An Inconvenient Life

By JD Jones

In 2004 as the minister of a small church in Illinois, I began a series of studies designed to evaluate who we are as Christians and help each of us reach an ultimate goal of living and reacting to life more like Christ. From those eight original studies came this book. If you're curious as to how Jesus would respond in today's world or if you've ever thought to yourself that there must be something more, this book is for you. The book does not need to be consumed as one volume. Each chapter, each study stands alone and will excite your mind to think of many more possibilities in your walk with God. My intention is not to TELL anyone how it should be done. My intention is to raise the question, Are we doing it the best way we can? The world is going to impact us in some way. It is unavoidable. But we can control how we respond to the stimuli around us. Being Christian has never been harder than right now in history. Our predecessors may have faced death but they always had clear choices before them. Today's Christian in the United States of America may not be facing death but they are being persecuted and questioned over every choice of their lives. Here's a chance to decide just how you want to answer those questions before they are ever raised.

• Language: English
• Publisher: JD Jones
• Release date: Jan 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370968848

JD Jones

JD Jones now writes full time. As a minister, he and his wife of 30+ years spent their days working with at-risk youth. He has three children of his own who provide him with the source of his belief that he has succeeded. "The greatest pleasures in life are the simple things so many take for granted. All we can do in this life is make a lot of memories. Everything else is just so much stuff."

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An Inconvenient Life

God’s Logic vs. Worldly Logic

Copyright © 2018, James D. Jones Jr.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the express, written consent of the author for any purpose, other than the inclusion of brief quotations in review.

Unless otherwise noted all scriptural references are

from the New King James Version of the bible.

Smashwords Edition

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Originally published in 2004, this work was designed as a teaching instrument for mid-week studies. In the beginning there were only eight chapters with lots of little rabbit trails marking many other avenues of exploration for discovering our true selves. Since 2004 the author has converted those rabbit trails into chapters of their own. May this new work bless you and bring you hours of reflection and self growth. It is this authors fervent hope that you find a greater awareness of God and His Son on every page.

January 11, 2018

A Note from the Author

Understanding the Logic of My Life

Many people would call my lifestyle inconvenient for their own purposes. Some would acknowledge that it takes a special call to live the life I have chosen. Others would dismiss me as a fanatic or a nut. The truth is, my life is inconvenient to the things my flesh wants to do. It does take a special calling or vision of life to live like I do. And I believe I am a sold out fanatic to the things of God. The difference is that I believe God has called all of us to live according to His precious Word and most people have convinced themselves, or let someone else convince them, that it is a special calling, reserved for the few, and not a universal one.

Many Christians talk about living out their faith. They do this very well while at church or in the company of other Christians. This book is dedicated to addressing our lives outside of Christian venues. Who are we and what do the lives we lead say about us when we are not at church or trying to impress those other Christians we associate with? Who is the person that God really sees? And, are we happy with that person? Are we truly satisfied with the person we have become or our walk with God? Both are very dynamic dimensions of who others see us as. Are you ready to evaluate your life? Are you up for the challenge?

Each of us lives out our life according to a system of logic. We adopt and agree to live within the limits of that logic. The logic system we choose will be the one we decide is best for us. We use that logic system to make decisions. We also use it to see the events of our life through.

The logic style we adopt defines the lifestyle we live to a great extent. Of, course, within each logic system there are individual variations. For the most part, generally speaking, there are two major logic systems, the world’s logic and the logic of God. Each is based upon a preferential estimation of the values held by that system. The same situation can have different results depending upon which system of logic is used and by which individual.

Choosing which logic system a person will apply in their life (and to what extent) is a life and death situation. That is the reason for this book. I believe many people, having accepted wrong ideas and flawed truths, choose the system of logic they are going to follow for their life out of convenience. My intent is to show how the convenient decision is not the best one. When convenience becomes a factor in our decisions we forget the real truths of life, even the ones we have learned the hard way.

I am a pastor of a small church and I admit my opinions are biased concerning the logic of God. However, I was not born as a baby pastor who one day matured into an adult one. I was not even born in a church and raised up in one. I had some church education as a child but quickly turned my back on all the church teaching as the logic of the world called out to me. Later, as an adult quickly learning that there are many false claims in the world’s logic, I returned to the church. First I turned to the church for comfort and safety. Then I found great truth in the logic of God. A truth that goes beyond my personal comfort and makes me a valuable part of the entire world population. God’s logic not only changed my life but gave me new hope for all those around me. A hope founded on truth and not just idle dreams of fancy.

I had an anger burning inside of me back then. For years the logic of the world had lied to me. It substituted theories of half-truths and personal experience for real truth. There was no person I could blame. I had chosen my own path as do so many millions each day. All who follow the world’s logic have been lied to just as I was. It was a strange anger that boiled my blood. It was not the kind of anger that lashes out to hurt and kill. It was the kind of anger that urges (no, demands) action to stop the useless advance of the world’s faulty logic. It was an anger aimed at century long abuses by the world, and by some church people themselves, of God’s true logic. I felt cheated, and in some ways still do, by the world’s logic.

The logic of the world had taught me to substitute things and situations for real happiness. Power, money, and big boy’s toys became the measurements of my life. Each time I achieved a measure of success I still needed more. The happiness was eluding me each time I gained greater success. One day I sat down and evaluated why happiness was not part of my success. I had a great family, a great job, a great life with all the benefits. So, why was I not happy?

Something was missing. The fact that something was missing could not be denied. I know if I make a cake and put all the ingredients in the mix, that it will taste a certain way. If the taste is different then something has to be missing. My life, for all its worldly success was missing something. I went looking for it. I wasn’t sure what it was but I knew it was the one thing I had been looking for all my life.

My youngest memories as a child include wanting to know what truly made people happy. I had seen happy people living in cities and living in the country. I had seen happy people who had money and those who were so poor they needed help just to make it through the week. I had seen educated people who seemed happy and uneducated people who seemed happy. There was, I concluded, no physical stimulus for being happy. Physical stimuli may cause an expression of happiness, like opening Christmas presents, but happiness was something inside a person, not regulated by the natural environment.

I left the Catholic church I had attended most of my young life at the age of fifteen and went searching for some answers. I looked in many of the world’s religions avoiding Christianity and found no happiness. They all offered a measure of success. Most just offered suffering with some glimmer of a hope on the far horizon. They asked for me to put my faith in things that did not give repeatable results and serve a purpose that was dubious at best.. I could not be happy unless I felt I had contributed something. I felt I was designed for some purpose and any hope of happiness would have to allow me to find that purpose.

As I searched all around me I tried the normal things of life, money, politics, power and some of the not so normal things, eastern religions, witchcraft, karate. But nothing satisfied all the criteria for happiness. Successes came and went. Failures were many and varied. But true happiness eluded me.

I was invited to go to a Pentecostal church by a distant relative. I relented and dragged my family into the church. My kids loved it. My wife enjoyed it. I was still searching for happiness so I was mostly indifferent. But I did feel like there was something there that needed further investigation. I saw happiness in some of those people like I had never seen anywhere. They described their happiness as love. I thought I knew about love but I understood immediately that this love they knew was different from mine.

I knew love as a thing we expressed to one another. It was strong and permanent in my mind. But I had never known about a love that entered into a persona and transformed them into a totally different person. The love these people knew bathed the individual in a sweet presence of love, not just a thing they did. They loved without any reservations. They loved unconditionally. They taught me that the source of their love was God. They assured me the only real happiness in life was found in the presence of God.

I thought I had inspected Christianity and given it all the attention it needed when I was a young boy. Now I was sure I had missed something or maybe the church where I was going had missed something. When I gave myself over to the search for God, I felt His love. I bathed in it. I understood true happiness and I also understood I needed to make some changes in my life. The world’s logic system of serve yourself had failed me and now I was going to discover the truth about God’s logic system of serving the true and mighty God who created the universe.

God found me in my angry state and offered me His love. Not some mystical, untouchable love, but a reality that goes far beyond anything I’ve ever known in my life. It is an unexplainable love, by human terms, which He gives without respect to anything I’ve done. He loves me because of what He has invested in me, not any action I’ve taken. God loved me enough to send His only begotten Son to die for my wrong doing, for my sin.

Like many people I have discovered the logic of the world is based upon material greed and power. While I have nothing against material wealth I no longer want it to be my main goal in life. The world’s logic of greed and God’s logic of love gave me two distinct choices. I realized life was composed of good and bad, evil and holy for every person on this earth in some form or fashion. I could not ignore the rationale of so many millions who had gone before me and discovered answers for their life.

When I was in the world I followed the money, sought out the power and discovered the success it could bring. But I was not satisfied. It was not my answer to life. God’s Word and the logic of that Word are based upon His love. When I realized there must be a God (who else could inspire love like I felt at that church?) I went looking for Him. I followed the signs of His love and found Him waiting for me. It is that love that leads me to write this book. A love for God and a love for the people who have been lied to by a faulty logic the world represents as the real truth. God is real. That is the real truth. If God is real then the world’s logic, which denies God, is founded upon lies.

What I’ve learned may not be startling or even earth shattering. But they are heartfelt lessons of life and founded upon the true and lasting logic of a God who has rescued me from my own false concepts. I write this book out of gratitude for a God who never quit on me no matter how often I failed Him. No matter how far away I got from Him He never let go of me. I owe everything to My God, who created all I can see and not see, to the plan of rescue carried out by His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and to the daily, guiding hand of the most Holy Spirit.

Herein is an attempt to reason out the vagaries of our very human, religious lives. Without trying to beat the reader into a sense of shame or guilt, which we can all claim a share of, I desire to discuss and reveal the logic of God’s plan for His creation, mankind. The only goal of this book is to show the friendly face of God and uncover the logic of His Word against the backdrop of a world that despises the inconvenience of God. We have been told by many sources throughout the ages that God is dead, God is irrelevant, and God is not legitimate.

Painful and saddening as these accusations are to one who knows better, the church world has done a dismal job in answering these accusations. We spend too much time creating additional irrelevant, illegitimate programs and steps leading to a dead religion when we should simply share pointed discussions revealing the majesty and magnificence of a truly worthy Lord. Let this book serve as a pointed discussion and honest evaluation.

At one time I was one of those who laughed at religion. Truth is, I still laugh at religion. It is dead. It is irrelevant. And it certainly is illegitimate. But religion is not God. God did not send us a religion. He sent us the way or His logic. God did not create denominations, man did. God did not use doctrine to separate His people, man did. Today’s religions attempt to win people over to their side. But the logic of Jesus Christ (the logic of God) was simpler than that.

Religion has a shaky foundation whose source – a man or woman – is unstable. But Jesus called for relationship, not religion. He called us all to come to the Father through His sacrifice and by the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Religion seeks to supplant even God’s design to make us come to God through the religion.

That, I believe, is part of the problem. It is easy to see the failings and shortcomings of religion. So, why do we continue to push religion? I believe it has become convenient for the church member to push their particular brand of Christianity. Religion has become a convenience to the church community but it is still an inconvenience to the world community. Until both communities become more interested in truth rather than convenience they will continue to be at odds.

Today’s biggest problem and the greatest excuse for not worshiping the one true God is convenience. Plain. Simple. Straight forward. It requires no big, twelve step plan to over come. It takes no more brain power than a child possesses to understand. (Jesus said so) It asks no deeper question than, Who do you serve. Convenience is an idea indoctrinated into the youngest of our children when mom says, Go play in the other room while I’m talking on the phone. It is further rooted in the child psyche when a father teaches his child about relationships by saying, Not now, I’m too tired.

The goal of convenience is really self-satisfaction. Whatever would make me happy right now, becomes what is most convenient. Worshiping God has never been convenient. It never will be convenient. And the more our lifestyles depend upon – no, demand – convenience, the more our society will drift away from worshiping God in a true form. Convenience will be the death of the USA if the church loses her voice of warning.

So, let this book be about doing away with our unmanageable ideas of acquiring convenience. Instead, let our lives be about doing what is right, convenient or not. Let us revel in the love and closeness of God through His way and not struggle in the day to day world living out our way. Convenience is nice. But the goal must be what is right, not what is convenient. Inherent in God’s logic is the happiness I have always searched for.

Chapter One

A Growing Discontent in My Soul

Do you want to really know the truth about God? Are you no longer content to take the world’s opinion for what it thinks it knows? Have you never been told to get both sides of the story before making a decision? In my heart of hearts I desire to completely lay bare the logic of God, without religious format, without fanatical raving, without typical, easy answers. There are no easy steps to this process of uncovering the truth of God’s logic in our lives. There is no easy way to lay it out for the reader to grasp. It is a complete evaluation of every area of our lives, every day. The simple truth is that God has a way of doing things. His way. And it will cost you something to learn of them. Are you willing to invest in yourself?

One day, thoroughly discontent with the direction of my life I despaired of all things and called out to God to show me a better way. Now, I did not receive some ghostly visit or tune into some ethereal voice to receive my answer. In short, what happened was very natural. Some people (who happened to be relatives) showed up at my door and asked me to come to church. At first I refused and begged off with one excuse after another. Then the thought occurred to me, what did I have to lose? So we started attending church.

That decision began a long journey which I am still on today. The first thing I discovered at the church was a love I had no definition for. It drew me in like a fish following a minnow. I could not control this love. I could not define it. I could not even describe it. But I had to have it. I could see how it affected others and I wanted to see that effect in myself.

From the beginning I found a safe place for my family and a calm atmosphere that was helpful in today’s stressful world. My eyes were opened to a different lifestyle, one that offered hope instead of strife and a continual scrambling for success. All my problems did not go away, to be sure, but I received a hope that they were not only manageable but beatable. I felt like a winner again or at least one who was on a winning team.

As a family we eventually accepted Christ into our lives and acknowledged Him as Savior and Master over our lives. For those who do not understand making God Master and Savior over their lives, it means a total commitment to the way of God. Some may ask, Why do we need to make someone Master over us? Some may ask, Why do we need a Savior, because we feel just fine? The truth is similar to good health. We never miss it until we no longer have it. A relationship with God is like good health and living a lifestyle that keeps us away from disease. As an apple a day is to good health, so a relationship with God is to a good life.

There is an afterlife and God is in charge. As good health allows us to live and enjoy natural life, a good system of logic, or truth, will help us live an eternal life with the Creator of all things. To debate an afterlife is reckless in a world that has so many explanations for the paranormal. These many explanations seek to explain away the inconvenience of acknowledging God.

Commitment as a family to Christ and to God’s way of doing things gave us a new