There once was a guitar. This guitar was brand new; it had a maple neck, a spruce top, and no imperfections. It had one purpose, one reason for existing. That reason was to hit me dead in the center of my chest. Its mission was to bury its now broken body directly into the center of my heart. It was delivered in such a way to shout at my soul. It had one message to breathe into me. It was there to bellow one simple truth. That truth was this; I had never really lived.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a tremendously strange message to collect while somewhat drunk and hunched over a toilet seat in the middle of Djibouti Africa. Prior to this moment, it had seemed to me that I was doing nothing but living. I was thousands of miles from home with a psychological operations unit in support of Operation Enduring Freedom after many years of playing punk rock music on the road. I was a world traveler. I was wild. I \u201clived\u201d life. Even so, something was telling me, despite my assumptions, that life was a mammoth band\u2019s triple-platinum record and I hadn\u2019t experienced a note of its first song.<\/p>\n
I was a slave, a slave to the \u201cfreedoms\u201d I had worked so hard to indulge in all the years of my youth. A freedom that bound me in more chains than the life my family tried to inject into me since the day I was born. Out of these chains birthed a nasty cancer that infected every situation, every decision, and every relationship I had ever been apart of.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did this behavior become this acceptable to me?\u201d I thought to myself as I kneeled humbly in position looking into the toilet water, \u201cHow did I become this person?\u201d I was in pure disgust with myself. I needed a Savior more than I needed my next breath of air. A truer thought had never penetrated my soul so deeply. I couldn\u2019t breathe. The Holy Spirit was destroying me with divine haymakers and our gracious God had me pinned against the wall like he was Brock Lesnar. At that moment I did exactly what any man with half a brain would do; I tapped out.<\/p>\n
*Commercial Break:*<\/strong> Now I\u2019m not one for the clich\u00e9. I have never been and I probably never will be. I know every Christian on the face of the planet has a \u201ctestimony\u201d and to be honest, theirs is probably far more inspiring than mine, and that\u2019s great. With that being said, I must confess, I hate listening to most people\u2019s testimonies, mainly because they wind up sounding more like biographies than anything else.. You know what I am into though? I\u2019m into talking about Jesus! \u00a0To put it another way, I\u2019m not into hearing the extravagant and miraculous stories of how individuals pulled themselves out of a foxhole in the middle of \u201cWorld War Me\u201d by the heel of their Vans classics; I\u2019m into hearing about how God violently and lovingly reached down through his son Jesus Christ and dramatically transformed their lives forever. It\u2019s all about Jesus. It\u2019s always been, and it will always be about Jesus.<\/p>\n *Back to Regular Programming:*<\/strong> It was there in that poor nauseating excuse for a restroom God reached down and saved me ( I didn\u2019t \u201c accept Jesus into my heart\u201d but rather, he demolished the barricade I had built up over the years, and unapologetically I might add). I was stooped in a defeated, yet awe-stricken posture, praying and begging for his help. I surrendered. I knew that apart from him I\u2019d never undo the hell I had made of myself. He had me right where he wanted me. Checkmate.<\/p>\n From that very second on, I was no longer defined by \u201cwhat I had become\u201d or \u201cwho I was\u201d, but what Jesus did for me nailed to a piece of wood over two thousand years ago. He was bloodied, beaten, and broken. He was humiliated, hungry, and hated. He was made to look a fool as spectators spit on him, cursed his name, and laughed as he died.<\/p>\n Our eternal, transcendent, holy, and personal God himself came on a rescue mission as the God-man Jesus to die as a substitute for sinners. He lived the life we could not live, he died the death we should have died and on the third day, kicked open the tomb and conquered triumphantly over Satan, sin, death, and hell. He is now alive ruling and reigning in heaven and will be back again \u2013 resurrecting the repentant, and crushing the unrepentant. And while he eagerly awaits for all enemies to be made a footstool for his feet, \u00a0he sends his Spirit to convict his people of their sin, turning their darkened hearts and lives toward him.<\/p>\n Why has God taken all of this on? Because he is good, and he is gracious, and he delights in saving sinners. Sinners like you and me; un, ill, and hell-deserving \u201cchildren of wrath\u201d. He did this ALL for his glory and for our good. The Bible says He did this in love before the world\u2019s foundation. He did this to give alien righteousness to the inexcusable. He also did this so that we, those who hope in his powerful name, could begin to live free. Free from the chains of \u201cfreedom\u201d. He did this so that we could really live. And the Bible simply calls this Grace. Pure, unmerited, unadulterated grace. It\u2019s mind-blowing, isn\u2019t it? I\u2019ll go ahead and answer for you; yes, yes it is. That\u2019s why this message is called the gospel, that is, the good news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There once was a guitar. This guitar was brand new; it had a maple neck, a spruce top, and no imperfections. It had one purpose, one reason for existing. That reason was to hit me dead in the center of my chest. Its mission was to bury its now broken body directly into the center […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":677,"featured_media":1055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,22,29,24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-god","8":"category-gospel","9":"category-grace","10":"category-true-conversion","11":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2020\/03\/damian-patkowski-T-LfvX-7IVg-unsplash-e1585390449704.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1347,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/new-sermon-homosexuality-and-the-living-word\/","url_meta":{"origin":1052,"position":0},"title":"New Sermon: Homosexuality and the Living Word","author":"Brandon Scalf","date":"January 28, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is an important sermon on Homosexuality and the Living Word! SermonAudio Link: For the Truth","rel":"","context":"In "Sexuality"","block_context":{"text":"Sexuality","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/category\/sexuality\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/01\/0F50F795-F14D-4BA2-AECD-004453D25B05.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/01\/0F50F795-F14D-4BA2-AECD-004453D25B05.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/01\/0F50F795-F14D-4BA2-AECD-004453D25B05.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/01\/0F50F795-F14D-4BA2-AECD-004453D25B05.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/01\/0F50F795-F14D-4BA2-AECD-004453D25B05.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":845,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/cheap-grace-bonhoeffer-and-the-cost-of-discipleship\/","url_meta":{"origin":1052,"position":1},"title":"Cheap Grace: Bonhoeffer and The Cost of Discipleship","author":"Brandon Scalf","date":"September 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"As followers of Christ and members of his church, we must affirm that there is, in fact, a real and present enemy at work souring God\u2019s beautiful song of salvation. This enemy, though restrained, runs rampant in pulpits across America and beyond \u2013 singing a song of its own, threatening\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Gospel"","block_context":{"text":"Gospel","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/category\/gospel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/belief.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/belief.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/belief.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/belief.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/belief.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/belief.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":815,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/the-church-needs-an-abrasive-gospel\/","url_meta":{"origin":1052,"position":2},"title":"The Church Needs an Abrasive Gospel","author":"Brandon Scalf","date":"September 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"For certain persons have crept in unnoticed\u2026 ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.\u201d - Jude 1:4 The Gospel of Jesus Christ is being trampled violently underfoot in pulpits all across America. It is being spat on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Gospel"","block_context":{"text":"Gospel","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/category\/gospel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/church1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/church1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/church1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/church1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/church1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/church1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}