Introduction: Part 1

During the introduction of David’s Edwards book, “LIT”, he describes his first time experiencing God and his life throughout grade school and off to college. His description reminded me of my same experience once I began attending church in 9th grade.

If you are around my age, 25, or older you most likely have been to an event when you were young, or a church service where you were asked… “if you were in a car wreck today and died, would you go the heaven or hell?” I have been to a hand full of those services myself, but the scare tactic never worked on me personally. 1) But for some that was the beginning, a walk down the center aisle, grab a card, fill it out and sign your name. 2) Next up was my teenage years where the key goal to being a strong Christian was the life of purity/abstinence. If we could just keep our hands off of the opposite sex (or same sex), then we would be right with God. Other things were talked about, but the largest moral code to uphold was that of purity. So many of us grab the card and signed our name to be pure, and some even placed the promise ring on their hands. 3) Now I was off to college and took a New Testament class with some good friends. What I found out was there we many other views of God & Jesus outside of my small Southern Baptist background view. Like Edward’s, I encountered a group of people who said…    

“to love God you must be accepting to everything and everybody, regardless of who they are or what they believe. And above all else, do not confront anyone for any reason.”

4) And now I have the decision to be a real “Man of God”. An honorable, faithful, consistent “Man of God”. I am encouraged to find an accountability partner, break out the paper, and write down the morality checklist. And once a week, if we are lucky, our partner will grab that piece of paper we signed and ask me the questions. Not much dialogue to follow, just some yes and no answers and some lies to fill the space between.

Ok, so after those 4 major areas of many peoples lives and some of yours I’m guessing, what do we do different if this is a problem. Tomorrow is Part Two of this little Introduction and how Character changes all this. But I’ll leave you with this…

We are trying to modify people’s behavior instead of changing their heart!

“…each of these causes rings with a certain amount of truth. But at their root, they are all about modifying people’s behaivor - about having them do something different without having them be something different first. 

If not doing the anything wrong is our goal, we can avoid much wrong through personal discipline and avoiding compromising situations. But what have we really changed? In the end, human effort only effects the appearance of a person. God alone has the ability to affect the character of a person. True character starts within and expands outward.”

~David Edwards, “LIT“

This is a quote from the book titled, “LIT“, by David Edwards. This is a old book that I have had for awhile and never really dove into, until now. I will be reading one chapter a week for the next 13 weeks and I am planning on writing my thoughts on here 3 times a week. Kind of like a mini-series on “Character” from my eyes and this book. 

Mike Ashcraft, my pastor and friend at Port City Community Church, challenged me on my character a couple years ago and those couple days of coffee we had together have never left me. This I feel may be the second step in that process. 

So lets see what happens, I hope to receive some feedback and thoughts from you guys along the way if you are down with it. 

John 1:5 - “The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out”