own kind of damage:

[If you keep walking around the phenomenon of ambition, you’ll start to note a couple of features. First, the opposite of ambition is not humility; it is sloth, passivity, timidity, and complacency. We sometimes like to comfort ourselves by imagining that the ambitious are prideful and arrogant so that those of us who never risk, never aspire, never launch our into the deep get to wear the moralizing mantle of humility. But this imagining is often just thin cover for a lack of courage, even laziness. Playing it safe isn’t humble.] —Smith, “On the Road”

The truth is when it comes to your life, you are not at war with ambition; you are in a war for ambition-godly ambition.

Without godly ambition you will collapse back into a cocoon of self. Without godly ambition your vision will be reduced to your own wants and needs. You won’t recognize it, but instead of seeking first the kingdom of God, you will seek the kingdom of the American dream.

God has more for you than shallow ambition and a worldly version of success. God has more for you than a life of false humility and shallow pursuits. God wants to fill you with a soul-stirring kind of holy ambition.”

Stand tall, Godly men! Keep moving forward!

AJ Oram

March 4, 2024

The Call to Resurrection Living

I am re-reading through a John Eldredge classic, “Waking the Dead,” at the moment. I have decided to re read now during the Easter season because what I remember about it is a lot about Resurrected, triumphant Living. The call to more than just a Cross lifestyle. Rather, a Cross AND Resurrection lifestyle. For the two go hand-in-hand in this life which involves hand-to-hand combat in the spiritual realm. Consider some of these gems of wisdom from the book:

The Resurrection affirms the promise Christ made. For it was life he offered to us: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). We are saved by his love when we find that we are able to live the way we’ve always known we should live. We are free to be what he meant when he meant us.

John Eldredge

We say Christ died for us, and that is true. But Christ was also raised for us. His resurrection was as much for us as his death was.

Eldredge

I came into the faith and initially learned that “the goal is not for us to be sinless, but for us to sin less.” A very, Baptist thing to say. I mean it’s true, sort’ve. Mostly. But off the mark in my opinion. Not because we are perfect. But because it makes it far easier to relate to sin, rather than relate to Christ and His defeat over death, sin, and the grave. Is it any wonder we hear other adages so often repeated, “I sin every day brother. I probably sinned 10 times just waking up.” Sin has been so normalized, so often that we have almost unintentionally related to Adam, far more than related to the Last Adam; Christ. And now that we are called to now emulate Christ through His help, if we’ve received Jesus, then we are to start relating to Him rather than Adam.

What then, shall we say to these things? Well, for one, if God in Christ be for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31.

“Behold! I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and [physical and mental strength and ability] over all the power that the enemy [possesses]; and nothing shall in any way harm you.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭10‬:‭19‬ ‭AMPC‬‬

This is Resurrection weekend. We do not get there without the work of Christ on the cross; we identify, therefore, as dead to sin, if we are in Christ, and we identify as alive to righteousness!!!

“For the glory of God is man made fully alive.” -St. Iraneus

AJ Oram

March 30, 2024

Whiplash Effect: The Universe’s Relationship to Trauma

The other day I was talking to my sister about our upbringing and was reminded of an important piece of wisdom. It came to me and has been in my mind for a little while, so I told her. And it is that we know we are beginning to heal when we start remembering more of the good things, along with the bad. When we are broken, our view of the past becomes obscured and incomplete. We remember our history with only the partial lens of the negative. It is often a natural way to look at things. What we need is a supernatural lens. When we begin healing, when we choose to embrace forgiveness and hope, I find that we begin actually to remember more of a complete view of the past. We remember people and events with more factual reality. Even those who hurt us the most, we remember with accuracy. We embrace their good qualities, and recall that despite so much of the negative, there were good events too.

Trauma is like whiplash. It happens so quickly that when you’re out from the debris and find yourself “in the clear,” you start to move forward with a guarded posture. It is quite interesting to live with a a defense mechanism that you aren’t fully aware is operating in the background. We call this PTSD. It seems that more and more people are becoming aware of its influence. The interesting thing about the universe is that we were designed in such as way that our choices affect it.

Take what Author Erwin McManus says here about it as an example:

“It’s easy for us to forget that we do not exist within creation but in fact are part of creation. Creation was designed to be connected to our choices. One of the consequences of the Fall, beyond our disconnection with God, is a disconnection with creation. The universe was designed to sustain life. The universe exists for the single purpose of providing what we need to live.

We take for granted the remarkable relationship between what we need to live and how creation is designed to the minute detail to match our needs. We need water, and it is specifically designed to quench our thirst and meet our needs. We need food to satiate our hunger, and both vegetables and fruit happen to grow exactly as needed to sustain life. We need oxygen to breathe, and oddly enough our atmosphere is conveniently made up of a perfect composition that keeps us from suffocating.

Still, it goes deeper than this connection. We do not simply exist in nature; we are part of both nature and the universe. When we are born, we are nearly 80 percent water. When we dive into the ocean, 80 percent of us belongs there. You are literally wet both inside and out. Your mass is made up of approximately 65 percent oxygen. You are more than half the same as the atmosphere around you.”

We are both affecting and are affected by choice all the time. The choice of our first parents of creation, Adam and Eve, affects and infects us: we have a diseased nature inside, called the sin nature. If affects the way we view God, self, and others. It is not simply that we sin, but rather that sin is part of us. We literally need a new nature in us to overcome that which has become attached to us. When we grow up, we naturally sin and we know that we aren’t perfect. But what’s more is, we really aren’t aware of just how bad a condition we’re in, seriously. Like a sick patient who shows up to be examined by a doctor, we are quite well things are not right, but we are yet to be given the diagnosis. Sin is like cancer. Before we know come to know Jesus Christ, we must be diagnosed with our true condition. We are wretched and infected. We need a Great Physician. We have fallen short, the Bible says. But Jesus never did. So He and only He can measure up for us, through His death and burial and resurrection, He provides for us a healing on our behalf which we couldn’t concoct on our own behalf. He becomes sin, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God. “

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭21‬ ‭ESV‬‬

This does not mean Jesus sinned. It means that on that rugged old cross, God judged our sin and put it on Jesus. Jesus was whipped, marked, beaten and took on ALL the WEIGHT of our utter wrongdoing, so that we would not be sentenced for our crimes against the Lord.

Then, He triumphantly was risen from the dead by the power of God, because He was truly the Son of the Most High. What does this all mean then?

It means that by believing in Him and His work for us, that we can be declared right with God, despite our wrongs committed against Him. It means that Jesus covered all the bases for us because He loves us. But we can only enjoy the benefits of a relationship with God when we admit our wrongs, repent, meaning to change course, and submit to God’s direction for our life. I mean, if you were going to trust anybody, would it not be the One Who went through hell for you and the cross on your behalf? It only makes sense.

The Beginning of our Healing from Trauma

So then, the word salvation or “getting saved” is the initial BREAK off from a life of trauma, betrayal, and bad choices made which affected us. Ultimately, is it is triumph over sin, and death and the grave. Salvation is so much, and it certainly is the beginning of our true healing. When we choose Jesus Christ, we are committing our life to the truest Healer out there. He gives us a new nature, part of His divine nature which we get to partake in. He is God. He knows our condition and knows how to heal what has gone wrong in the human soul. He knows that forgiveness towards others brings healing towards us. He knows that when we have been made right with Him through Jesus’ work on our behalf, that then and only then is the beginning of a new life with new healing available.

Trauma is the whiplash effect on the soul. Salvation is the healing and wholeness available in Jesus. He teaches us to walk without a limp, even if we have not fully yet received our new bodies. He calms the weary and comforts the afflicted. Our souls become defragmented by this world and by sin. But in Jesus we become whole again and begin to heal to look like what He intended when He made man.

Alexander Oram

April 23, 2023

The Truth that Fairy Tales Tell Us — Amazing!

I looked at a picture of my son playing in the backyard. The sun began to set. The clouds were parted, and so was my son’s cheeks, wide as the sky with a smile, as the glory of God’s handiwork shown itself through. The colors were vibrant!

The picture is a stark reminder of the story we find ourselves in; the story God is telling. In fact, as John Eldredge reminds us, “All the stories that we tell borrow their power from the Great Story God is telling. Take the movie The Lion King, ignore the “circle of life” stuff—the whole myth is borrowed from Christianity. There was once a beautiful kingdom. But it was stolen by the evil one. Its glory has been marred. Badly. Now it’s time for the true king to come back and take over.”

We live in a world where something has gone wrong. We know it to be so. Yet the sun still comes up every morning and the birds come out to sing, never lacking anything. This world is mixed with both beauty and brokenness. I take Jesus words here to mean something beautiful. He says:

“Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭18‬:‭17‬ ‭LSB‬‬

Jesus reminds us that through the eyes of a child, we sense the way things were meant to be. In fact, we cannot even begin to grasp the way of God’s kingdom without becoming humble, teachable, and soft hearted. We get down low like a child with all the wild-eyed luster of a toddler. We open ourselves up to whatever the Lord wants to teach us. He is always speaking.

Fairy Tales are Truer than “Science” and “Reason”

Let me explain.

I suspect the reason there are so many Disney loving adults is the fact that the stories of the heart are more far-reaching with truth than the ”rationalism” of the intellect.

Is it rational that animals talk? Not to the scientist.
But to the poet and lover of fairy tales, anything is possible.

As theologian GK Chesterton reminds us, perhaps we should look again through the eyes of a child and see that the fable and fairy tale brings with it a more true grounding of the world in which we are living than the rough tenants of the rationalist and the scientist.

We don’t need more tales from the logician. We need to be reminded of the great story in which all of us are living.

Perhaps this is why so many who’ve grown up with a luster for life have become weary. They’ve lost heart and lost dreaming. They’ve been convinced by atheist college professors that the reason the rainbow displays beautiful colors is “cus of light that is refracted.” which still doesn’t explain the “why” behind the miracle of light.

We live in a world where SOMETHING has gone wrong (sin entered in), there IS a battle to fight (the fight of faith), a dragon to be slain (the Enemy of our souls), and a beauty to rescue (the human heart has come under captivity).

That sounds like a fairy tale, only it’s truer than we might imagine!

Disney, our childhood and seeing through the EYES of a child reminds us about the truth of this world. Where fairy tales remind us of more true realities of the world we are living in.

And the fact that one day, all things will be made new again. And until that time, we can trust in Christ who is the Anchor of hope.

Outside Him, there is no hope whatsoever for anything being made right.

Alexander Oram

March 18, 2023

When Your Dreams Came True but You’re Still Empty

The Lunar Landing Didn’t Destroy Them, but What Happened Afterwards Did

The other day I stopped into my favorite bookstore during some free time and I cracked open Levi Lusko’s new book about “conquering inner space” (the title is slipping my mind) and started trying to glean whatever I could. The book is massive, I mean it’s practically almost Bible weight Bible-sized. One portion that stuck with me will be the preface for this entire blog. It’s pretty short but weighty. It is about having your wildest dreams come true and yet getting crushed as a result of them. Levi describes the intense preparation that the first men on the moon underwent just to prepare for the thing and to make sure they could survive. He talks about how they practiced in the Grand Canyon, in glaciers, etc. And all this preparation helped ensure they completed their mission! But crazy enough, the one thing they did not prepare for absolutely destroyed them; the fame. There is likely more to it, but this caught my attention.

The Price of “Fame”

We often spend so much time fretting over what we will do if our dreams don’t come true. Perhaps we should ask the question, What if they do? Will you have the character to sustain yourself wherever your gifts, talents, and blind luck take you?

Levi Lusko

Side note, I don’t love the word “luck,” but I get what he is saying.

And the question is so crucial. Levi Lusko wrote this part after describing how the men lost their marriages and friendships over the fame that resulted from their moon landing. Wow. Think about it. How do you prepare for such a thing? Jesus gives us the only example we need! Get before the Father and get to knowing Him. Never let anything get to your head. I forget who said it, but the saying goes like so:

“Never let success get to your head, or failure get to your heart.”

The thing about it is, it doesn’t matter how much money you make, how many superbowls you’ve won, and how much popularity you accumulate. If you do not have the peace of God and His salvation within your heart, of being right with God, then you really have settled for a life that is ordinary, dull, boring, non-adventurous, devoid of risk and lacking meaning. Yet when you come to Christ you come alive.

This stuff is no joke. So many people even inside the church have settled for a life less than they’re called to live because they’ve believed the lie that to live for God means you must never risk, never lose anything, never suffer, and never enjoy anything. Really? Is that the model of New Testament Christianity we see of the early church, who literally turned the cities and cultures they lived in upside down? So much so that they were mistakenly called “gods”? And they of course, corrected those who called them such, redirecting them to the only God Who is, and Who is able to turn a life inside out and upside down.

So if you are burning with curiosity today to live the life you were always meant to, don’t wait. Seek Jesus. If you’ve been on the line about what to think about him for awhile now, start talking to Him. Join the Bible study, accept the church invite, let your heart burn while pursuing him until he sets it on fire, and then use your fire inside to set others on fire for him and his cause.

There is nothing outside of Christ worth giving your life towards, and no one who can satisfy the gaping inner hole like He can. After all, we were made for Him and are made whole by Him! And it is only coming to Him that we realize what we were made for! And Whom we were made for.

“Smart men walked on the moon, daring men walked on the ocean floor, but wise men walk with God.” -Leonard Ravenhill

Alex Oram

February 25, 2022

Why God allows Babies (And their Parents) Nine Months before Birth

As I reflected on watching my wife over these past nine months with our son (in the womb), and then watching him be born (outside the womb), I believe the Holy Spirit of God revealed to me a huge reason for the question of “why do babies take nine months to grow before birth?” The following is that reflection:

“Love is patient.” (1). And God is love (2), therefore God is patient—He Doesn’t scurry to put together a project last minute. He didn’t procrastinate when He made you.

There’s a rhythm to God’s pace; This “rhythm” is not according to man’s timetable. He takes His time, has a blueprint, thinks over details, and loves to create. In an instant He breathed a universe. Then He spent time articulating details in an order and sequence that cultiminated in the crescendo of the making of mankind; a creature “made in His image” and likeness. At conception (an instant), there begins a universe of life inside the womb of a woman, and over nine months (give or take), God fashions and forms that life continually in an unmatched, unrivaled, “unseen” order.

Not all that is “unseen” is “unreal.”

Here, we see the handiwork of the God Who creates a blueprint and builds that which He can continue to develop inside and outside the womb. He considers you precious and proves that in so many ways.

the amount of time that God puts into one human being is telling of the character of the Author of Life. He’s the God of all patience. Love never fails. (3) There’s a Bible verse where it’s written, that if you were to number the amount of thoughts God has for one of His own children, it would literally outnumber the grains of sand in the ocean (4). Just think about that. No parent would say their love for their child is “small,” yet the number of their thoughts toward their own child would come nowhere close to the number of thoughts God has for His own children.

God takes His time. He’s patient. Love is patient. Love is kind; God is patient. God is kind. How amazing are His ways, and how kind His heart!!

(1) 1 Corinthians 13:4
(2) 1 John 4:16
(3) 1 Corinthians 13:8
(4) Psalm 139: 16-17— “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.”

Alex Oram

July Twenty-Nineth, Twenty-Twenty One

Give Marriage Meaning Again

I forget what sparked my interest to write this today but I know I was driving and in a very good mood. I started to think about the state of dating and marriage in society. What a stark contrast the Church must have, and does in many cases. How beautiful a reality it is when a man and woman depend on Him above all others for their wisdom in this area!

And I truly think the inverse is one of the most devastating things in this day and age. I want to change that. I can’t change others, but I can provide influence. God can do the rest; the heavy lifting. I want to spark a revolution of young people who not only want to get married but also know the “why” behind the reason for doing things God’s way. As God’s people, Christians don’t just walk like robots behind our Great Shepherd; we actually know His heart and trust His motives when making steps. We choose to trust that His way is the best way, the only way forward. So here’s to the hope of a generation who can be able to honestly say beforehand that they know enough of their spouse to know that even after the “I do’s” they will truly have NO REGRETS. How beautiful a picture that would paint to the watching world we live in who lacks faith in marriage, in God and in dating. Marriage is worth it. Trust me. I know God is doing this very thing right now without my help, and it’s so encouraging. My generation is still getting married. A couple in my church recently got married (Dan and Laura). Another couple just got engaged (Shoutout to Justin and Kayleigh). My cousin got married last night (Congrats Matt and Mel!) and another cousin is getting married in November (Let’s go Tay and Jordan!)

Photo by Lachlan Ross on Pexels.com

Two Roads, Two Results

There comes a time in every woman’s life where she must honestly assess her own value. Hopefully that time comes earlier, but regardless the hope is that it does come…it needs to come. If it does not come, the woman will become a wanderer pursuing men before God and never getting from man what only God can give. (See the woman at the well – in John 4). If a woman doesn’t know she is valuable and just how valuable she is, that she is worth the pursuit and commitment of one man for one lifetime, she will forever settle for less and find herself wandering (in mind and heart) for the “more” in life. How great a tragedy is a woman unpursued. Yet God pursues women; Jesus loves them. So she must know she is in fact pursued by One Man Who is the Only Man Who can truly assess her value and therefore no other “man” can depreciate the value which he never gave her in the first place. Jesus gave man and women inherent value. But look around. Most women in our society, since they do not know Jesus personally, have settled for “the way that seems right to man” (Proverbs 14:12, 16:25).

And the way that “seems right to man” is like the road on the right in the photo above. It seems to lead to the place of “acceptance.” Most coworkers, friends, family members are doing it “this way.” Some therefore mistake it as the “right way.” Except, it’s the way with tragic consequences and God already knows that so that’s why the rest of that verse says,

“its end is the way to death.” You must trust the God who knows end from beginning to move in the direction of the road that is right. Notice the verse doesn’t say its “beginning” is the way to death. Because that’s precisely what draws so many people in. Take relationships. All seems to be going well. They decide to “move in.” Continue dating. Things don’t hit the fan typically until later. Years in and the woman usually wonders when she’s going to get a ring. The man proposes because “he thinks he has to.” This is the world’s way and believers know that. So they aim for God’s way.

Take God’s way. The road on the left. Do you see how it might take a little “longer” to get to the destination, except the scenery and the place you will end up is even better (the beach) than the one on the right? By knowing your value, knowing your future spouse’s value, speaking that over them consistently, and then in turn communicating that to them through your actions if you’re a guy (putting a ring on it), setting a vision for your future, and safeguarding yourselves from temptation beforehand, will lead you to take God’s way and get God’s results.

Not to say that things can’t end up less than blessed, here because obviously people are free to make choices and indeed we do. But this is the general standard and it generally rings true despite the bogus “stats” that claim “Christian divorce rates are as high as non Christian divorce rates.” I’ve heard about those studies. They only measured “nominal church attenders,” not regular couples who pray together, go to church regularly, and take their faith seriously. So there’s that. And it’s a huge piece of helpful and hopeful information that’s typically left out. Yeah, kinda important. Thanks mainstream media.

God’s way is The Way because He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He already knows best and wants the best for our marriages, families and mental health.

If you’ll provide the grit, God will provide the grace.

Leonard Ravenhill

So one last thought. While the responsibility is on both the girl and guy to do things God’s way, a big portion is on the man to be the man. That doesn’t mean go out and buy a harley, or monster truck, or a pair of James Dean jeans. It just means that the man is tasked with taking responsibility in leading. In apologizing first. In taking control of that which needs to happen. Of being humble. Sincere. Strong. And sensitive. If “you’ll provide the grit, God will provide the grace!”

If the guy just “does whatever,” goes the “Accepted way,” and agrees to move in with the girl, coasts, and go the way of the world, what typically happens is an extended period and season of non(commitment) verbally and spiritually, but with a form of physical. One may say this “is still commitment.” Yes, a shallow type though. Without God’s blessing or long-term vision. Kind of like how a wave tossed in the ocean is “still water” except it goes every which way, smashing against rocks, and never settles, isn’t still. Up in the air all the time. Like a leaf blown in the wind.

And think about the effects that has on the soul of a woman, forever waiting, hinting and subtly trying to get her partner to propose to her. They live together. Are intimate. Outside God’s blessing.

That’s why God’s way brings God’s results. Commitment breeds honor breeds respect breeds trust. Trust and love are the foundations of family life. Doing it God’s way is the smart way, not because it’s “the way that seems right to man”, but because it’s the way that IS right for man and its end is fruitfulness, yeas of faithfulness, tears of joy, triumph, and seasons of rest and wonder and childlikeness on the shores of God’s protective beach for a couple, which is marriage. With all its mystery and might.

And on this beach it’s not always “good weather,” but husband and wife know that every storm shall pass, especially since they’ve tied their souls to the One Who calms the seas with a word from His mouth. #JesusisLord

Happy Fourth Weekend,

Alexander Oram

July Third, Twenty-Twenty One

The Call THROUGH Sadness, Not “TO” Sadness

The other day I was scanning through my journal and came across a day where I jotted down a poor day I was having. This day was from around 1-2 years ago. I do not remember what got me down that morning. Likely it was the way I woke up, as sometimes happens. It’s not due to someone or something but rather just the thick fog of life we sometimes move through before seeing it subside.

On that same journal entry, I saw that I wrote down that by the end of that same day, I was back to my ‘normal’ temperament. Feeling far better than before. It was a reminder that often times moods and emotions are like clouds and atmospheres; fleeting, strong and thankfully, TEMPORARY.

Even for the type of people who seem to be the most carefree and full of joy.

I woke up the other day with one of those moods. It was more tiredness than anything else. Usually as I go through my day, I am pretty happy. I thrive on being inspired, and like to encourage people when I get the opportunity. But this day I was so tired that around 2pm I was already straining to stay awake. Yawns replaced my usually positive outlook. Drudgery replaced curiosity.

Towards the end of my last meeting of the day though, I felt refreshed again, despite my mood. This was a reminder to me that sometimes when you have an important meeting for work, or conversation to be had, or opportunity coming up that God has specifically been preparing for you and that you’ve specifically been praying into, life will happen! The enemy will get your number. You will be known by Hell, and Hell’s shadow may begin to try to cloud your very outlook itself to the point where you wonder what it is you actually set out to do in the first place and why.

Yet the calling upon your life remains. God sends the fog lights (and high beams) of inspiration and people and encouragement to your heart as a reminder to endure and to keep moving forward. The second wind of the Holy Spirit comes to breathe a fresh wind and fresh fire into your spirit. In Hebrew, the name for Holy Spirit means “Breath of God.” The term used is “Ruach.”

Remember today why you’re here and what you’re made for. Move through your temporary moods and emotions to partner with God in fulfilling your eternally impactful purpose.

And God will meet you “MORE than halfway.”

See the Prodigal son story for proof. (Luke 15:11-31)

By Alex Oram

June Seventeenth, Twenty-Twenty One

Freedom to Fly: A Call to Action

It’s time for the Church to possess the power she’s been equipped with.

WE ARE THE ARMY OF GOD.

It’s not that we were never given the equipment to succeed but that we have often neglected seeing and utilizing the equipment. Unlike the equipment of the armies of the world, the equipment of the army of God is greater. More powerful. The power made available to us when we gather together and stir up the faith which the Spirit of God has imparted in each other is unlike anything else.

This is not light stuff, it’s serious. But it’s also not over-complicated stuff, it’s simple. Inexplicable. Amazing. It can be something as simple as praying together. Or maybe the Spirit of God puts a specific brother or sister on your mind and you cannot shake the urge to text or call them and encourage them. They receive the text and it turns out that it was the exact thing they needed to hear at the exact moment they needed to hear it. This has happened countless times TO me from others and it has happened countless times THROUGH me for others. And yet the power at work here is not even ABOUT me. It’s about the Father and the love He has for sons and daughters.

A wise person once said that “the number one thing we can offer to God is not our ability but our availability. “That we would actually allow God to use us whether in the supermarket checkout line or at the homeless shelter on a rainy morning.

We need more men in this generation to be drill sergeants in the spirit realm who raise other men up to be everything God has purposed them to become. I think that God is honestly raising up more men like this in this hour and in this generation. They will preach with the bread of sincerity and clarity and not mince words and at the same time their utmost heart will reflect God’s; they will desire that none perish but that as many men, women and children as possible would be saved.

If I’m on a plane with my brothers getting ready to make a leap of faith into the unknown the best thing I need in that moment is not to sit in a circle on bean bag chairs with other guys so we can talk about our hopes and dreams, but to start rallying and readying each other with raised voices and courageous calls to action and to commitment. If we are going to jump sometime today I may need a swift kick in the butt to get me going and every ounce of me will thank the one whose shoe marked my backside when we both reach the ground.

If the shoe is on the other foot and I am fully ready to square up and leap but I see my brother cowering in the corner, I need to be the one who can light a fire under his butt and get this show on the road. Good friends know that they can speak honestly to one another, even if at times it seems “offensive.” Heed the following verse in Proverbs which elaborates on this truth:

Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.

Proverbs 27:6

The army of God consists of many wounded warriors who need the bandages of the bonds of brotherhood to fully heal. The difference in wounds from a friend and enemy is that an enemy wounds to kill, but a friend may have to wound you to heal you. An enemy wounds you not because they seek your best interest but because they want to hurt you. A friend may have to speak the truth that sets you free and in the process, it might “wound” your ego. So be it. Get over yourself and let them deflate your ego to save your soul. We need each other’s input to heal properly.

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” (James 5:16).

Today is Memorial Day.

As we reflect on those who have faithfully served the country, let us be grateful for their sacrifice and consider how we today can faithfully serve each other and the Kingdom of God. As we honor all that they did in the past, let us stir up each other for the faith we need for the present. Let us look to the faithful brothers and sisters beside us in our local churches and encourage each other as much as possible that we may be they who build up rather than tear down. Let us experience the fruit of the Spirit and not only stay connected closely to Jesus the Vine but also to each other, the branches. For our Lord said that “Apart from him we can do nothing” (John 15:5) and yet when we abide in Him and He in us, we bear much fruit!

It’s not that we can’t actually do anything apart from Jesus. We can make a whole lot of noise and money and sandcastles, to be sure. But at the end of the day if we have done it all apart from Jesus, they are just that: crumbling castles of show and no substance. What a pitiful waste that would be. Let us therefore esteem the work which is worthy of eternal eternal value and cultivate souls in the harvest which is ripe. And pray for workers of the harvest to be sent out (Luke 10:2). Let us not just “pray” but “pray earnestly,” as our Lord commanded (Luke 10:2).

Happy Memorial Day,

Alex Oram

May Thirty-First, Twenty Twenty-One

Commissioned by the King

I got off the phone with a buddy of mine. A father figure. An older mentor.

At a little more than twice my own age, Brian finished telling me about what led up to the call he feels God has given him to teach English to Columbian students in South America. But it would not be without challenges. Shortly after his retirement, at a time when he felt he would be laying back and taking it easy, it seems God had other plans. And it scared Brian. The way riding a dirt bike at 70 on an open field “scares” you. The way jumping out of a plane with a parachute and safety vest scares you. The way that adventure, in all its joy and terror scares you. It sounds like “risk.” It sounds like living by faith.

I pondered this for a bit after our phone call. Why do Christians often get “uncomfortable” callings? Challenging Missions? Trying Tasks?I concluded that it is the pagans who get the “easy” route.
But the sons and daughters of God go where His grace leads. And His presence accompanies the mission. (Hence, the great “Co-Mission. Key word, “co”). We do not ever go “alone.”
We get the joy and thrill of transcendent calling over personal comfort.
We get the discomfort of going into jungles, countries, new territory within our own country (wherever we might work) and even to the edges of the earth to call out a people far from the Father. Though His presence is not really far from them. (See Acts 17:27)
The greatest satisfaction is seeing a Good God bridge the gaps between uncomfortable situations with His grace, by His Son, through his sons and daughters.
His hands and feet.

In light of and because this, even pagans can be transformed into sons and daughters.

Believer, wherever God has placed you to work right now, just know that He has anything but “boring” in store for you.

You are called to be a Daniel in a generation of the spiritually blind.

You are called to be a Joshua in a land where others are too afraid to move forward.

You are called to be a Moses among a people who are apathetic.

You are called to be a Peter and James and John and Nathaniel in a land that is thirsty for the supernatural power of God to move as it longs to hear the Gospel.

Go where you are called, not where it is comfortable.

Alex Oram

April Fourteenth, Twenty-Twenty One

I Am NOT the Product of “What Happens to Me”

I have perhaps been reminded by God of a couple things recently: Consistency matters to God and what you plant as a seed you will reap as a harvest..if you do not give up. (1) Consistency…it really matters to God. Like, really! It’s about laying down the seeds. Over and over again and in time when the seeds die and are buried in the ground, they become “new life.” They sprout. It’s like death, burial and resurrection. Sound like something else? The Gospel is even written into nature. The farmer is not far from sensing a depiction of the gospel every time there’s a harvest. But only the person who receives what God has given truly receives the benefits of the Gospel. God has given His Son to the world. I invite you to receive Him today.

There are two purposes to this post. To encourage the fainthearted BELIEVER and to help move the fainthearted PRE-BELIEVER toward the presence of JESUS. Not by my might or my pen or my keyboard for that matter, but BY HIS SPIRIT. I have no power whatsoever to breathe life into dust. That’s all God. Or to raise dry bones. God specializes in that. He loves doing it. But another thing He likes doing is using people to their full potential to fulfill His purposes. So I pray and seek to be one of those servants, upon whom He’s lavished His grace. #ProductofGrace

I am not “what happened to me.” I am “what happened to Jesus.” And what happened is He ROSE. #SoIRISE.

Alex Oram

To Every “Prebeliever”

Maybe you’ve been through the thick of it. You’ve risen above your circumstances and are still here, wondering how. Thank God!!! We are glad to have you here. You matter. You wonder what your purpose is. Maybe you think it’s to encourage others to rise above their circumstances like you did. To follow in like fashion of the self-help, self-transformation books of our day. They are flying off shelves left and right. Here’s the thing though. Let me stop and encourage you to hit a new floor and to see a new ceiling. If you have not yet truly met Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I dare say that you have not begun to truly know what it means to rise. And there is Good News: there is a future and a hope for you greater than you could ever know; to know the heights God can raise you to. And only God can do it. Not human effort. Not intellect. And not witchcraft. It’s one thing to rise above what you have been through. It’s another to have joined in with Jesus in what He’s been through. When a human being sees what Jesus of Nazareth has suffered on their behalf, truly sees it, ponders it, and opens up their heart fully to Him, committing with their heart to believe that He is indeed the sinless Son of God, Emmanuel, the Messiah, a dramatic shift happens within the atmosphere of the spirit. Jesus likens it to being “born again” : “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (3) Nicodemus response was classic. He asks how a person can go back into his mother’s womb and be born a second time. Jesus doubles down, making it crystal clear that He is talking about a spiritual birth. A re-creation of the human spirit that happens in the twinkling of the eye when a person chooses to follow Jesus Christ. By the way, there is an amazing series called the Chosen, in which you should absolutely look up the scene between Jesus and Nicodemus. It’s a tear jerker. You can find this on youtube.

If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved

Romans 10:9

That is talking about “believing with your heart” and not simply your head. It’s about 12 inches from the head to the heart. But the difference is night and day. We prove what we say we believe by what we do about what we claim we believe. If I actually believe Jesus rose from the dead, I’m going to live dramatically different than someone who thinks that is true with only their head, but does not believe it in their heart. It is from the heart that the matters of life flow. Jesus is in the business of open heart surgery, spiritually speaking and He came to ransom our hearts which when we did not yet believe, were frankly under the power of the evil one, satan, as the Bible says.

So take honest inventory of yourself. If you are fascinated by Jesus Christ and do not identify as a Christian, you are in a decent place. I implore you, seek Him. Read the book of John. Watch the Chosen series. Believe on Him for Who He really is. That is the only way His life can begin to fill yours. For if you have been through a lot already, He is near. But if you have not yet had your spiritual eyes opened to His presence it is more than likely you have been hardened through all you have been through. You are here, but hardened. You present as having a tough outer exterior because it was what was required of you to move forward. You need inner transformation. Not a self-help book or a message on a yogi tea bag tag or another instagram pump-up post from your favorite influencer. Those things may be deep but they don’t reach nearly deep enough. We need spiritual open heart surgery. Every one of us. And there’s only One Great Physician. (2)

If this is message is strong, it’s what I intended. If I do not make this crystal clear how will you know my heart for you on paper?

During this Good Friday as many reflect upon what Jesus has accomplished through His death, burial and Resurrection, I invite you to get to know Jesus for Who HE said He is. Take His word for it.

Have a great Friday!

Alex Oram

April Second, Twenty-Twenty One

(1) Galatians 6:9

(2) Mark 2:15-17

(3) John 3:3

The Wedding, a Friend and the Authority of your Example

As I got off the phone with a friend, I was genuinely encouraged— amazed.

Funny how when you think of who you will marry one day, you don’t always think of the friends who will be impacted by your choice later on. Or better said, impacted by God’s choice for you. The choices we make surrendered to Christ echo throughout eternity. For the Christian, few things may give off more light to a world in disarray than the right spouse and right living. Few things have the power to point to Christ more than those two things. When we live life out in purity surrendered to God, it is a great witness. When we practice what we preach and serve our spouse in covenant with God, great things happen. And we really don’t always realize it. Why is this the case, anyway? In our postmodern, tech-ridden world, we can choose a whole lot without waiting a whole lot. Your spouse should not be one of those things. Good gifts come with good timing. We have to wait on God’s timing. Think of our world, think instacart, instagram, insta-oatmeal. It takes no time. The thing is, you can’t microwave the time it takes for God to bring you the spouse of your prayers and hopes and dreams. That one is going to have to come by patient endurance and gentle hope. And most importantly, by faith.

The beauty of dating “God’s way” is when you do meet the spouse you have always prayed for, the merging together of both your lives into oneness through marriage can paint a beautiful work of art against the backdrop of a culture which would rather do anything but wait.

Alex Oram

James, the half-brother of Jesus, said much that can apply here though he wasn’t specifically addressing marriage. He was addressing persecution. He encourages the global church to “count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1:2-4 NKJV).

Did you ever think that “waiting” can feel like a trial in a way? For many, it is. It takes faith to wait and it takes patience to endure that waiting. Think about it. To believe that God has hand-picked someone for you to marry–to do life with for the rest of your life. To follow God anyway and prepare yourself to become that spouse God will bring to your future spouse. Yeah–that takes FAITH. But it’s worth it. Every last ounce of it! And God will waste none of it, right down to your last drop of faith.

Father of Lights

I’ve always liked this title for God. Ever since I heard of it, a little less than 5 years back! I bring it up because that’s the crescendo of the same chapter in James where he encourages the churches everywhere to endure temptation. Right afterwards he talks about receiving the “crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him”(v. 12). And then he goes on talking about how sin is birthed. And how to overcome it. You don’t just run from it. You run to something better…that is, God’s promises. Catch this. He then says:

“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (v. 16-17)

Do you ever think that gift may include your future spouse? That’s practically the first thing that comes to mind every time I read the verse. My wife. The woman God has matched for me. I may not know what our tomorrows hold but I know Who holds tomorrow and not just that, but from the way that God brought us together and “crossed our paths”, I can’t help but know that I know that I know she is the perfect one for me. (though we both are clearly imperfect). So, what now?

Hold on, Look up, Be a Hearer AND a Doer of the Word

Oh yeah, so how about that conversation I mentioned at the beginning and how exactly does it tie in here? Well what happened was when I was a bachelor I lived in a shared home with a handful of guys, all older than myself for a time. Some more than twice my age. One of the younger ones, Karl, was brought to our house one day by another one of my suite mates, Brian. Actually, God brought him, but He used Brian to do it! Brian and I had talked about doing a bible study in the house. Keep in mind, this was a big, older victorian style house. It had the room for it and room for us to fellowship together. So what happened was one of our suite mates moved out one week. And Karl moved in. The backstory was that Karl was going through some valleys in his life and searching for a place to live. He prayed to God and believed that if he put all of his belongings in a uhaul, God would provide. Sure enough, Brian and him had a phone call during this time. He had a need, and we’d soon have an open room. The timing of God. The providence of God. Beautiful.

Anyway, I’d talk to Karl at night sometimes when I got home from work. He joined in our Bible studies where God moved in a special way each week. A little before I had met Karl, I had began talking to the woman who’d become my wife. We dated long-distance for about 7 months before meeting in person. I of course kept Karl updated with the joy of my new found relationship. A little less than a year later, my wife and I were getting married on my father’s property in the backyard (hey, backyard weddings are legit). Karl and his daughter came. It was a beautiful day. The most special day of my life. Fast forward to 3 years into my marriage where Karl and I caught up on a phone call a few months back where he voiced to me what an encouragement that day was. I had know idea all of what God was doing in his heart and how God would use that day to encourage Karl. It was on this phone call that he told me the story of how he’d met a special someone. They have to this day, been talking for about 7 months. Long-distance, mind you. Karl recalls the piece of my story (our friendship and our wedding) as one of the many vital parts God used in his life to land him where he is at. That’s all God. God wove it together. I just surrendered and participated in what God was doing in my life. By faith! And thinking of the way my own story has come together, I know I can attribute it to many godly examples I’ve had the privilege of watching in my life over the years.

Praise the Living God! Thank you Jesus!

So hold on. Look up. Have faith. Walk upright. Walk in the Spirit. Walk in His will for you, Christian. The story He will weave in your life will be one you’d never be able to dream up or scheme up yourself.

“Now to Him Who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. AMEN.” –(Ephesians 3: 20-21).

Alex Oram,

March 4th, Twenty-Twenty One

Make Leaps of Faith with the Lions or Lay Down and Pur with the Kittens

The devil wants to convince you that premature death would be easier than doing the hard thing..than doing the right thing.

He tried to talk Jesus off a cliff and continues his same antics today. Jesus would have none of it, and you shouldn’t either. As the saying goes, “know your enemy.” Think about it from his vantage point in order to become wise in unraveling the schemes set against you. Lucifer, once a high angel turned devil is now set out to make devils out of angels and that’s not even his primary purpose. His main goal is to take humans made in God’s image and turn them into ones who look more like him. How? By the way they walk, think, talk and act.

He’s done well with those who have not yet come to the light of Christ. The Bible says those who do not yet know Christ are spiritually blinded by the enemy. When they believe in Christ though the “veil” is removed.

When it comes to believers, the devil is working a lot. His goal is to convince lions they’re simply kittens so they’ll waste time purring and being pet instead of roaring and roaming the wild. If he can do this successfully they will live like house pets instead of taking dominion over jungles. They’ll become “kings of the litter box” instead of “kings and queens of the jungle.”

Back to the intro! Some things we are called to do as believers difficult. A wise man said:

“God had One Son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.” (Augustine)

The devil wants to convince you that doing the hard thing you know you’re called to do, with the aid of the Father, would be too hard and that “you’re better off throwing yourself off a cliff.” The interesting thing is the heart of that method is the same as he used with Jesus! He told Jesus to prove His sonship following an encounter Jesus had with the Father where the Father affirmed, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17).

God didn’t just say this is my Son, but rather this is my [Beloved Son]…. with whom I am WELL PLEASED.

After this Jesus was led out in the wilderness to be tempted where satan questioned Jesus’ Sonship, using the same tactic he used in that garden. Only he left out the words “beloved” and the fact how God is well pleased with Jesus. Watch:

Satan: “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

What about the fact that Jesus is the BELOVED Son of God? Of course he left that out.

Satan twists God’s powerful Word, leaving out and then in other cases adding things in, that God never said. Jesus’ response is legendary:

“It is written,

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Jesus lived His life on earth between the “IT IS WRITTEN” and the “IT IS FINISHED”.

The “IT IS FINISHED” were His last words after being crucified and before dying as He completed His mission on earth. But He lived on, for He was resurrected, appearing to the disciples and the eye witnesses. He sure had more to say on earth when He rose as well!

You must live your life grounded and cemented on “It is written” and if you do not know “what is written” you must refresh yourself in it. Satan is the accuser of the brethren and seeks to steal, kill and destroy. If he can’t take your life by your own hands (suicide) through convincing you in your mind that you are better off dead (a lie from the pit of hell) he will surely try to deceive you by some other means.

We cannot think we are safe because we heard the Word last month or read it at some point, but we must refresh ourselves in God’s Truth as much as possible, cementing ourselves in it, rooting ourselves in it deeply so that we will not be deceived and tossed around like children by every wind of doctrine that tries to creep its way in. What “sounds good” is often deception disguised. Like the “all roads lead to the same path” lie that satan has wrapped in a different package today.

More on that to come!

Alex Oram

January 6, 2021

Beautiful Resistance: The Art of Defying the RIGHT Things

Something magnificent happens with the beautiful refusal to defy what others drown in.

So often, others don’t see the water that is “society” and “common culture” rising until it’s too late. For the “fear of what others will think” people cave. They fear being “rejected” so they flow “with culture” rather than against it. That’s where Jesus and His followers come in. Jesus was a beautiful rebel not rebelling against broken people but against broken systems and ways of thinking. He refused to go the way of where everyone else was led and instead said, “Come, Follow Me.” Imagine the moment He called Matthew the outcast of a tax collector unto Himself. Matthew, then, a stubborn boyish man not sure of “himself,” and at the same time too sure of himself (in insecurity). Jesus, a man. Jesus, assured. Not self-assured, but always assured in His sonship to the Father and in dependence on Him. Never self-focused, only love-focused. For there isn’t love in selfishness nor is there any selfishness in love. Jesus the man. Jesus the Lord, the true God, made manifested in the flesh.

Photo by Marlon Martinez on Pexels.com

Defy the current of common culture and flow with the river of the Holy Spirit.

It turns out as a common rule that in order to flow with one person we must choose not to flow with another. If a friend asked me to stand for his cause, naturally I could not also stand with an opposing cause. This is where we stand today. In a culture of watered down Christianity, far too many have attempted to stand for two, or even three masters. They’ve tried but failed. Eventually ultimate allegiance to one cause will requiring relinquishing your utmost obedience to all others. It’s a code of honor, really. And it’s also basic common sense.

If two people come into a room and ask me to follow them, the one I trust more is whom I go with.

This is where we stand today.

Are Christians going to trust Christ most or not?

Are believers going to love God most, so they can love others more?

It stands to reason that His way, is the way. And He didn’t just talk to talk. He walked the walk and never wavered. Abundant grace. Unending mercy. Unwavering backbone. That’s Jesus.

It stands that those who are being remade to look more like Him would become more like Him, too.

The Cost of Not Becoming Like Christ

Lisa Bevere said this: We were made in the image of love. But “sin unmakes us.” This why so many look nothing like love. But when we are born again through God’s Spirit in this life when we wholeheartedly receive Christ as Lord (Romans 10:9) we begin being remade again into God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works (Ephesians 2:10). The cost of a believer not becoming more like Christ is grave. Seriously. If we do not allow ourselves to be transformed into His image VIA the renewal of our minds (Romans 12:2) we will be conformed to this world. We will talk exactly like the world talks. Think like it thinks. Do what they do. This is grave and is blatant rebellion to the God Who has generously gave His life for us, and also a poor witness for the cause of Christ to others, as we live before them. Every single believer, no matter where they work or live, is called to be an actual ambassador of Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20).

With all That Said…

If you are a believer, I invite you to examine yourself (2 Corinthians 13:5) as we all must do. This is the most important thing we can do, examining ourselves and then proving ourselves doers of the Word rather than hearers only, which is really living in delusion if we are hearers only (James 1:22).

If you have not received Christ today as Lord of your life and as Savior from your sins, and you’d like to do that because you are ready enough to give Him your life, I invite you and I implore you to do the greatest thing you’ll ever do today. I say “ready enough” because you and I never quite “feel ready” before we take a step of faith. I say a “step” because faith is actualized in steps. False faith is “Talk only.” True faith is manifested in action.

Faith is about trust. I don’t know of Anyone greater that you could trust than the very One Who died for our sins and rose from the grave through the power of God and Who is now seated at the right hand of the Lord God.

If you have questions, comment below.

If you need prayer, comment below.

If you are still “investigating” well keep on with all your heart and mind and you shall come to see the One Who’s always been, is, and will be. Please remember the time is short though. I wouldn’t want to wait another day to receive Jesus into my heart if I was without Him.

Thank you for your time today,

Alex Oram

November Twenty-Five, Twenty-Twenty

2020 Vision: Are You Strong Enough to Confront Yourself? To Receive Correction?

Photo by Ariful Haque on Pexels.com

“A reprimand goes deeper into one who has understanding and a teachable spirit than a hundred lashes into a fool.”

—Proverbs‬ ‭17:10‬ ‭ // AMP‬‬ Translation

Or the English Standard Version reads:

“A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.”
‭‭

Oddly enough, it seems many in this generation and this hour lack the true strength of character to receive a rebuke or any sort of correction. Becoming like straw men, we’re somehow content to “create criticism” but fold in half when receiving it.

I’m mainly concerned with constructive criticism here. But oh boy, if you’re talking outright non-constructive criticism, many don’t stand a chance. It seems when any criticism comes, so does the defense. Egos get smashed. Pride wounded. Defenses built up. Walls erected.

Won’t let others in. Can’t cope with any negativity. Refuse to receive correction.

In effect, many have so many walls up they can no longer love, to put it simply. They’ve sorely mistaken another person’s constructive criticism for a “lack of love” rather than “truth spoken out of love.”
-See Ephesians 4:15 for more.

Reach for the Root

I get it though. Maybe for many, they’ve grown up with parents who acted like drilled sergeants and sports coaches, always feeling they didn’t quite “measure up.” Their bent is now to be “perfectionists.” And they’re driving themselves mad trying to “keep up.” Or maybe their parents were so casual that they couldn’t quite tell whether they cared at all.
Here’s the thing.
Our past is often not our fault.
But our future is our responsibility.

The refreshing truth I’ve also found is often those who look to learn from criticism, also didn’t have easy pasts. Those who handle it well, weren’t always treated so well.

They have come to the mature realization that the pain inflicted on them in their past, wasn’t often their own fault.

Maturity can take time. Then again it is up to an individual to determine the rate at which they grow, or don’t. We all know a 40-year- old who still blames their “past” or parents for the way they still act. To be frank, if a person refuses to change, then blames others, it’s not others’ fault, it’s that they want to validate their own desire to stay the same.

What’s So Amazing about Growth

It will cost us something to change. Like it or not. Whether comfort, or time, or shedding off the old outer layer of dead skin to put on the new. Christ followers know that “putting on the new” person, fashioned and formed in the image of Christ, is the utmost privilege and freedom there is in this life.

“and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4:24‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

It costs something to change. But what we receive in return far outweighs the pain of staying the same.

There’s a quote that rings something like “the pain of change is far better than the pain of staying the same.”

The thing is, to receive constructive criticism or even a rebuke or reprimand from a close friend or family is far worth any “discomfort” that we are feeling in the moment or short-term after receiving it.

In his book, Beautiful Outlaw, I remember the Author John Eldredge was talking about the wonderful, beautiful, direct, and yet disruptive honesty of Jesus. What now, are you talking about “meek and mild” Jesus? Sweet lil’ Jesus, you might say.

Yes. But that Lamb is also a Lion so let’s get it straight or sort it out if need be. I honestly think many have mistakenly gotten their perceptions of Him based more off popular paintings, “opinions” and plays rather than the Gospels themself. Let’s change that. May we?

John Eldredge asks the question in one chapter of how many people we can think of in our lives who’ve been honest to the core with us? Not out of frustration, or anger, or drunkenness. But out of love. Can’t name many, right? It takes almost an “art” to get it right. But Jesus did every time. He had the perfect balance of honesty and directness and love and respect for others.

How wise would we be then, to receive the wisdom that comes from correction and insight from others? If we profess ourselves to be “too wise” to receive anything form others, we suddenly become fools.

Fools don’t listen. Back to the verse in Proverbs.

“A single rebuke does more for a person of understanding than a hundred lashes on the back of a fool.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭17:10‬ ‭// NLT‬‬

No one is perfect. But better to be the wise man who learns quickly than to the fool who does “not want to hear anything” that ever challenges him/her.

If we cannot confront ourselves, we become only as strong as “straw men.” Like scarecrows, we’ll pretend to stand for strength but fold under a gust of wind.

Alex Oram

October 17, Twenty-Twenty

God Over > Eve: Dating Choices

I’m re-reading Wild at Heart and needed to stop here to reflect and share something important. Initially, I had in mind some bloggers who might really relish this information especially. I think the audience spans beyond that though. Men and women, I know Covid-19 has got you stirring and perhaps aching to find that someone with whom you will “settle down.” As a married man who did not settle in choosing my wife, I now want to share the worth of such decisions and why men and women cannot afford to settle in this arena. I know there are plenty of singles looking for dates during this time. I applaud the search and must remind you this is not the place to settle. We choose our attire each day, we pick what we want to order on the menu at restaurants and we choose how to spend our time, but when it comes to choosing a spouse to spend your life with, you are going to want to put God, prayer, wisdom, others’ feedback, and knowledge at the forefront. The best part of doing it God’s way, is that He will bring a settled peace in your spirit in you knowing when you’ve found your future spouse. He will usually confirm it in small and big ways. God is SO GOOD!!! This is why Spirit-led Christians often move at a faster pace in their relationship sometimes. If you are reading and do not identify as a Christian or “religious” I have no doubt that you can glean much here too. Men AND women, you need to hear this!

1. Your relationship is bigger than you.

I have counseled many young men to break up with the woman they were dating because they had made her their life. She was the sun of his universe, around which he orbited. A man needs a much bigger orbit than a woman. He needs a mission, a life purpose, and he needs to know his name. Only then is he fit for a woman, for only then does he have something to invite her into.

John Eldredge

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Did you catch that? If a man has not started on the journey to responsibility, responsible job handling, responsible communication, and maturity, what use do you have giving him your time? But stop. It doesn’t end there. Christian women, you need not settle on a man who meet all these qualifications. God has for you MUCH MORE than a responsible man who is mature. He has for you a man after His own heart.
2. “ A man does not go to a woman to get his strength; he goes to her to offer it.” -John Eldredge

A man must get his strength from God or else he will make a mess of trying to prove he is a man everywhere else. You’ve met plenty of men trying to prove they are men. We all have. It’s often overdone. The image. We only see their heart when the pretense drops and man’s heart is exposed. Eldredge says what many men pass off for “manhood” is often a caricature, a cartoonish display that is overblown and overdone. It is driven by fear and insecurity. A real man is assured he is one deep inside. He is assured he is a man by way of God’s affirmation.

Trust me, God has different standards for manhood than the world does. God is not impressed by immature boys who can rev engines, drink a beer in under 10 seconds, and wear cut-off jean jackets. Oh, but how many men are impressed by this! God is committed to growing you UP–As Author John Eldredge has said.

3. The most important part of this message is a man must know God first before trying to get to know you, women.

He must put God BEFORE you. GOD>Eve. He must love God most so that he can truly learn how to lay down his life for you.

Many men have replaced their innate desire for God with their pursuit of a woman. I couldn’t have captured it any better than this author does here:

There was a time when Adam drank deeply from the source of all Love. He—our first father and archetype—lived in an unbroken communion with the most captivating, beautiful, and intoxicating Source of life in the universe. Adam had God. True, it was not good for man to be alone and God in His humility gave us Eve, allowed us to need her as well. But something happened at the Fall: something shifted. Eve took the place of God in a man’s life.

And this is the curse of the fall and the reality of what we see so many men doing today. But for a man to put God first in his life and allow Christ to order his life is counter-cultural but it 110% Biblical. It’s how we were meant to live. By faith!

For the Bible says to believers, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 ESV

Don’t settle.

June 9, 2020

Alex Oram

Let’s Talk Hawaii & Anxiety (Chill, “Bruh”).

Just recently a cousin of mine, Matt, published a blog post on Hawaii. During #Covid he’s decided to take his readers through a state per day, as I believe he’s visited all of them. You can check that out here: https://www.the-fullstory.com. So it got me thinking about Hawaii. I’d love to go. There’s something about merely the thought of this place that screams, wait… whispers (calmly) anxie-free. The thought of Hawaii even sparked something I remember learning about in Max Lucado’s Anxious for Nothing. And bad news (for us)…it has to do with Americans.

Hawaiian’s literally have a phrase for the American pace of life. I’ve forgotten it since reading Lucado’s book a couple years back, but remembered it had to do with the feeling and look of a frazzled, stressed-out American pace. Can you blame or really even debate that? It’s pretty much well-known. We love to be out and about and are out in the open about being out and about. But notice what has happened since corona…the pace has halted. The people are squirming. An already world that could not sit still while on the move is now taking a “time-out”, as an important role model in my life has cleverly pointed out.

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Photo by Thomas Nelson Gallery

Don’t waste your blessing of being home right now by assuming you’re in a prison when in actuality, you’ve been set “free” from all that is wrong with modern living.

Alex Oram

The pace of modern life. Gone. Freedom from running around (which too much of us do if we’re honest). Overall, quarantine isn’t a prison sentence; it’s a blessing to start back at square one.

Take it from a Hawaiian himself (me).. this is a time to get acquainted with a greater sense of calm. Just kidding, I’m really not Hawaiin. But if I was now you know what I’d say. And the part about the calm remains. To me, I love moments of stillness in the day; gentle resets that help you consistently work at the quality and pace you’d like. But to me, I also recognize that we are spiritual beings. I do not take that lightly and therefore I feel that being “still” for “stillness” sake means little if it doesn’t lead to a greater depth in my relationship with God. I truly believe with my whole being that every person can enjoy a meaningful, deep, fulfilling relationship with God, too. Jesus has paid the price for it. That is what my faith walk is all about at its core.

To close, during this time I want to encourage a slower pace. An embrace of this change of pace. Adopt the keys to unlocking freedom from anxious living, that is, to relinquish control. The relinquishing of control does not mean the relinquishing of responsibility for that which we can control. It just means, you really never had as much control over what you thought you did. So stop trying to control people and things. And there is freedom in trusting God with the majors. And entrusting people to Him. Think about all that is outside of us to control. World events. pandemics. Wars. Hairdryers. Your hair growing out of control lookin’ like a janitor’s mop. (Unless you’ve got family who’s willing to give you a FRESH CUT!) Even then, you have to give them control of your hair dew.

Learn to live slower.

Never take for granted when things open back up, too!

Since I forgot to say it at the start:

Aloha! and… whatever word means “bye” in Hawaii. Please comment if you know it.

Alex Oram

May Thirteenth, Twenty-Twenty

"Fear of the Lord" // Part 1

First off, let’s refuse to downplay the seriousness of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Let’s continue to take the preventative measures asked of us. And on that same note, let’s absolutely refuse to downplay the faithfulness of God. Read that again.

I’d been taught rightly from an early age that the “fear of God” is the reverence for Him and His name; the absolute respect for Who He is. But there’s so much more to it than that. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all knowledge. -Proverbs 1:7
And like everything routed IN God, there’s no end. Think eternity.

Recently I’ve actually been asking God to flesh this one out. I’ve been really wondering what the correct definition is, or what a fuller definition might be rather. And when I say “asking,” I don’t actually know if I did out loud or just asked within my heart. God hears those prayers uttered away from the loudspeakers of life too, you know? It’s in the secret place that we come to hear Him most loudly and clearly. It’s in the prayer closet that we close out the almost deafening, all-drowning distractions and chaos of modern life. Perhaps your secret place is a spot in nature or an open field away from everyone else. God is for your freedom of expression in this area. More than that, He’s all about your freedom in general.

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

2 Corinthians 3:17 NASB

by Tom Kardashov on Pexels.com

There is so much we could say on that one topic of “freedom,” yet that’s actually what the fear of the Lord is about. Freedom from bondage to sin, freedom from the slavery to self, and freedom from the on-ramp of death so we can get re-routed back to the Maker of Life. Repentance is the way there. I love how free it is to be in the Lord! Think about the music made in this place of freedom, as well as the art, the designs, etc. That’s what Kingdom Living is all about.

“In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence,

And His children will have refuge.”

The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,

That one may avoid the snares of death.”

Proverbs 14: 26-27 NASB (emphasis added)

If there’s refuge in something and confidence within its boundaries, that means you are safe there. It means what’s outside those boundaries, though is really the thing to fear because it’s outside the security of it. Here the proverb talks about the security in God, through the “fear of the Lord.” Amazingly, with the fear of the Lord, it is unlike any other fear, for it draws you toward the One who brings life, and keeps you away from that which breeds death and destruction, especially of the soul. The fear of the Lord is the absolute reverence, then, for the Only One who knows His creation best. It’s to respect Him most, and to take Him most seriously. He is kind and severe (Romans 11:22). We hope our earthly judges will be both right? How much more should a perfect Judge be? To those who continue in hard hearts of unbelief, severe. To those who continue in His kindness, having been justified and by the One who is Just and God, He is good to. God brings life. AS the new Elevation Worship song declares:

He turns bones to armies. Seas to highways. Graves to gardens.

That’s an award-winning song by the way. And it just came out yesterday. #Prophecy.

You’ll have to take a listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwX1f2gYKZ4

Like, right now. I’ll wait for you.

There’s actually literally nothing better than the Lord. As I see it Scripturally, The fear of the Lord is about having a healthy fear of God. I mean, who else is stronger? A tornado? His breath is 10,000 times mightier. A pandemic? He could wipe out the universe with a flick. A devil? He made the angel who willingly turned into the devil. Dude, there are no comparisons for this God, at all. Stop trying, theorizing, intellectualizing, analyzing. And I’m being very tame with my comparisons.

God is so so much more than I could ever accurately say with these lungs which have only even breath because of His first breath, breathed into the dust of the ground, mind you. So don’t get to “feeling yourself” cus what you’re feeling is dust, as the “Bizzle” said.

“Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” –Genesis 2:7

Woah. Even the best writer out there’s best work would pale in comparison to piecing together the reality of mankind in comparison to God. Man is small, like dust in composition, woven together by an Infinitely Kind Artist Who is Infinitely Grander in scale and in size, but Who’s utmost desire is that His “little” redeemed ones might love just as largely as He does. We talk about original sin, but do you know what came before that? Original design. A Brother in Christ of mine, Isaiah, said that to experience a fall, we have to fall from somewhere, right? We know how far we fell when we see what the original image actually looks like. And it looks like Jesus. How He loved and gave and served. In the same way that a broken vase looks far from the original and a shattered pot looks like pieces of the pot but far from whole again, we were born into a reality that is pierced and has fallen apart at the seams of Who it was meant to resemble. This is how humanity became after Adam ate the tree. Though fractured now, we still were made in His image. Now, doing what separates God from man comes natural. Thinking impure thoughts. Having impure motivations. Envy. Pride. Lust. That’s why Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way to death.” People don’t actually realize how not so “good” we are until we get a glimpse of God’s definition of “good.”

So then, the “fear of the Lord” is to tremble in His presence rightly, because of how utterly perfect He is. He is the Maker of all things and all beings. Who else is like Him? He is awfully “awe”-strickening, all-powerful and almighty. There’s too much more I have to say. But you’ll need to stick around for part 2 to find out!

Alex Oram

March 16th, Twenty-Twenty

Why Your Life is MUCH More Than Your Goal(s).

We’re Not Human “Doings”…Right?

We work, we strive, we accomplish, we sweat, we make lists, we meet goals, we make money, and we get stuff done. Great. There’s more to life. I digress.

The MORE to LIFE lies in who we’re becoming and not just what we’re doing. 

Remember your new years’ resolutions? Some of you are still rocking it with your gym commitment and happened to throw in a Keto diet in the mix. But many more have dropped their goals like a sack of rusty potatoes. Rusty potatoes I said, not “russet,” because we’d have to keep the russet ones. French fries!

Here’s the thing. Goals are great. Cute to have and cute to say you have. Having goals are often what separate people with potential from people on their way to meeting their potential. But discipline is that bridge in between. It cannot be overstated! But let’s take the bird’s eye view for a second and see why goals are not, I repeat, not ends in themselves. Jim Carey has said it outright:

I think everyone should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s NOT the answer. -Jimbo

Success is empty.

This is why success-based goals just don’t provide what we’re really after in the end. That feeling you get when meeting a goal lasts about 2.5 seconds. Then what? You go on with something else thinking “great, now what?” This is because that gaping, God-sized hole we all have tried to fill is actually only big enough for God Himself to fill. God is after more for your life than “goals.” He’s after formations. Who you’re becoming. Your transformation. Here’s the thing, though. Most people don’t want transformation. They want to stay the same. Keep doing what they’ve always done, getting what they’ve always gotten. I’m convinced though that Scripture clearly paints one the clearest pictures of Who God is in the Potter and clay picture.

He’s the Potter. We are the clay, if we’ve humbled ourselves and trusted in Him for our daily bread. But the only way He can have His way with us in making us into the NEW creations He wants us to be is through our humility of heart. Humility is the greatest heart quality/key to being made successfully like He wants us to be, rather than achieving success and becoming someone no one would like to be around. It’s not true that all the rich and famous are like so, but many sadly have become that way by focusing on outward success rather than inner peace, only obtained through Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

Hearts Like Clay

This is a hard matter because pride can be ever so subtle as to seep into the unknown crevices of our hearts, seeking to ever harden the heart like spiritual plaque to arteries. When this subtle shift has its way, it seeks to stay and make the clay of our souls hard, formed according to the deceitfulness of sin. That’s why the Bible says this: “But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3:13 NASB, emphasis added). Back to square one.

Success. Is. Empty.

Hands Wide Open

The reason why your life is so much more important than your goals is because you’re meant to be so much more than goals. Let no man ever reduce you to the deadlines you meet, accomplishments you’ve made, medals you’ve earned or degrees you haven’t. You could meet a guy with more degrees than a thermometer and the little paper slip to prove it, but he too will tell you at the end of the day, that doesn’t actually give him peace at the end of the day. Peace is unearned because peace is a gift. Peace is a Person; Jesus the Living God. 

God is so adamant about our transformation not our reputation.

You know, like how He came from heaven and assumed the lowest spot ever spending quality time amongst the poor, beggars, blind, sick, and sinners? Wouldn’t exactly get you the highest “reputation” amongst the heavily religious Jewish culture of His day now, would it? It didn’t. But He proved that He was humble and not after reputation because He’d walked with God, got alone with God, humbled Himself before almighty God, that He could actually change people and not the other way around. He’s our model if we are followers of The Way. ” He is God.

God made us.

Sin unmade us.

Jesus came, died and was raised for us.

God can remake us.

 

In Jesus’ image.

“Imago Dei.”

 

Alex Oram

March 6, Twenty-Twenty

 

You Need Friends with an Edge: A Wolf Pack that Packs a Punch #TwentyTwenty

“Photo from Tompax11”

Your Life is the Product of your Lifestyle

John Mark Comer said:

“Your life is a product of your lifestyle. By life I mean your experience of the human condition, and by lifestyle I mean the rhythms and routines that make up your day-to-day existence. The way you organize your time. Spend your money.” (The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry)

Imagine not including friends into your time? Better yet imagine a life without anyone else, but you.

For many this is a reality going into 2020 that ought not be so and for whatever reason, valid or invalid, it is. Guess what? I am NOT here to shame guilt or blame. I’m here to encourage you to enter THIS YEAR shaking the dirt off your shoes from THE LAST YEAR.

You have value to me as my reader and you have value to the Father as His creation.

WHATEVER bad attitudes, thought patterns, and perspectives you may have brought with you, drop them at the door steps of 2020.

This is a chance to start fresh and yet every single day is. Do not underestimate the value of a new day.

Lean on GOD, fully trusting HIS ability to go before you.

God told Moses to take off his shoes, for “THIS IS HOLY GROUND.”

One preacher pointed out that it was not just to show Moses what he’d need to leave behind him before God went before him, but also to show Moses that what he was about to step into, Moses could not do so lightly. The plan God had for Moses would require Moses to not just go into it the same way he did with everything else in his life. Moses had a conflict problem and an anger problem. The Lord, fully able to help, said leave it there, dead and distant in the past where it belongs, basically!!!

Photo by Oliver Sjöström on Pexels.com

Friends are Damage Control

By damage control I mean they prevent us from damaging us.

If we’re honest, a lot of the damage done to us is done by us.

The friend you ought to keep around is the one who will call you out on the disrespect you show yourself. Bad eating habits. Negative self-talk. Not setting goals. Not having vision. Not focusing long enough to see anything important in order to have vision in the first place! Yes, you become like those you hang out with most, so choose wisely, and please, choose friends who are edgy enough and love you enough to actually correct you.

We all need a kick in the nuts once in awhile from those we love. A reality slap.

We ignorantly disrespect ourselves when we refuse to take life-giving correction.

We beat the crap out of ourselves with negative self-talk and at the same time somehow think this is the way to help us “get our stuff together.” We are terrible at pumping ourselves up!

News flash. It’s. Not. Working.

And was never meant to, for we were always meant to live beside others. To grow with them, beside them and from their help, love and example.

And no, I am in no way advocating for “positive self-talk” alone.

There is no secret to the life that God wants for you. It is just Jesus. Adopting His lifestyle. Becoming yoked to Him and letting Him carry the weight you weren’t supposed to.

There are popular, best-selling books set to spiritualize something that is very simple: Positive self-talk. Steven Bancarz, an ex-new-ager has done extensive research and has made many excellent videos, sharing his findings and explaining why this is so.

But going into 2020, do not be deceived.

“I believe in positive thinking as a response to God, not as a replacement for Him.”

-Levi Lusko

Levi said it well.

One pastor, David Wilkerson, has said that it is often in our human depravity that we equate prospering to God’s blessing. God WANTS to bless His children because “every good and perfect gift comes from the Father.” HOWEVER, in the BIBLE and IN LIFE, often the greatest pitfalls of men and women of character have come immediately after their greatest times of prosperity.

The devil exploits weaknesses that we don’t deal with during times of “prosperity” because we naturally think all is well, God is blessing us, so “must be fine.” No, His blessing is often an opportunity for us to turn back to Him in humility, as Pastor David Wilkerson has said in a sermon entitled “Beware of a satanic set-up.”

So let us board the plane of 2020 while leaving behind the baggage we weren’t meant to carry in the first place.

Whether you’re in the valley or on the mountain top, you need God as much as the first day you cried out to Him. And we needed Him even before realizing it.

He is our breath and our life.

 

 

Alex Oram

12.31.19

 

 

“The Conundrum of Culture is We’ve Become Both Oversensitive & Yet Desensitized.”

Check this out.

If immersing oneself in “self” was the cure to all our calamity, then our generation would easily be the most mentally, emotionally, and spiritually sound generation. If serving “self,” making “oneself” most important in one’s own life, and living by one’s feelings could do it, we’d have been cured long ago. Yet quite the opposite is true.

The conundrum of modern culture is we’ve become both oversensitive and yet desensitized.

-Alex Oram

Author Stephen Lutz points out, “The paradox of this generation’s identity is many are free, confident, tolerant, open-minded, and self-asserting, but also cynical, depressed, lonely, and anxious.”

He goes on to say:

“Multiple mainstream institutions in our culture have taught people their entire lives to ‘put their own needs first‘ and to focus on feeling good about themselves, encouraging them to believe that self-esteem is everything, conformity to rules is ridiculous, easy sexual fulfillment is waiting to be had, and life is all about consumption and gratification.”

My friends, this is not the answer. My generation is easily, with no competition, the most anxious, stressed, self-deprecating, LONELY, depressed, generation. And I, unlike many, say this because I actually love people not because I’m here to point out a problem with no solution in mind. I’m writing PEER TO PEER. Not as an old geezer with some cynical attitude towards this generation, spouting nonsense like “I remember when I was younger.” Or “I had to walk 10 miles in the snow just to school…”

Cool it, Grandpah. We have heard that one before.

 

So look, if you have not heart about it, you should definitely get Jefferson Bethke’s new book, “To Hell With The Hustle.” I believe it’s on pre-order right now and 3 of the chapters become immediately available when you pre-order!

Jefferson is the author of Jesus>Religion, which if you haven’t seen the video, has easily garnered millions of views on youtube.

Guys I have all the hope in the world for my generation but the reason is I have a source outside myself for it.

Hope does not disappoint…if it’s a hope not from this world.

Jesus Christ, the son of man/the son of God, offers this very substance of hope. It’s not so much a feeling as a knowing. A settled, resolute, unspeakable, unshakable, immovable, peace and hope only proceeding OUT OF a GENUINE relationship with HIM. I’m not kidding. The best thing would be for you to radically seek out who He was as a person. Read the Gospel of John. Check out the movie A Case for Christ if you’re like me and you need hard, factual evidence! If you’re a logical, investigative type (SHOUT OUT TO THE ENNEAGRAM for this lol).

The time is short. You do not actually have a day to waste. Your eternity is at stake. Knowing Him is worth it. It’s essential to your eternity and where you will spend it. You can gamble with a lot of things in this life, but you cannot gamble with your eternity.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Al

True Humility – “Carry your Cross”

*Cover photo from https://spaceatrips.com/*

One of my favorite points of discussion and focus is the humility of Jesus.

The humility of God is something that will rack your brain every time you try to wrap your mind around it. It is too great! I’m sure there are many applications you could make to the verse, “carry your cross.” One I’ve heard is that it means to:

“Never let sin against you produce sin in you.”

-Dan Mohler

I have some thoughts on it too. I think it is a gold mine of exploration.

Get Low

Carrying your cross is not strutting out on the red carpet with your “cross” necklace, rather it is carrying one on your back. It’s in the getting low and humble like Jesus that you actually come to identify with Him too.

It was in the getting down low that He identified with the least of us.

You cannot carry a cross on one hand like Hee-Man. That’s not even what Jesus did. And He could’ve called down legions of angels to carry it for Him!

You don’t strut on by carrying the cross on your back standing up proudly. No, get real. It is a struggle for it is a weighty matter. It comes in dropping your pride and using your strength to carry it. You get low to the ground, and that’s where humility comes in. After all, this is exactly what Jesus, our Lord and Savior did when He carried His. The cross He carried was actually the weight of what we brought on His shoulders. The weight of our sin and guilt and shame. The verse in which Jesus told His disciples to take up their cross says:

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24 (English Standard Version).

In order to begin picking up your cross, you must drop your pride. For you cannot carry both. Humility marks a true Christ follower, for it is in the getting low that we identify with the Most High, the one who didn’t deserve what He got so that we could get what we do not deserve. This is His heart though, a brilliant mosaic composed of great generosity and humility. For it was actually the heart of God to be so humble and compassionate. This is why the Apostle Paul calls God, “The God and Father of compassion.” Is he wrong?

It was in JESUS that we see the man of God, who was God, strip Himself of all His glory, empty Himself of the privileges of heaven in order to identify with the lowliest of us all.

To carry our cross means to deny whatever “rights” we think we have, whatever we think someone else “owes us,” and to go ahead and focus on what we have to do: carry our cross and follow Him. There is FREEDOM IN this place. His “burden” is truly light. Will He not carry the load? Yes He will for He is faithful. It is not a pointless privilege to carry your cross; It’s a powerful one. For Christ will empower us to do so and comfort us. He will encourage us. There is struggle, but surely God loves a man greatly who He permits to struggle deeply. Think, Christ, His Son.

To carry our cross is to find the freedom we were created for, in giving up our “flesh” and our “fleshly rights” in order to crucify the flesh and live by the Spirit of the Lord, the only One who gives life and life abundant and eternal.

What must you give up when you become a Christian?

No much, just everything you were never created to be in the first place. 

 

Alex Oram

August 7, 2019

Evaluating Busyness

It is true

that we live in a quick-moving world of production and pace. It is true that those who sow seeds often are those who reap often. It is also true that those who hustle hard tend to make money as well.

But tell me what is the use of having all the money in the world without the time to utilize it?

Money is the means, which means if you’re a mean money-making machine who works day and night, all night and day, what is the point to your madness if you simply cannot buy back that time to enjoy anything?

You mean to tell me that this lifestyle is wise? Let me get this straight. If you constantly kill yourself to “go corporate” and think you can “incorporate” precious time you spent doing so back into your money-chasing lifestyle, when do you think you will stop to make time to enjoy the people you’ve neglected? Ouch.

This is a charge to move forward. But to move forward with the precious mindset that paves the way for thoughtful foresight. To consider our ways and to weigh what we consider doing. Our habits, dreams, and aspirations. This is a call, not only to consider the cost of over-working but of counting the cost of working without rest.

This isn’t advocacy against hard work. Quite the opposite. This is a call to change the way we work, get the most out of our time and thus give time to the things that matter most. People, matter, most.

We must consider the why of our lives before the what.

To me, busyness is useless if it distracts us from the simplicity of enjoying the presence of God and of people.

 

Alex Oram

June

 

 

 

I am Alex and this is My Story.

Who I Am

My life was supposed to “work out.” I was “supposed” to be brought up with two, loving, caring parents who modeled what love and family looked like from the start. You know, what most children have? Only that ended quickly. My parents are two loving, caring individuals despite the fact that their marriage ended shortly into our lives. I was 5 years old when this happened and my sister was 3.

Divorce is an ugly thing for all people involved. It doesn’t just affect spouses but it has a ripple effect that bleeds over into children. It causes a ripple in the generational and family lines that cannot be reversed. Its effects last. On a positive note, children are extremely resilient. I’m thankful in one sense that my sister and I were relatively unaware of life with my parents together because it was at a young age that their marriage ended.

With that said, we didn’t have much of a model of life with them to go off, except for our younger years which we enjoyed. My parents were high school sweethearts. Honestly, if you talk to anybody who knows either of them, they will tell you they’re the nicest, most generous and down-to-earth people you might ever meet! Guess what? They’re not lying. But guess what else? Marriages still fail with those factors involved. One extremely amazing person plus another still doesn’t guarantee a successful marriage. Have you heard of the divorce rate? There’s quite a bit more to it than that which I’ll cover later. For now, I’m going to spare the details and continue with an overview of my life and upbringing. Maybe I’ll go into more detail if I write a book one day. (Pray that day is soon.)

For my parents it was communication that was a huge part of their divorce. There were many factors actually, but it was mostly this coupled with the fact that my mom and dad were very different people. Look you can have two very different people and a very thriving marriage. With my mom and dad though, they had different interests and different ways they preferred to spend their time, and this really led to major problems when their way of communicating became nonexistent or led to unresolved fights.

Trials Continue

The case was closed. The marriage ended. The union of those two people, the result of which brought me to life, came to death. My sister and I would spend a day a week at our Dad’s place in addition to every other weekend and we would live with my mother. We got used to this routine quickly. Children are resilient. It was not but a year or so after that my mother began dating again. She got married rather quickly without truly reflecting on whether she could do life with this person because she wanted stability for us kids. Her motives were pure, but she was gullible. If you’ve ever heard of borderline personality disorder you know what life is like living with another in this space. If you haven’t please do google it to find out. Life is always like a roller coaster. My mom loved this man as did my sister and I. But quite honestly it became like walking on eggshells around our house with the anger, mood fluctuations and fights we were accustomed to witnessing.

I cannot describe it. It’s something you’d have to have been around to see and know. Let’s just say we had friends, but they would never want to come over our house that much. This is because the fights didn’t stop when they did. And the gravity of them, another story!! Boy we had GOOD and loyal friends because despite all of that we still had someone over almost every week and on many weekends too.

Now when things got very bad, my mother got divorced, yet again. This time, we were very relieved and aware. That sounds weird to say, but this was a decision that had to have been made given the circumstances.

God in the Midst

Let me talk about my Dad’s house. My father had began dating a woman named Michele during all during this time. There was something unique about Michele. She was genuinely hilarious and down to earth. Her nickname was “Spaghetti” because of her naturally extremely curly hair so guess what we called her? We would spend nights with her children who became our absolute role models for life, playing backyard wiffle ball, making jokes, spending holidays together and just enjoying life and inventing ways to find adventure in the ordinary. We would spend nights with Michele, my dad and her kids watching things like “Freaky Leaks” and “Goosebumps.” We’d go back to my mom’s house not wanting to go to bed without the covers over our faces. We loved every minute. We also loved our time at my mom’s, despite the situations that transpired in our earlier years. Through it all we would still have fun, especially spending time with my step-brother, the son of my mom’s ex-husband.

But there was something else that set Michele apart. That was the way she spoke about God. My sister and I grew up Roman Catholic. We made our first communion, we did the Sunday school thing, the whole nine yards, CCD, you name it. We developed a way to view God and for that I’m thankful. Only we didn’t know him the way Michele did. Looking back, we actually did not know him at all.

My sister and I went to a Catholic Elementary school. When we’d visit Michele she’d talk to us about what we learned there. She’d share ways that God spoke to her and she’d share Bible stories. She truly became a mentor for us. What she was doing during that time was what the Bible calls “planting seeds.” It’s funny then that throughout the years and through God’s unique way of watering those seeds, the seeds grew. He gave the growth! It was at age 15 after digesting and looking into everything she’d shared with me that I made the decision for myself to drop out of the Catholic high school I attended and to get serious about my faith. I made a decision to follow Jesus. Sounds like an “oxymoron,” doesn’t it? Dropping out of a Catholic high school to follow Christ? Aren’t real “religious” folk only allowed in a school like that anyway? But there’s something to that now that I think about it!

I got out of the “religious” scene to find Jesus.

This might shock you and I hope it does because it’s entirely too important to miss.

That’s the fact that in Jesus day and time, the people He called into eternal life and showed the way to Heaven were ones from very religious upbringings. His audience was a Jewish one. They knew all of the OT scriptures. They gave money. They prayed the long, repetitive prayers. Only it benefited them nothing, because the One the Scriptures prophesied about was right in front of them, speaking to them, and they did not believe HE was God. He was LOVE. They rejected the love extended them. How many do that today in favor of offending their culturally religious upbringing today? Too many. That’s part of the reason I write. “But it feels like treason because I grew up Catholic.”

Listen, Catholic or not, do you personally know Jesus? That is the question.

With that said, I got out of the “religious” scene to find something better than it altogether: Real, life-giving relationship with Jesus. Fellowship with other believers my age, other young guys who I could walk out this thing called the Christian life. Now when I say I became less “religious,” let me define that. I mean that in the Catholic faith, things are structured. Prayers are fine tuned. Do this. Do that. It’s a lot. It’s not surprising many drop out altogether. Let me also say, you can do all of “what’s required of you,” and still miss Jesus. I felt like I’d done that my entire life while Catholic after truly grasping who Jesus was at age 15. Think about it.

Do you know someone who is sold out for Jesus alone? Not for religious activity, but for a person. Loving a religion is two-dimensional. Loving a person is entirely different.

I became Christian (Non-denominational) and still remained in a “religion,” only the focus was on a person. The Word of God (Bible) was the structure. Catholics call this being “Protestant.” In the Catholic Church historically there’s been an awful view of all Protestants but over time they actually have become recognized as “brothers and sisters.”

All this isn’t to strike down my upbringing. There’s a reverence in the Catholic faith. There’s also many concerning and confusing beliefs that the Bible itself does not affirm, so for me I could no longer continue. To this day I know Catholics who I know love and know Jesus too. Jesus has done a perfect job showing me that every time I’ve become too hardened. My personal decision has been to align myself and plant myself in a Bible-centered, Bible-based, Jesus loving church after leaving Catholicism.

The Best things out of the Worst times

Jesus, love, family. Divorce, trials, and tribulations. How do THESE ALL fit together?

For one, I would not have the appreciation for family if it were not for how many marriages I’ve seen fail. I’ve closely watched so many friends’ and family member’s marriages crumble that I virtually determined to get to the bottom of it. Of what makes a marriage. I’ve found it. It’s not just you and the other person. It’s you, them and Christ! Life is hard enough being Christian that I can’t picture trials without Him.

Through the worst circumstances like divorce (twice) in my family, I’ve found the best things in life. God pursued me through my step-mom and also through my mom’s amazing foster family. The ripple effect was God doing a work in my Mother and Father as well and in both of their families. Cameron is one of my cousins who would constantly talk to my sister and I about his experiences with God as well. He was a crucial influence on us from a very young age and someone we always looked up to. Please pray for Cam during this time as he faces his own trials.

With that all I say that through trials, look for TRIUMPH. If you’ve known struggle, inner turmoil, what have you, look for the areas God is trying to reach you and to pursue you! I promise you He will. In times in life full of darkness look for the places the light shines brightest. Join a Bible study, talk to friends who really know Jesus, ask them about their experiences with Him. This thing is real, guys!

This life ain’t easy. We all struggle. My smile might fool you that I’ve had the perfect life from the start. That’s so far from true. However, it doesn’t mean I CANNOT HAVE PERFECT PEACE right now and through it all. Jesus promised it. I accepted it. In fact, He promises it to all who will receive it.

Don’t wait. Stay tuned as I continue my story in blogs to follow!

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it (John 1:5)

 

Written by Alexander Oram

5/24/18

 

Follow-Up Story: Sharing the Gospel with my Doctor

In one of my last blogs I told the story of the experience I had talking to my doctor about faith and getting to pray for him. Now I want to follow up since I have seen him again.

It was another ordinary day. I was thinking of an extraordinary God on my way to his office. Since that last time I’d seen him I’d felt God highlighting something in my spirit: boldness. Unashamed, unwavering, invigorating witness to Jesus. You know the kind you felt when you first got saved?

Oh what a shame it’d be to light that spark but let it dim with the cares of life, comments of others and carry-on bag full of self-doubt next to the devil’s luggage bag full of guilt and your past. Yeah, that wasn’t going to be me.

Let me encourage you. God wants you on fire! Lukewarm faith isn’t effective faith. Ever tried a lukewarm coffee?  You either spit that out or neglect it. It has to be either iced cold or piping hot to be pleasant. Jesus said not to be lukewarm for this reason. It is just not right. It doesn’t look right to others and it certainly doesn’t look right living a lukewarm faith out, unsure of the goodness of God yet claiming He’s your everything. Sure, we all have seasons where the flame goes out. God understands. But a shame it’d be not to use those past seasons as present lighter fluid for your faith.

The Meeting

I had been praying on my way to office. The content I’d been reading in my Bible plans on my Bible app has been about boldness in the book of Acts type of way. The content I’ve been reading in my devotional time has been about it. And the content in books I’ve been reading has been about it! Oh, and we’re going through a series right now in church on being “fishers of men.” So what perfect timing. That’s the Holy Spirit.

I was determined to be bold and unashamed when sharing. Ever seen someone timidly share something with you, shamefully? I cringe at the thought of someone sharing Christ in that way. So I prayed to let my genuine love of Christ shape the way I let my words flow. I prayed for boldness that morning.

I walked into the office and searched my car. I grabbed one of Billy Graham’s dvd’s I have on hand to hand out which include stories and testimonies of people who have lived without Christ and the way their lives changed when they met Him. I usually like to share the Gospel directly with someone, but I figured I’d give him the DVD if I had the opportunity too also as a follow-up.

When I walked into the waiting room I was nervous. Excitement, that kind of nervous. But still nervous. I caught the glance of others in the room and smiled and made small talk. There was a mom and her daughter and they were noticeably reading something that sparked their interest. I’d wondered if it was a Christian book, because leave it to God to send a Christian patient directly before me to the doctors office. Seriously, this is how He works, and then some.

Seizing Opportunities

I’d been praying that if the moment presented itself I would take it. The doctor greeted me and asked if I could wait for a little as he was running late today. When he welcomed me in he look frazzled and in a hurry. Oh boy, obstacles. That’s what was running through my head. But it wasn’t going to stop me. Our meeting concluded.

My pulse was racing but my mind was at ease. Calm and confidence in my spirit. Here we go.

“Ever heard of Billy Graham?”

“Oh sure,” he replied. He was the “evangelist” who passed away not too long ago, right?

“He sure was,” I said. If you don’t mind I’d love to share with you a resource I have from his organization. It’s truly a life-changer.

This resource was a wallet sized visual gospel presentation with a few scripture verses next to each picture.

“Well sure,” he replied.

I got out the fold out card from my wallet and proceeded to walk with him through the story of Creation, the fall of man, and sin nature that is deep within all of us. Then I concluded with Jesus Christ and what he did for every one of us. “He did what most religion tries, but fails to do,” I said, and that is to please God and earn His favor. He bought us back by his blood!

He’d told me a joke before when he asked me on a scale from 1-10 how I felt mood wise, as doctors have to ask when a patient has anxiety, which I do have.

He’d said, “a 10 would be if you were feeling like the Dali Llama.” Lol. So when I started to preach the gospel, I related how we as humans often think God “grades us on a scale,” where the “Dali Lama and people like Mother Teresa” sit at the very top and then Hitler and the like sit at the bottom and we think we fall somewhere in the middle. He was understanding and liking this analogy. I told him that the Bible actually groups us all together, because sin is the great equalizer and it doesn’t matter if you kept the entire law and sinned in one place, you’d still be guilty before a holy God. (“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, yet offend in one point, he has become guilty of all” James 2:10 BLB).

The doctor was processing everything. This was likely the first time he heard this explained in this manner, in this way, with someone who adamantly believed the truth behind it. At least that’s what I can hope.

He thanked me for sharing and I asked what he’d thought about this. He replied that it was interesting but that his view was that “each religion” is a different path to God and a different road there. He explained to me his view on religion and how he believes it has caused more harm than good and history tells of this. I listened to him and let him know I understood his point. But I replied that it comes down to Christ and what He said. He said “I am THE way, the TRUTH, and THE life,” not A way, A Truth, and A form of life. Which meant Christ claimed definitively to have the objective means of truth, the way to God and spiritual life we all need! He thanked me for sharing and we respectfully ended the meeting on good terms.

Please pray for this doctor and for his salvation and that the seeds planted would take root in his heart. (“You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” 2 Corinthians 1:11).

Our job is not to save people but to scatter the seeds wherever we go, letting them take root as God wills.

 

Alex Oram

May 3rd, 2018

“If God is so secure why does He need people to tell Him He’s so good?”

Just how “good” is God anyway and why does He need people to tell Him so in order to feel validated?

Glad you asked. Do you know the beauty of this is that you can ask that question sincerely and God won’t be offended. Nope, not in the least bit. The reason is His nature. What do I mean by that?

People often wonder with good intention and limited knowledge if this whole idea of “God” is just some cosmic being in the sky who is so insecure that He needs a few accolades and people ‘praising’ him in order to feel validated and worthy. The only problem of that is, He doesn’t need any of it. He doesn’t need your or my “validation” which would be insufficient anyway. When you are the Validator, it’s a different ball game. Here’s what I mean.

God’s Justice & Love

In order to explain this we have to look at who God is. God is good. Not many would disagree? What does that actually mean though. It means He is literally so pure, so great, so loving, and so gracious and generous there isn’t even an ounce, not a hint, not a trace or even shadow of any sort of evil in Him. The thought of it is even so distant you’d have to travel the universe to come near. And then would be far. Just the thought of the possibility. Picture that for a moment. Really picture it and you will get a glimpse of just what “holiness” looks like.

God is also love. He has a complete, all-encompassing others-centered love that He wants to replicate in His children. He has love to be sure, but with that said He is also right, true and just. “Justice” means administration of the law. Think about our justice system. We call the Judge your Honor and no one would think to “dishonor” him in court. In fact there is such a penalty as you being arrested and cuffed for disrespecting your Honor in court. With that said, “honor” communicates high value. In the court of our lives, God is just, meaning He has to punish wrongdoing. If He did not do so, it would be contradictory to His very nature and God is no liar. He is a fair judge. Therefore, He has to carry out what is right.

We have a legal system in place where when you break the law, you pay the penalty, whatever that may be. It’s the same in God’s court. We’re all born guilty because of sin. But He chooses to execute justice in that the punishment was inflicted on Himself when He died on the cross. So it’d be as if you’re in a court, guilty and when the Judge is about to hand you your sentence, a person rushes in and decides to take it. That person is Christ. There’s no reason He had to take the punishment on Himself but He chose to do so, just as He chose to create a being that could freely love Him in return (mankind).

Dangerous Love

Here’s how you can view the situation and understand what holiness is. When holiness comes into contact with a being that has any sort of evil in it, in whatever trace, it is a LETHAL combination. It’s just unnatural, because LIGHT will light up and overcome darkness. This is the reason people have died on the spot instantly in the Old Testament when encountering God. It wasn’t anything to do with God inflicting it, rather God put up fences of protection to safeguard this but people made mistakes too.

When the apostle Paul encounters a vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus, He can’t even get up from the ground because of what He just saw. Yes, he is literally blind after this event for 3 days! It’s all in the Bible. Check the book of Acts #Rad.

With that said here’s the point I want to drive home. Light exposes darkness. God has the ultimate light in every sense. The Bible calls Him the Father of Lights in the book of James to drive that home.

“Paul had a literal, physical encounter with God that turned Him from the biggest persecutor of Christians, to the biggest missionary of the Church,” as my Pastor has said.

This is the type of transformation the Bible is echoing when people come to Jesus. Contrast that with simply “incorporating” him into your life or “saving a part of your heart” for room for Jesus. Yeah, that sounds like the lullaby story it is. That’d be a foreign concept to the whole experience of God. That may be a form of western Christianity, where ‘everyone believes in Jesus.’ But it’s also dangerous. You don’t meet the living God and just pick up and walk away the same. This is why Jesus calls true transformation being “born again” in the Bible. You literally are born again, but this time by God’s Spirit when you come to Christ and surrender to His will.

Justice: If God didn’t fix it, He’d still be Just.

When the father of the human race messed up and chose self over God, he opened up and introduced sin into the world and his lineage forever.

But go and read the Genesis account again and you’ll see that after the whole mess up, it wasn’t even Adam who ran to God to make it right, rather God pursued Adam. What love.

Guess what Adam did. Adam hid. And generations later men do the same thing. Men hide and men become passive to sin. It’s in our nature. But how sad if the story ended there. So what God does is makes a covering for Adam and Eve, but also gives out “justice” in punishment for the sin. In being “just” He has to make consequences for the wrong.

And even in this Genesis account it’s interesting how God makes a  promise and prophecy of how one day He will restore man’s relationship with God right through the coming of Jesus Christ. Woah. So soon after the fall of man did God have a plan in mind to restore man to his original relationship with God. Just how good is He? That good.

But remember, even if God chose to condemn man for his actions without providing a way to be redeemed, He would remain good. That wouldn’t change his nature. That wouldn’t cause Him to be suddenly unjust. Nope, he’d be just for sentencing man to “death” which means to be separated from something which in this case is himself. Kind of scary right, if we didn’t serve a loving God?

It’s frightening IF we’re dealing with an insecure, offend-able God which is not who He is.

This is not the case.

What wondrous Love.

Just as the hymn goes, what kind of love is this that would provide our way of escape despite our continual mess ups?

We don’t know of such a love in the human race. If you think so, you’d be kidding yourself. Watch. What person do you know who you are in a friendship or relationship with who you would offend, curse their name, commit evil, remain faithless to at times, and dishonor who would never become offended?

Yeah, even the most socially active, morally aware person would have a hard time keeping you around and an easier one telling you where ‘you can go’ and ‘how to get there.’

Not so with God. He returns grace and mercy for failures and mess ups. Even when the wicked perish, His heart breaks for them and their fate. “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” (Ezekiel 18:23).

But that’s not God though. He remains faithful to His promises even when we’re faithless.

More Than a Milkshake

So does God need our praises? Not at all. But consider praise and worship is the one thing we can give to God that He cannot give back. He doesn’t need any of it though. Consider this: the creation of mankind was His very intention. He takes good pleasure in man. And when we too take pleasure in Him, love reciprocated is a wonderful thing. We know this, because everyone loves relationships, love and romance.

It would be like this. I love a number of things I don’t need. I absolutely love milkshakes. I don’t need them though. There was a time period in my life where I had at least 2 a week. A nice milkshake is an amazing thing but at the end of the day I could probably do without them for awhile. I do take pleasure in them though.

Now consider your soul which is infinitely more valuable to God than a milkshake. God doesn’t need anything from you. But He wants you and wants everything from you, but only because He loves you so much. But He lost you in that garden at the fall of man. And He wants you back. Are you ready to respond to his pursuit of you?

 

Written by Alex Oram

April 25, 2018

 

Death to “Try-Hards:” Why God’s Strength is Made Perfect in Weakness

By that title I do not refer to a people but a predisposition. This is putting to death the ideology or the idea that trying hard, working hard at, and striving to attain a success based on “self” is the way to status in the Christian world. It’s not. The truth is kingdom success looks a lot different.

Obedience is key to the kingdom. It looks like hearing the voice of the living Father and responding. It looks like simplicity. It does not look like trying to earn your Father’s approval. What son or daughter strives to be accepted as a son or daughter? No, they are already by birth a rightful child. If you, in fact belong to God and have chosen to follow Christ, then you are His. I want to show how truly following Christ brings death to the “try-hards” in us.

So here’s the point. Society places a high value on success, but it is God’s delight to point men and women to kingdom success through unlikely ways. We think that God only uses people “who are gifted.” The Giver uses people who are broken.

The places of your personality, your mindset and your spirit where you feel most weak and most inadequate are more often the places God will show his greatest miracle working power. They allow for more of His inadequacies to shine through you.

Why?

Plain and simple, it allows for a greater showcase of His glory, not your own. If you’re amazing in your own right, that’s one thing. But to be amazing because He has literally made His home inside you and now it is on showcase for all to see. That’s when the world takes notice. That’s High power, not My power. Our weaknesses don’t disqualify us from God using us; they are actually the starting place for His grace (Pilavachi & Croft, 2016).

So to my readers who are do may identify as Christian, but remain open to the things of God and what I’m saying. I love you all. This next part is for you. You see you have to come to the end of yourself, your strategies, your systems before you can come to the start of reliance on Him (Pilavachi & Croft, 2016). This is how all Christ followers start out. But the reality is this is exactly why many souls do not feel they even need God. Sure, they don’t reject Him. They neglect Him. That’s equally as dangerous because the Word of God says those who are not for Him are against Him. I pray this won’t be you. The reality is we can know whether we are going to Heaven when we die today, based on our decision to embrace His way, and lay down our own. It’s about Heaven one day, certainly. But it’s about getting Heaven into us, right now. Have you even felt perfect peace. Perfect. I mean really flawless? This is what Jesus offers.

But let’s face it. That’s HARD. I mean that’s brutal. Relinquishing control means letting go, letting off and putting down the “Try-hard” torchlight. The areas we feel less comfortable working on are the ones through which He feels most comfortable doing work through us. Muscles don’t grow without being stretched. Strength is not strength without flexibility.

What weaknesses have kept you up at night? What shortcomings have led you to believe you will fall short of success?

Guess what. God’s success is only sustained and attained by two words: dependence. And obedience.

But even those words sound like DRUDGERY at face value. I mean think of the connotations. You need to obey me, son….Now go take out the dog. Won’t you wash my car and clean the cat’s box while you’re at it?

The reality is they are the furthest thing from that when you know the One you’re obeying doesn’t obey the laws of time, space, and thermodynamics. He’s outside of it. He’s over it all.

Obeying THAT voice means it has your absolute greatest interest in mind. The one you didn’t even conceive. The one you hadn’t perceived. You couldn’t have. Again, this is dependence on the Father.

 

Weakness is the way. It’s actually your strength when it draws you to dependence on God. (Pilavachi & Croft, 2016).

 

Written by Alex Oram

April 12, 2018

 

Sources

Pilavachi, M. & Croft, A (2016). Everyday Supernatural: Living a Spirit-Led Life without

Being Weird. Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook Publishing.

A Passion Week Poem

Sunrise Poem

Before the day breaks, stars take shape
They light up barren night canvases
But the beauty of dawn is the color before daybreak
And beneath moonlit skies is a colorful sunrise
Dawn will come, as sure as the sun’s glow
As patient as the lilies grow,
Quickly as the rains flow
Dynamic as the rainbow

The day is unshaped, unformed, yet sure to deliver
The Lord is on the move, the Faithful giver

Life’s lows are forgotten with a gaze to the sky
Failures fade after glimpses of the most High
“God is good.” The great oversimplification.
He’s better and wilder than the best expectation
There’s no shadow in His presence
His nature is His glory
We all fall far short
That’s not the end of the story
We all need new birth and a far better nature

He died to make it happen, He’s dying for us to know Him.

The Proposal Story through My Eyes on “This Day Last Year”

“I’ve never been surprised in my life!” Jordan exclaimed. She said this not once, but many times. I love her for that. Oh how that would end soon.

“I believe we can change that!” I thought confidently. Very soon actually. This was a casual conversation we’d had before. Believe me, for this proposal, we would change that!

It’s on this day, last year, that I would launch the proposal plan into action and pray and hope none of it got ruined in the process, that it wasn’t too obvious to discern and that it would go smoothly. The second best part was I’d hoped to surprise my now wife, for the “first time!” The best part was creating the memory that will live a lifetime in asking if she’d be my wife.

The backstory is the original plan I had was to propose on the weekend following Valentine’s Day. But even that seemed obvious. Another plan was to propose the day before, the day after or the day of Valentine’s Day.  It seemed too cliche to pull off. Too obvious. Only if it genuinely caught her off guard would it ever work. And it did somehow! Let me explain.

Comfortable Discomfort

One evening when we were on a date at Panera Bread and Jordan had known the proposal was in our somewhat near future, Jordan purposely decided to try me with guesses of different days I would propose…partly out of fun. Partly really hoping to hit that day on the head and maybe catch an expression by me confirming she just nailed it. Instead I kept a poker face. I’d slipped a hint that made it obvious the proposal would not be on Valentine’s Day. Or in that proximity. Jordan was clearly sad….we sat in unplanned discomfort for much longer than I’d expected as Jordan and I worked through the fact that the proposal wouldn’t be on the day(s) she thought. Actually, this was when I knew I could hash the plan. I had many options of days to go by! Now that it was completely unexpected I went ahead and planned to do it right on Valentine’s Day.

I’m no fan of discomfort but boy did I let it simmer that evening, which was hard. But I knew it was well worth it! That night at Panera took some acting skills on my part. And I’m no actor mind you.

The Location and Stage

So the plan was set. But how about the stage? How would I get her to casually come to the proposal spot? I decided to ask her the week or two before if she’d want to look at “potential wedding venues” for the future. Just to keep in mind, you know? I slipped it in conversations. I tried to put it in the most causal, almost neurral tone as possible. If I laughed, it was ruined. Something would be up. But I planned it for midday and said we’d go out that night for a Valentine’s Day dinner.

She was up for it! Not a clue about what might unfold. I’d also said we would look at more potential spots on other days throughout the week too. When Valentine’s Day finally came, I remember picking her up from school. Her Dad was the only one who knew at that point, as I’d let him in on it and had been keeping him in the loop of my plans as well as my change of plans and then final choice for the day I set to act!

So we are driving on over to the proposal spot, which I’d chosen to be the rooftop garden sitting over Tufts University, with a beautiful view of the city and with a granite bench that read “Alex’s Place.” I’d found it because I was looking for places with a rooftop view over the course of many weeks. Not one that I liked enough until I saw this one. When I came here I knew it was the one.

The Plan Unleashed

On the drive to the spot I was already in knots. I nearly had a heart attack because Jordan’s Mom called mid-drive. I was thinking to myself, does she somehow have a clue this could be the day?! Is she prepping Jordan for excitement as we speak?! My heart sank and plunged. I tried my hardest to keep a straight face. Act casual. Then I realized, there’s no chance that the plan could be found out.  Although when Jordan told her mom what we were about to do, my stomach sank again. Oh just casually looking for wedding spots on a rooftop location mid-week…believable. We arrived and just about found a parking spot in the lot that was surely not legal without a student sticker. “Are you sure this is okay to park here?” Jordan asked me. We’ll be all set! I assured her.

It was a chilly day. I’d had my sister, Paige, our friend from church, Jerin and Jordan’s best friend, Nicole, in on the plan as well and all three were texting me as they had planned to hide out in the watchtower beneath a church near the spot so they could surprise Jordan when the plan unfolded and of course, film the entire scene unfold.

We walked up the steps and I asked a stranger if this was the right place, to throw Jordan off more. They assured us it was. She had no clue. So far so good. As we walked on the frozen steps, the chill of the winter day with us, we stopped at the “Alex’s Place” inscription. I’d added a poster next to it with the words…”is right next to Jordan’s in life.” She saw the first part and asked if that was a grave for someone…then almost quicker than she could read the rest I was down on one knee. The moment had arrived and I’d managed to own it! She finished reading and was caught off guard, stunned but standing! She could not believe it. I then opened up the ring box and asked her to  marry me. She loved it. We stood and embraced each other for awhile in celebration.

I love re-living this memory and am celebrating it this year. More important than surprising her was the fact that we shared this moment and then the question, “Will You Marry Me?” Which she responded with a yes, a yes! And a YES!! She screamed through joy filled tears of her answer to my Question. We hugged and she was shocked to then see my sister come out and hug her followed by our friends Jerin and Nicole!

We walked around the rooftop for awhile and the rest is history. But we will live with the memories ALIVE in the present every year.

 

Thank you facebook for the “on this day last year” posts. Thank you for throwbacks. Thank you Lord for the launch forward and for your power everywhere in between. Thank you to my in-laws (Texas family), my friends, my church, and my family for the support, unconditional love and help along the way, all the way, through and through.

 

Written by Alex Oram

2/14/18 (Valentine’s Day)

Test and Testimony (How We Met)

It’s October 5th. Exactly two months ago I married the love of my life.

I do realize guys are expected to remember that specific day of the month for what will be a lifetime of anniversaries, prayerfully. I may as well start somewhere, right?! (On a serious note, there’s no way I will ever forget that date).

Actually, starting small is the story of how my wife and I began, so let me take you through it. I grew up in a small town. Small state. Small community. My wife, Jordan, grew up in big state. The biggest to be sure. Sounds like the setting of a romantic novel, right?…I’ll spare you. That’s just not my area of expertise anyway. What I actually want to catalogue is the heart of the HOW and WHY we met and to encourage you not to settle.

I’ve always held high expectations. Of myself. Of my abilities. Of my future and of my future spouse. Actually I remember resolving within myself not to settle on even dating a woman unless she met the criteria I’d knowingly and unknowingly set for myself. Now this wasn’t a bad thing, so let me clarify. I knew I’d hoped my future wife would be as imperfect as I was, as weird at times, and I’d always hoped she’d be quirky. I can be very random so I’d hoped for that too. But at about 21 years old and through a relatively small amount of lived experience I’d realized I hadn’t gotten that specific about the qualities I’d actually wanted. ‘Dream a little’ I’d have to remind myself. So at the encouragement of some of my church family and other friends I actually wrote on a scrap of paper the qualities in a woman I’d most admired, the ones I’d dreamed to have, and the ones I would absolutely not settle on. I got specific but not too weird or left field about it. I left the door open enough for adventure, because after all I like spontaneity and I’d lived enough to know that truly following God often meant calling over comfort.

Fast forward about 6 months and I’d been working for a little while as a bachelor with a bachelor’s, living in the Hartford area away from family. I was also a strong believer ready to go where God would call me. One day I remember a missionary told me, “Man you’ve got a future ahead of you. Nothing holding you down. No girlfriend, no kids, watch out! God may call you really far!” Oh, I was watching out.

Now I love God and I respected that guy but literally thought that if I was called to a life of missionary work and me being a bachelor for life, I was not having it.

So I persisted in my job, my ministry, and I prayed. I prayed a lot. I grew where I could. I sought to learn what I could about marriage and relationships from what others modeled in theirs. I read. I read a lot!

At a certain point after awhile of persisting and going on scattered dates with girls here and there, what began as thoughts turned to inner struggle and I battled the temptation of “settling,” wondering if my expectations and hopes were far too high after all. I felt tested. I say temptation because I know our enemy throws us temptations in the midst of tests and trials. I knew my wife was out there. But I’d also have to push the doubts I had to my peripheral to remind myself of that. But in the inner edges of my heart lay the desires God always knew. Not just the ones I’d always prayed about but the ones even I hadn’t known.* And at the least expected time, in the least expected way, I came across my wife.

Let’s confront this: Christian Dating. You’ve got to get clever about how you approach it. Online dating was out of the question for me, at least for awhile. You may ask yourself why in the world would you look online? There are plenty of people around you here. And with that I’d respond, your answer is in your question. Why wouldn’t you look online? If you have a future spouse, and that spouse is in the world, maybe that world is outside the one in which you’ve always lived. Why would you limit yourself to the thinking that your potential spouse has to be in one geographic location per a 25 mile radius from you?

Then it clicked. If the wife I’d always prayed for existed, I needed to expand where I was looking. She could be in Georgia. Hawaii. Seattle. Texas….so one day for fun I decided to download different apps on my phone that connected Christians with each other to network, to talk, and to date. That app was called “Crosspaths.” I’d downloaded it and there was a gliche in the app for a few months. I used it a handful of times and then honestly forgot about it. One day after working with one of my clients I opened it up. It was randomly working. I scrolled through and came across a woman who caught my eye. She was so beautiful. But it was more than that. She caught my soul. It was her aura.

I took a screen shot so that if my app gliched again or if my message to her never was received at least I’d have a picture and a name. Right… because that would really help me. A few pictures and the name “Jordan” to locate someone literally anywhere in Texas and beyond! Buzz light year to infinity!!! I’m picking on myself here but it’s funny looking back because it all worked out.

Well in short she shot me back a message and we began talking. Our conversations are what I’ll remember my entire life because they’re the same we have to this day. Faith was first for us, so we exchanged stories of how and when we decided to give our lives to and follow Christ and how much we valued our families and the instrumental roles they played in making us who we are. And then the random. More conversations about our love of music, a taste in music that is oddly similar and yet encompasses variety. And the glue that held it together being God and humor. With randomness. Our straight talk about the fact that many pets, and babies, just aren’t that cute. And that’s no lie. But nobody wants to confront that truth! I’m laughing just thinking about it.

Well that amazing soul I’d spoke with and never stopped speaking with today is my wife now. I can honestly say that she’s met and exceeded every quality I’d ever written on that scrap of paper that one day. It’s with that I encourage you not to settle for less than the desires of your heart that you have for a future spouse. You may be doing ‘all the right things’ and serving God faithfully, and your spouse may still be no where in sight. You think, God, how long?

At the right time. That’s how long. In His time. And that time will be better than any time you could’ve chosen yourself. I believe He knows when you’re ready. And I believe He knows who He has for you. I’ve been there, I’ve fought thoughts, self-talk, and the addictive energy that negativity breeds. I’m happy to say I did not settle and the wife God brought me was the one I’d always prayed for. She is beautiful, talented, amazing, funny, quirky, witty, godly, honorable, hard-working, generous and so much more!

The picture above is both of us on our wedding day and our expressions of joy for all that God has done so far.

I love you Jordan.

 

(Stay tuned for part 2 on how we were brought together.)

 

October 5th, 2017

Written by Alex Oram

 

*This is what Mark, my father-in-law, told me after I’d begun talking to Jordan and received the job in Boston I’d been praying for. I knew the verse he was referring to but hadn’t even thought of it in this light.

 

Fierce, Offensive and Unapologetic (Part 1)

What do you think of when you read those three words? Who do you think of?

Which friend has enough backbone to embody all three qualities like an art? Intentional yet crafty enough to steer the wheel of these traits?

Give yourself some time to consider that question, but not too much. Let’s look at stories that fill the quota. What, you’re offended? Read on. Offense can come in many ways and I think the interesting thing about it is harboring one is the choice of the offended. In these stories I’ll share, one underlying theme remains and it is there are those people with certain abilities to offend especially well and often, hence there are levels to the game. #LevelsofOffense.

In speaking on this subject one person I know comes to mind who I want to speak about in some length. I’ll describe this friend in the context of a few different stories. The common thread I find is the fact this person offended others while not accumulating offense himself. Honestly, it’s both amusing and admirable. It’s flat out funny. I’ll share at his discretion, and I’ll keep the stories general/broad enough to make a point without going into detail. Like most friends you’d have to know him to understand…one of those.

Let’s start with family.

I wish I could’ve been there to see it, instead I heard it from others. It was a frustrating day to most of his family and they must’ve had a lot of patience to put up with his choices. If they had little patience, maybe they learned more as a result? What did this guy do? I won’t go into detail but in short there was a family gathering going on and he wasn’t around. He was somewhere, but nowhere to be found. His absence left others with the thought of him being “disengaged.” While the family were together some of them noticed he was away. They each went looking for him and finally found him. Not with family, not with friends… but with a group of acquaintances! He and they were together talking to each other…. his family couldn’t believe it. They screamed at him, “Where were you!?” Even one of his acquaintances pointed out, “your family is looking for you…..!”

But check out his response. He wasn’t caught off guard. He was casually, spontaneously, nonchalant? He laughed it off, serious enough to point out to his family that he’d met acquaintances he now considered as close as them. That went over well….his family stormed off, probably offended to say the least.

The hometown.

This person grew up in a small town. After traveling, wandering off awhile, he returned one afternoon. He made friends in this town. He learned a job/trade, worked under certain men more knowledgeable at their craft who trained him and finally came back to visit them all one day to stop in and see how things were. When he came back he started engaging with everyone, but not without controversy and not everyone was happy to see him. Controversy is an understatement, chaos is more like it. A lot of those same people he knew were so mad at him about “the way he now seemed,” the way “he turned out” that many became offended by his actions, his demeanor, his conduct. He had now looked differently, talked with absolute confidence and spoke to them almost as a superior, though not intentionally.  These were the very people he learned from.  But what could he say to make them this mad? Some people were so angry they tried to push him off a cliff and essentially told him he had no training! I can’t make this stuff up.

Friendship

What friend would he be if he didn’t offend some of his friends? One month he learned one of his best friends had a medical condition. Not just a medical condition but a sickness, so bad he was sure he wouldn’t have more than a few weeks to live. This was a friend that he’d known for awhile. Friends of this man knew how serious the illness was, pointing out they didn’t think he had much time to live. My friend was out of town at the time and he got the news. Rather than going to visit him, he stayed WHERE HE WAS two extra days! He appeared as if he could care less…again. A couple of people who knew him thought so. They probably thought they knew so. They were beyond frustrated. How? and Why? He did care. And there’s an explanation. Read on.

The sick man passed away. He finally went to visit the man who had died. People who saw it take place were confused, “was he oblivious, what is he thinking?”

Offended.

The Work Staff.

This man worked hard. He had a job that paid little and was on the road, was mobile often. He had over 10 staff members at his primary workplace. He accumulated more over time. He valued them as employees, he knew they were not in this job for money. And guess what? He offended them all at one time at the mention of one story! That’s a craft. That must take specialty, you know? Guys telling stories at lunch time break….something like that. On a whole new level #LevelsofOffense. In the perspective of his staff, a lot of his talk was odd, confusing and many quit working for him because of it. Offended.

The Reveal

So who was the outlaw I’m talking about? Just who had the heart to do it?

If you’d already guessed right, the man intentional enough to embody all these traits, yet also firm and compassionate was Jesus of Nazareth. I wonder whether that’s what the world, what society thinks. Yes…I get it, we hear it a lot…compassionate, loving, and kind…three words we immediately ascribe to Christ. But please! Let’s not paint that canvas too sickly light without filling in every detail to the firm measure, getting the full picture of the man he actually was! Jesus was intentional, strong, and offensive. He had convictions. He lived by them. Jesus did not set out to offend for the sake of offense, rather he incurred them as a result of living out his convictions, not compromising truth for comfort.

Jesus was led by God through the Holy Spirit, meaning he did things in God’s timing and in God’s way. In human terms, this was confusing (Bevere, 1994).

Today you’d actually be hard pressed to know the man past the picture of what everyone else says about him. BUT WAIT? You wouldn’t get to know anyone one else this way…by believing “anything” anyone says about someone….why try it with Jesus? The man has more books written on him alone than any other historical figure. Compassionate, loving, kind. These were Jesus indeed. But they don’t stop there. Fierce. Intentional. Authoritative. Strong. Unapologetic are more like it! Outlaw is one of the most accurate.  And this is exactly why I share these stories by going right to the sources themselves who walked with the man (The Disciples). I seek to show you the man through a different perspective, a personal one. I hope it’ll hit him. I pray so.

Stay tuned for part two for the righteous explanation to each of his offenses and how each story ends. I hope you enjoyed.

Share this at your discretion with the hashtag #LevelsofOffense.

Thank you.

 

Written by Alexander Oram

5/5/17

 

 

This post was inspired by John Bevere’s internationally best selling, anointed book, “The Bait of Satan.” The book speaks very little about Satan, and much about offense.

Bevere, J. (1994). The Bait of Satan: Living Free From the Deadly Trap of Offense. Lake Mary, Florida: Charisma House.

 

 

Holy-Spirit Boldness, not Man-Centered Brashness

If you were cruising through the world, without a care in the world, except for concern for yourself, it would make sense to follow with “wisdom of the age.” But the Bible talks about this wisdom, and reveals what the end results of it are…

“But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”
‭‭James‬ ‭3‬:‭14‬-‭16‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Thankfully there is a better wisdom, true wisdom; the only real wisdom:

“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”
‭‭James‬ ‭3‬:‭17‬-‭18‬ ‭ESV‬‬

So the harvest is the end goal of true wisdom. So true wisdom produces good results. But it may take time to yield a harvest as any farmer knows. But the other way of doing things is far worse. Take the abrupt, wisdom-less protests of some. What does that yield? Nothing. It wastes a lot of time as well. And in some of the worser cases, it becomes violent and awful.

The thing is that real boldness is about making peace and perpetuating truthfulness. See the end of verse 18 that we just read. “A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace, by those who make peace.” So peace-making is wisdom. And the foolish know nothing of making peace. But the “bold as lions” know that to not back down, is the call of the peace-maker. To be bold about what’s right is to bear a backbone and to be bear backlash, if necessary. Yet it is also to remain unmoved in heart posture, in so far as that heart is grounded in God’s heart. Skin thicker than rhino hide. Heart softer than baby’s skin. Planted and rooted deep in the WORD OF GOD like a wild oak.

Peace-making is a rugged endeavor.

AJ Co.

May 3, 2024

“Reeds into Rocks”

I heard it on the radio one morning. I wish I could have gotten the name of the host giving the sermon / encouragement. He said, “Jesus can turn a reed into a rock.” I don’t think the point was that Jesus called Peter a rock, etc., or any of the implications that come with that line of thinking or teaching. Side note, on that particular story, this is the best explanation I’ve read, coming from the book, “A God Named Josh” by Jared Brock:

As far as turning reeds into rocks, I do like the analogy. The language of reeds is not something Jesus is unfamiliar with using. He used it in telling who John the Baptist was and was not:

“And the messengers of John having departed, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: What did you go out into the desert to gaze on? A reed shaken and swayed by the wind?”
‭‭—Luke‬ ‭7‬:‭24‬ ‭AMPC‬‬

And now in a more obscure passage, pointing back to a prophecy out of the Book of Isaiah:

“A battered reed He will not break, And a smoldering wick He will not extinguish, Until He leads justice to victory.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭12‬:‭20‬ ‭AMP‬‬

What’s wild is the fact that Jesus does not deny the reality of reeds being broken. In this day and age of “You Do You,” “Upgrading,” and the worship of Self, as if we are naturally “good” and simply need to become “better,” Jesus comes to us as a Realist, showing us we are not simply reeds, swaying in whatever direction the wind blows, but also battered, bent, and broken to the core. But not without hope. Made for more.

Battered by the prince of the power of the air (Satan), bent by sin, sin’s effects, and sin’s stain, and broken… often by the world’s demands.

What’s comforting is that Jesus encountered many a battered reeds. I like the rendering of this passage that the Amp Classic translation uses. “A battered reed He will not break.” Jesus didn’t come to kick a man down. But when he “saw a man down, he put a hand down,” as someone recently told me, and encouraged me to always do.

We see it in the Samaritan story Jesus tells. “See a man down, put a hand down.” And the part about the smoldering wick? This is fire. I’m a millennial, that’s what we sometimes say when referring to an amazing thing. He will not quench a smoldering wick. He will not come to douse our barely burning fire with water but to stir it up again, igniting it all over. So is the Spirit of God trying to get your attention today? I have never known Him to overstep His bounds.

He pursues.

Those circumstances are not “coincidences.”

Jesus is the Name above every other Name.

Come to Him. He will not reject you!

AJ Oram

April 21, 2024

The Pathway to Leading Underdogs and Outcasts – a Jesus-Centered Tribe of the hopeful

I’m re-reading through a book I’ve read a couple years back. I believe it bears a rhema (right now) message for the Church. Essentially it’s all about becoming undignified and undomesticated in our pursuit of Christ. It’s about discarding the “prim and proper” of vain rituals and routines, for the life of the Holy Spirit. It’s about not studying “the good Book” for the sake of knowing theology, but rather for hearing His Voice, because Jesus said “My sheep know My voice.”

I liked this way the Author, Erwin McManus describes the way he hears God’s voice: “In my experience the voice of God is an intimate experience, not an audible one. Or at least it’s not a voice coming from the outside in, but a voice coming from deep within.”

I also loved the message of training up children to come into an experience with the Living God, rather than just to be raised in dull religion. He says, “So many of us put our hope in teaching our children about God rather than guiding them into an experience with God.”

He goes on to conclude, “Our goal must not be to populate the Christian religion but to bring people into a genuine relationship with God (Jesus). We must make a clear distinction between the religion of Christianity and the revolution Jesus began two thousand years ago.”

Of course, he’s referring to Christianity, but not necessarily what it’s become in the West: a sort of Americanized, consumerism-based, customer-oriented product of sorts.

This was never Jesus’ intent or His doing. He asks us to follow Him where He leads, to deny ourselves, and to “not let sin against us produce sin in us,” as the saying goes.

Let us follow Jesus wherever He leads, today!

January 6, 2023

Alex Oram

The Pathway to Leading Underdogs and Outcasts – a Jesus-Centered Tribe of the hopeful

I’m re-reading through a book I’ve read a couple years back. I believe it bears a rhema (right now) message for the Church. Essentially it’s all about becoming undignified and undomesticated in our pursuit of Christ. It’s about discarding the “prim and proper” of vain rituals and routines, for the life of the Holy Spirit. It’s about not studying “the good Book” for the sake of knowing theology, but rather for hearing His Voice, because Jesus said “My sheep know My voice.”

I liked this way the Author, Erwin McManus describes the way he hears God’s voice: “In my experience the voice of God is an intimate experience, not an audible one. Or at least it’s not a voice coming from the outside in, but a voice coming from deep within.”

I also loved the message of training up children to come into an experience with the Living God, rather than just to be raised in dull religion. He says, “So many of us put our hope in teaching our children about God rather than guiding them into an experience with God.”

He goes on to conclude, “Our goal must not be to populate the Christian religion but to bring people into a genuine relationship with God (Jesus). We must make a clear distinction between the religion of Christianity and the revolution Jesus began two thousand years ago.”

Of course, he’s referring to Christianity, but not necessarily what it’s become in the West: a sort of Americanized, consumerism-based, customer-oriented product of sorts.

This was never Jesus’ intent or His doing. He asks us to follow Him where He leads, to deny ourselves, and to “not let sin against us produce sin in us,” as the saying goes.

Let us follow Jesus wherever He leads, today!

January 6, 2023

Alex Oram

No Bull – Real Talk

As we got into line at the coffee shop we waited behind another couple, also with two kids of their own- a boy and girl. The mother asked us if we wanted to go ahead, and we politely declined, still looking at the menu. I noticed the father’s sneakers. These comfortable, but rigged looking heel hugging combat boots. Definitely boots. But not less than comfortable. Somehow also shoes. I’ve got to find out what kind they are, I thought to myself. The guy had a size able beard, and looked like a rugged veteran of sorts. A tough guy, if I ever saw one.

My wife and I made our way to our table with the kiddos and had our breakfast and coffee. The other couple took theirs somewhere outside to find a table out there near the kids play area, fit with a jungle gym and slides. After we were done, we decided to take our son out there too so he could get some play time. He is all boy and doesn’t like sitting for too long. We encountered the couple sitting down with their kids also playing. Here was a chance to ask him about the shoes. I decided to hang back and “watch the coffee” at a distance where my wife placed them on a nearby table, while she watched our son play. Eventually we switched places though. I got a chance to talk to the guy. He was friendly, and gladly told me the name of the shoes as I asked. They are “Nobles,” he said. Really comfortable! He also has another pair to go with a dress shirt or suit. I thought, let me keep a mental note. I looked closer as he showed me, and the name actually read, “nobull.” Even cooler! My wife and the mother ended up talking and me and the guy spoke also. Turns out he works for a non profit called Mighty Oaks, which helps combat veterans especially with PTSD to get treatment they need for their mental health! I shared how I work in the mental health field as well. And we discovered how our lines of work actually crossed with a job he did in the past. We discovered this couple are Christians as well and we shared where we go to church. It is funny how when you have a driving question that allows you to spark up a conversation with someone, how you end up coming away with more than you might have previously bargained for. It is so like God to do it this way. This is real talk, things that go beyond the surface. Though the question at the surface level might spark the discussion that traverses the depths. There was the woman in Mark 5:25 with the issue of blood. She had a driving desire. To be honest, it was one of desperation though. She thought if she could just get to Jesus, that she might get some type of healing or something to help with this life debilitating condition. She left with far more than she bargained for. Her faith made her well, in more ways than physical. There are things that drive us at a basic level. We have questions about God,. Low and behold when we continue out our search about Him, we find, as Eugene Peterson says, “He has been questioning us.”

It’s funny this comes to mind, as the verse they wrote on my coffee cup this morning was out of Jeremiah 29:11! Where God talks about His plans to give Jeremiah a future and a hope. And plans for shalom.

Eugene Peterson:

“Before Jeremiah knew God, God knew Jeremiah: “Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you.” Jeremiah 1:5

This turns everything we ever thought about God around.

We think God is an object about which we have questions. We are curious about God. But that is not the reality of our lives with God.

Long before we ever got around to asking questions about God, God had been questioning us.

Long before we got interested in the subject of God, God subjected us to the most intensive and searching knowledge.

Before it ever crossed our minds that God might be important, God singled us out as important.

Before we were formed in the womb, God knew us. We are known before we know.”

—Eugene Peterson, “Run with the Horses” 🐎

November 4, 2023

AJ Oram

Freedom’s Overpromise and Under-delivery

Freedom is important yet perhaps we have settled for an incomplete picture of just what that is supposed to look like.

By freedom’s overpromise, here is what I mean. We who live in America get the undeniable right to many freedoms that much of the known world goes without. Yet, I remember an Author, Erwin McManus, pointing out in the book “the Barbarian way,” “why is it then that much of our best selling Christian literature is still aimed at how we can be more ‘blessed?”

Perhaps we should examine just what assumptions we may be carrying.

We are often told, we have the right to the “pursuit of happiness.” Ahh, yes. Happiness. And here is where we may have gone wrong. We often equate happiness with joy, and for sure there is some overlap. However, joy provides the complete picture where happiness is a puzzle piece. Joy is the ocean and happiness is the waves. Waves come and go though. Don’t live for the waves at the expense of the availability of an ocean. Jesus offers an ocean whereas the world grasps for waves.

Every nation has its rough spots and its mountain tops. Perhaps for us, we have gone wrong in putting so much stake in positive feelings , “good vibes,” and the need to be in control.

In fact, it is this individualistic focus that often provides the opportunity for so many people’s’ downfall and it is a shame we don’t question it.

By individualistic, this means as a culture we have come to prize the individual, individual expression, and independence often at the expense of community, teamwork, and the whole. Not surprisingly, our culture has taken and ran with the worship of the individual. And it has not panned out too well.

As the focus on self ascends, the rate of depression and suicidal ideation skyrockets.

As the worship of the individual climbs, the way that people view themselves somehow steeps rapidly; self-depreciation and self-worship end up interlinked, and yet you wouldn’t expect it to be so. Yet one look at Hollywood and you find that is most always the case. Because we were never meant to exalt self. We weren’t made to prize the individual in the way we do. We were never made to live for just us. I’m fact, we were created for far more. We were fashioned to reflect the image of God and be invited into His cosmic story. And He is redeeming man, and He will redeem you to original value, if you turn from the way of seductive self-worship and then to the way of Christ, admit your need for a Savior, and ask Him to forgive all your sins.

It turns out that Jesus was right and modern society is just in the heels of His every word, slowly catching up. You have to “deny self” to follow Him. You have to take up your own cross. He took up His. As He did, He was mocked. As we take up our cross, we will be misunderstood too. But it shouldn’t make you let “sin against you produce sin in you.” As the saying goes.

Nothing that happens has to lessen the light you carry if indeed you have been redeemed by Christ and you now carry the inner torch of His radiant light. “Don’t let the darkness around you be an excuse for no light in you,” as Dan Mohler says. True freedom is doing what we were always created to, living in union with the God of all creation, and experiencing Him. Jesus is King.

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September 16, 2023

Alex Oram

No “Safe Spaces”. How Faith Moves You Into the “Glorious Unknown!”

“This is a safe space.”

What does the phrase “cue up” for you in your mind? Political correctness?

Safe spaces are actually more dangerous than you might think. Here’s why…

I cringe to think that I’ve ever used the phrase “safe space” in conversation, but since I want to be honest, I admit I have used it at least once in a very difficult conversation. In context, I was walking into a tough…no, that is not accurate enough….”hostile” conversation and wanted to set the tone…. I knew I’d be met with anger and opposition so lo and behold, I found myself at work, at my prior job one day on a phone call, stumbling around how I was going to set the stage for this conversation, and ended up choosing to use that cringeworthy phrase, which did nothing other than to compound the rate at which the entire conversation ended. Thank God for “safe spaces,” right?

It makes me reflect. Whatever the phrase has come to mean or how it’s used, what if in our dying commitment to comfort, we’ve all but killed ourselves trying to build supposedly safe spaces for ourselves, and then instead of keeping us safe they actually keep us in, enclosed by the idol of comfort and closed off from real connection.

What if the socialization we are looking for is one that might actually bring us alive, because it doesn’t fit the abc’s of “political correct speech?” What if the thing that will set us free, is not abiding by society’s supposed “safe spaces,” rather branching out and engaging those we most disagree with, validating their humanity, and loving them regardless?

It kind of sounds like…Jesus. Because it is. You see, fear keeps us enclosed, but love sets us free. God is love and Jesus was God manifest in the flesh. So every time you encounter the God-man Jesus in conversation, you are watching the dynamics of a person who is most fully alive and most generously unafraid of how he’s perceived. He did not do it in a manner which is rude or disrespectful, rather in a way that was direct and full of respect. If the prospect of becoming more unafraid makes you invigorated, well then it just might be because it’s what you were born for. It’s what we were all made for. To be continued….. if you liked this thought stream, please smash the like bottom at the bottom or leave a comment with your thoughts.

Alex Oram

May 13, 2023