I Love Bad (not raunchy) Jokes...

A bad joke for you today. I dig a good, bad joke...
Q. What did the psychologist and proctologist call their new business venture?
A. Odds and Ends

Thanks to my buddy Tommy D for that good, bad joke!
Do you have a good bad joke you'd like to share? (be nice, now - my kids read this!)

Hi. I'm Ron. Welcome to my blog!

Hi. I'm Ron Baker and I like to procrastinate. Just ask my lovely bride of 19 years, Rebecca. :-) Heck - it took me two years to start this blog!

However - this time I am following through and not procrastinating (anymore)! - I received a FB message from a really good buddy of mine last week with an interesting proposition. He asked me if I had ever thought about turning some of my FB posts in to a blog. He is a wonderfully gentle soul and I love him because you can tell that he really thinks through what he says and writes and doesn't say something without thinking about it first so his words meant a lot to me.

     So much, in fact, that this time - I decided I was going to take his advice and put my thoughts and hopes, opinions, life and family out there for all to approve or disapprove, agree or disagree. Scares the crap out of me, to be honest, but I hope this will help some people get a hold of what I believe is a truth that 75% of evangelical Christians never get in their lifetimes and it steals their joy. It is the truth that makes the Gospel of God the greatest gift ever and truly allows Christians to understand what Jesus meant when he said "My yoke is easy and my burden light" in Matthew 11.

     I have always been singing or playing an instrument of some sort since I was five years old (although none of my other four siblings do) and have been a worship leader since I met Jesus up-close and personal in 1995. I even made my living for a while as a worship leader and travelling Christian musician in the late 90's and early 2000's. Actually, my bride, Rebecca worked full-time then and paid the bulk of the bills. Our first little lady, Emily came along in 2001 and shortly thereafter the music career attempt came to an abrupt halt. :-)

Here's an old joke to perfectly illustrate why I ended that little experiment:

Q - What's the difference between a pizza and a musician?

A - A pizza can feed a family of four.

     I've ministered in a few hundred churches during my most active ministry time and have met some wonderful, dear people that I love a lot. I've also met some I didn't... I still remember the time in 2000 I found out (thankfully after the concert or I'd have probably been asked to leave) that a woman had lectured my wife on the length of her skirt not being proper for the wife of a music minister while I was on the platform and my poor humble (and demure) wife felt just about two inches high. Grrr. For the record - she looked GREAT in that skirt. Life is hard sometimes and loving people is harder still. Loving the people I actually love is hard enough - Jesus wants me to love the weenies too! As my friend I've never met (yet), Steve Brown says, "The Church is like a bunch of porcupines trying to hug one another".

     I have noticed in my walk with Christ over these past 20 years that there is a large group of people that have been wounded (sometimes deeply) by people in the Church to the degree that they won't get involved in their churches anymore or may have even left the Church and institutionalized religion altogether and never looked back. I think many of these people still feel their need for God in their lives but are just hurt and afraid to trust God or people in the Church, because they have been lied to or manipulated. Some may have even bought in to the lie that they have committed some "unpardonable" sin or aren't good enough people or even that God sets an impossible standard to reach (that's actually true, btw) and sets us up to fail (false). I believe that the biggest reason why people don't see this truth is our lack of faith and lack of understanding of the power of Jesus sacrifice on the cross and the true liberty that His blood has purchased for those of us He has gotten ahold of. 

     It is my true hope that by sharing my walk with you that you and your family can benefit from our mistakes and thoughts from a perspective of someone that truly believes this:

Even if I never did one more thing for Jesus it would not change how he felt about me one teency weency bit. When you know you are His because HE is good, and not because YOU'VE been good, then there is peace and freedom that will blow anything you've experienced before out of the water. I have to tell you - I really believed I was free as I sat in churches that had me focused on "getting better in every way, every day" but after several years I finally realized two things: 1 - I wasn't getting much better anymore and 2 - I was just in a different prison - a prison of rules. You want to know if you're free? Skip church for two weeks and see how you feel... Guilty? Hmm. That's just one example of something good (church services) that we do that can take the place of Jesus if we aren't careful instead of serving as a way to draw near to Him and remember how we all need the Gospel. Remember - Jesus once went 40 days without going to church!

     I hope and pray that if you have been hurt by religion what you see here will help you to remember that God's love for you never ceases and He is ready to hear from you when you are ready to talk. Check back often as the plan is to provide lots of fun, excitement and resources here to help us hang on to Jesus and experience the love and grace of a God who is not only is not mad at you - He likes you. :-)

A few of my favorite hot links to help you see where I get this crazy theology of a God who loves me unconditionally.
1. www.keylife.org - Steve brown and our friends at Key Life
2. www.crpc.org - Pastor Tullian Tchividjian at Coral Ridge in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
3. www.ronbakerjr.com - My website with a bunch of my tunes on it.