Month: April 2013

Hope in the Storm

If you are fortunate to live in an area where the seasons change, you have undoubtedly heard the phrase April showers bring May flowers. But metaphorically speaking, whenever there is a difficult time in our lives, we count it as a storm. Some storms are far worse than others, but nevertheless we go through storms. During these metaphorical storms we always want to do work. We think there is some deeper meaning to the storm or that there is some unfinished business we need to do. In a literal storm, we know not to go outside and we take cover as to be shielded and protected from the storm.

No matter which storm we are referring to, the latter is always true: We need to wait. The bible tells us in the book of James chapter one: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” This is the true purpose of the storm. We don’t like storms because they are so unpredictable. We don’t know what to do about it, there is no cry for help and we can’t control it. The only thing we can do is wait — and that’s the dilemma!

Wait literally means to stay in place with expectation or to remain stationary in readiness. We have such a problem with waiting and with expectations and that’s because we don’t want to be let down. The feeling of not wanting to be let down is cutting us off from our blessing. God spoke through his Prophet Jeremiah to his people of old and said, “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” What the prophet forgot to tell us was that we were going to get the triumph from going through the trial. There is no way around this.

God has not forgotten us and he is not asleep. He’s where he has always been and he has done marvelous things! Do we not have the faith to wait? Do we not have the courage to stand despite the odds we face. God’s people are not fearful people. We never need to fear a storm for we know that our God is waiting for us in the midst of the storm. It is in the eye of the storm where you will find peace and joy and God’s love. He’s there. Trust him. Go through that storm and count it all joy because He has something to show you!

April 27, 2013
Sincerely serving Jesus

Remember when it was common place to end a letter with the word “sincerely”? This word is rarely even used in our society anymore. It’s been replaced with “regards”, “best regards”, “warmest regards”, “kindest regards”… it’s all the same.

Somewhere along the line we changed our scope of practice to simply “a protected interest” or just “attention”. The term is considered to mean respect. It speaks forward — from the writer to the reader.

Sincerely is a word that speaks forward a different way. It says something about the character of the writer to the reader. Sincerely says that the writer is being honest and of pure thought. It meant you can trust what the writer was saying.

Today, too many people just have regard for Jesus, but they are in no way sincere. It’s the same as believing in him and not doing the things that he says — the Lord himself said that couldn’t be done.

Instead, God wants us to respond to his love with obedience. He wants our whole heart and desires to have true worshippers in his presence.

Christ expects us to know him in an intimate way — as one of his sheep. He said his true sheep would hear his voice. Everything Jesus did when he was on earth was to connect the dots of prophecy. In John 10:25 Jesus said, “I told you and ye believed not: the works that I do in my father’s name, they bear witness of me.”

This blog asks this very sincere question: Dear reader, are you sincerely following Jesus?

April 19, 2013
Unconditional marriage?

So we know that the divorce rate is really high. But it doesn’t have to be. Is it really possible that all of these divorced people just happened to marry the wrong person?

I know that there have been some in terrible abusive relationships and for safety reasons they had to get out. But the lion share of divorces stem from unmet expectations and selfish motives.

No one told them that unconditional love was supposed to be brought to the marriage, not generated from within.

They didn’t know that forgiveness wasn’t optional when they said “I do” and that expectations were only conditions you place on yourself.

They were ignorant to what things should have been the most important. It’s a bad feeling to be judged by how much money you make, how you dress, how shapely your hips are or the size of your breasts. It’s extremely shallow for someone to expect their own version of what’s perfect to be matched or exceeded by their partner.

Of all the scriptures we take literally, no one bothered to take Jesus seriously when he said, “If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out!” Or “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off!” (Matt. 5:29-30).

The simple fix for marriage is for each party to take a step back and really look at what they are bringing to the table. What you are bringing to the table can’t just look good to you alone. It needs to be valuable to the person you pledged to live forever with.

If it is not, and it probably isn’t, the two of you need to talk and stop playing married and truly work at being married.

April 13, 2013
Home of the soul

Southwestern Christian College has always provided beautiful, creative music like this! enjoy! http://youtu.be/u4wIR-zhzEY

April 12, 2013
Bye, bye guilt!

We live our lives and struggle with consistently figuring out how to negotiating right from wrong. Sometimes revenge feels right, but it is never right. Sometimes having feelings for someone outside of your marriage may feel right, but it too is never right. Even stealing can seem right to a person in certain circumstances. With our lust and enticement from Satan, almost anything can feel right.

What is amazing to me is that in the moment we don’t feel anything but vindication and justification. Once we come to ourselves, the only things left to feel are guilt, sorrow and regret. There are even people walking around further punishing themselves because they feel they don’t deserve forgiveness. What makes matters worse is that there are people who will exploit these relationships and seek to control another person because they have a hard time with forgiveness.

God sent his son so that we would not ever need to struggle with guilt. God giving his son was meant to be sufficient for anyone struggling with guilt. Jesus became an unlimited credit card for sins and all anyone in the family needs to do is call on him and he will take care of the tab. Some may feel guilty for running up a tab, but all Jesus says is, don’t worry about paying me back, just pay it forward. So we would allow our present experiences to control future experiences. Since I had a huge debt that was paid for me, I would extend in a like fashion this same grace to another. Sounds easy enough doesn’t it?

Well, why do we have such a hard time with this? Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a community that understands this principle? Wouldn’t it be nicer to just meet a group of church folks who believe it and consistently practice it? Truth is, this is a personal principle that is up to every Christian to uphold alone. The purpose is for one person to affect another. It’s supposed to be a domino effect. All God needs is for someone to knock down the first domino. Will that be you dear reader?

April 6, 2013