Someone has said: “Words are the most powerful drug known to mankind.” Words can be uppers or downers — they can lift you to estacy or sink you into despair. Personally, I don’t much enjoy being down so my favorite words are uppers! I avoid downer words like the emotional poision they are.

I take my drug of uplifting words in several ways. I run positive statements through my mind over and over and over through out the day. One of my favorite upper phrases is: “I am peaceful, content, thankful, healthy, and extremely happy!” After repeating those words to myself for years, I’ve started believing them.

I continually consume positive thinking/self-help books. I am hooked on them and can’t go very long without taking one in. As I read I underline all the words that spark my heart. Sometimes I even put stars by the things I underline.

I speak and write about self-improvement as often as I can. It is my favorite topic as you will begin to notice in my blog entries. Anytime I find someone a bit discouraged I try to get them to take some of my drug of choice — uplifting words.

I listen to the most uplifting music I can find. My favorite is Black Gospel. I love the way the inspiring lyrics are delivered with passion and enthusiasm. It doesn’t take but a little bit of that music to get me high. When I am driving my car I am either listening to a Black Gospel CD or I have my radio on WNSG, 880 AM. I hope they don’t ticket me for DWBG — Driving With Black Gospel.

And I collect positive quotations. I have more than 21,000 of them that I have hand written in 24 hard back journal books. I love uplifting quotations. I always copy them from the books I read. I also search for inspiring quotes from various religions, cultures, and ethnic groups.

Most of the time I carry one of my journals of collected quotes with me. If I have a moment I open it and read a few. I am going to leave you with a couple of them today so you can get high on my drug of choice. Take these two quotations through out the day today and see what they do for you.

It is tough to pick 2 out of 21,000 — but here goes:

“I invite you to make your life burn brightly: to look past the frustrations, to dump the old beliefs that aren’t working, to create and refine a vision for your life that you can stand for.” –Gail Blanke

“When you see ordinary situations with extraordinary insight, it is like discovering a jewel in rubbish.” –Chogyan Trungpa

May you enjoy positive words today and may they easy any pain or frustration you feel.

My brother, Rick, is having a birthday on April 20. He regularly reads my blog. He is turning 51. Whew -- and he is 5 years younger than me -- a young man. He is a video producer for a Christian company and has a passionate vision to impact the world with his work. Please pray for Rick and his video work -- that God will anoint and use him in mighty ways and give him the strength to continue to find creative ways to share the Gospel.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RICK!!! I love you.

I spent years trying to fit in with religion, but it has never worked very well. I guess I am too honest. I want my expressions of worship to be from my heart, not repeated from a book -- spontaneous, not programmed.

Most religious services seem very shallow to me. I look around at the people who are present and their facial expressions and body language tell me they don't really want to be there. Their singing and their "responsive reading" seem half-hearted at the best.

If I do something heart-felt and spontaneous in a religious meeting, people look at me funny. I know they think I am weird because I am getting into worship -- raising my hands, swaying, etc. I am sorry I offend them, but I have such a difficult time going through the motions of worship without putting my whole heart into it.

I have never understood why it is ok to shout and clap and get excited at a ball game, on a tv game show, or at a rock concert -- but in most religious meetings you are expected to be as dull as a stump. It just doesn't make any sense to me. I guess you could say: "That one stumps me!"

I am not against religion. I just want the freedom to express heart-felt, passionate love for God without being considered crazy. Come on, if anybody is crazy it is the folks acting like lunatics at the ball game -- with their faces painted, wearing funny hats, and screaming their heads off. Nobody calls them crazy. They are called "fans".

So why can't religion accept people being "fans" for Jesus? Why isn't there room in religious meetings for spontaneous passion and enthusiasm for God?

Thanks for asking. Oh, uh . . . you didn't ask. See that is a big problem in our society. Few people have ever asked the question: What is church?

We think we know what church is so we don't ask. "Here's the church and here's the steeple. Open it up and here are the people." Everybody knows church is a religious building dedicated to God, a religious organization or denomination, and a meeting people attend on Sunday mornings and very rarely any more on Sunday night or Wednesday night. The only problem is: That answer is wrong according to the Bible.

The word translated into the English word "church" used in the Greek New Testament (the original one) means "the called out ones". The New Testament view is that church is a group of people in a loving relationship with one another and with God. It is not a building because church buildings weren't invented until many years after the New Testament.

Church means family of believers. Asking someone "Where do you go to church?" is like asking "Where do you go to family?" Neither question makes any sense. You cannot go to family because family is relationships -- and so is church!

Church is not a religious meeting we attend. Church is our spiritual family. We can't turn it on and off. Church is 24/7. I am in church right now as I write this in my home. Church has no physical location. It is anywhere the family of God is. So you can't separate church and state. If a genuine Christian is in a government position -- there is the church. The only way to get rid of church is to get rid of the Christian. That is what the Roman Empire attempted. It didn't work.

So what has hog tied Christianity in America? Kicking the Bible out of public schools? Pushing religion out of government? No. I believe it has been the failure of Christians to be the New Testament version of church -- loving God and loving others, 24/7, every place we go.

Have you ever wondered why churches have the same guy speak week after week after week after week. Even if he is a good speaker, doesn't anybody else have anything to say about the Lord?

Some churches are full of highly educated people -- engineers, doctors, lawyers, college professors -- yet in church they all have to put aside their intelligence and passively listen to (or sleep through) the same preacher preach again and again and again and again.

Some Sundays that preacher may not have anything to say, but his job description is to get up on Sundays and preach, whether he feels like it or not, year after year after year after year. Meanwhile in the pews somebody may be so inspired and anointed by God that she or he can hardly contain himself. But hey, it is time to "shut up and listen" to the guy who doesn't feel like preaching.

No wonder so many preachers sound like they are bored by their own sermons! No wonder they speak with no enthusiasm, no emotion, no excitement, no tears. Bars need to serve cold beers, but do churches really need to serve cold sermons?

Is Christianity so dull that preachers must ramble on in a muffled monotone with a frown frozen face while people's heads bob and eyes roll? Unfortunately, that is how Christianity is presented in much of our modern church. But that is a totally false presentation of Christianity!