Category: Accountability

The power of one

It is easy to look at this world and all of the evil there in and feel that as one person we are powerless. It seems like my voice and vote doesn’t matter and my single voice is too small.

Well, this ideal is family to the fear and doubt that is given by the evil one. This concept has halted a lot of would be powerful movements. A wild forest fire can be started with one match and whole wars have been started with one shot.

What if the energy that was donated to the negative thoughts were reserved for the one? The one who would dare to speak out against injustice or the one who would dare to love their spouse in spite of infidelity.

Or the one who would dare to challenge a bully or plead for the less fortunate. Or the one who would choose to see that the glass really is half full or understand that the best dancing is done in the rain.

Jesus made a huge impact living only 33 mortal years on earth. God has given most of us more time and the same power!

Let’s celebrate the power of one and do something with it.

August 31, 2013
Parable of a good breakfast

A Father woke up one morning to eat breakfast. He arose early while his kids were still asleep.

He began to make homemade pancakes, breakfast sausage with potatoes and onions and farm fresh eggs. He squeezed oranges and blended them with apple and carrot juice, garnished that with pineapple slices.

His son got up about 20 minutes after the father had started to eat. The son said, “Daddy, where is my food?” The father answered, “It’s in the kitchen son. Everything I made, I did it with the items that are in the kitchen.”

The son was a little angry that his dad had not made enough for him so he settled for a bowl of cereal. The daughter got up and commented that something smelled good. The father said thanks and the daughter asked where was her breakfast.

He gave her same answer he gave the son. She looked stunned and opened the refrigerator and just stared.

The youngest daughter got up, came and kissed her dad and said good morning. The dad smiled and she looked at him and said, “you still can’t get those pancakes right huh dad?” Then she began to make homemade waffle batter and fry chicken. She had the house smelling so good that her siblings couldn’t believe it.

In amazement, the two asked their younger sibling why she made chicken and waffles. The youngest child said, “I made chicken and waffles because that’s what I wanted for breakfast. You guys are always out with your friends and I’m here learning everything I can. Life can be tough so I am sacrificing now for my future … Gotta be able to take care of myself.”
The father just smiled.

The moral of this story is simple. There are three kinds of people in the world. Some are like the son, who sits back and watches what’s happening. This person never gets engaged in anything, he just watches and settles. Then there is the oldest daughter who is like another type of person who sits back and wonders what happened. They don’t have a clue and feel a sense of entitlement as if someone owes them something.

So we have the person that sits back and wonders what happened, the other person who sits back and watches what happens and then the one who makes things happen like the youngest daughter. She follows the rule of doing what you need to do so that you can do what you want to do.

Dear reader which child are you?

August 24, 2013
Respect for all things

Sometimes the simplest lessons get past us. We don’t think anything of killing an ant, squashing a pesky fly or any other bug.

We live in a violent society. We rage war, buy weapons and loose control. We seek revenge and we allow our anger to get the best of us. In the midst of it all we treat cows, chickens and pigs horribly, but will send a man to jail over dog fighting. We will hunt and kill for sport and even allow certain species to become extinct.

We would have more respect for each other, I believe, if we practiced respecting the things God gave us dominion over first.

It takes nothing from our character to respect all the things God created, rather it enhances who we are. Gen. 24 tells the story of Rebecca and the fact that she passed the “camel test”. Basically she not only showed kindness to a traveler by giving him water, she also made sure his camels had their fill of water too. The point is that her respect for all things did not go unnoticed and for that she became the promised child’s bride.

You see, if just a little respect goes a long way, then what would our country be like if everyone practiced it?

As children of God we should respect what he respects, love what he loves and forgive like he does. Only then will we have true inner peace.

August 17, 2013
Killing faith

There are many different faiths of the past being expressed through tradition and culture and sometimes law. The cumulative traditions attempt to ignite present faith, but it’s not working.

In our society we allow human experience, human merit and human tradition to define our faith instead of allowing the word of God to do such. Faith should be deeper and more personal than mere religion. It then allows for a person or group to respond to the value and power of God as perceived and grasped through the forms of cumulative tradition. These forms serve only as an extension of what we truly believe in our hearts. The stronger the inner faith, the more visible the belief.

This is similar to the faith of the past being used to increase the faith in the present. Typical bible classes use this format to increase the faith of members by teaching the things from the past. The apostle Paul wrote in his epistle to the Romans that the things which were written aforetime were written for our learning and that in the understanding of these things we would have hope.

However, we can’t afford to allow faith to be lessened to simple belief. Faith needs to be allowed to breathe and produce a product that relies on the transcendent and fosters trust in another — this defines a resurgence of faith. Many churches stop evolving and reach a point where tradition supersedes God’s word. In many places the members don’t even know the difference. Bible classes are not well attended and teachers and leaders, instead of studying and creating their own lessons for their flock, purchase generic material that does not address the issues of today. Faith has to step out from the exclusive assignment of religious belief to an action that allows us to trust and build hope.

I believe the only way to really accomplish this is by taking the members out of the traditional bible classes and take the teaching to their world. Classes need to be inclusive and outside of the traditional setting. A resurgence of in-home bible studies designed to put faith in motion. This goes beyond small groups which were designed primarily for fellowship. In-home bible studies would be equivalent to “labs” that a college student would have if he was taking biology or chemistry. The only true task of the Lord’s church today is to make the Gospel of Jesus Christ relevant in the 21st Century.

If we want to be truly transformed by the renewing of our minds, it has to be through our understanding of God’s word. We must study to show ourselves approved of God. If not, we will kill our faith.

August 10, 2013
Gratitude vs. Thanks

I was unaware of the symbol for gratitude. Of course, Eastern culture exhibits the symbol as much a we see stop signs here.

Gratefulness and thankfulness each have its purpose, but have you ever viewed these words as levels of maturity? What I mean is a child will mimic what you say to him, but there will be no emotion behind it and that’s because there is not much intellect behind it. Imitation is what children do and it seems that some people never grow past mimicking.

We are taught by our parents to say thank you when someone does something for us. We say thank you as a sign of respect. We do it because it’s the “right” thing to do.

We grow up and understand thankfulness in the context that we learned it as a child. Thankful means to be glad or relieved that someone did something for us. That is a great thing to understand — when you are a kid.

Gratitude seems to be the next level because it means that you understand what has been done for you and you want to express an inward feeling outwardly. You want to do something because you are moved by what someone else has done for you.

Wow! That is different!

So ultimately our faith must do better than rest at thankfulness because faith without works is dead. So if we understand what God has done for us, then our actions should speak for us.

So if I am grateful for God’s unconditional love then I will give it to someone else. If I am grateful that God has forgiven me, then there is no way I don’t forgive. If I am grateful that God’s grace saves me from a state where I could not save myself, then why would I not be so grateful as to learn of him and shout from the roof top telling others about him?

Thankful appreciates. Grateful expresses the appreciation. Thankful shines with a smile. Grateful is a call to action.

Therefore, I need to be grateful instead of thankful. I need to be more of a doer and not just a hearer that my faith and trust in God may be displayed before the world.

I give God my thanks regularly, but I need to let him and everyone else know that I am grateful.

July 13, 2013
Acknowledging him has it’s benefits

We are half way through 2013 and it seems like we were just singing Auld Lang Syne (as much as we can sing that song but you get the picture). Many of us made resolutions and before Valentine’s Day we were done. I would like to offer a word of encouragement for those who have not made the most of this year.

Despite failed attempts and unmet expectations you are still here. And that’s a good thing. I know it seems like you’ve let yourself down and there may be people in your life constantly reminding you that you’re not good enough, but there is a God my friend. And this GOD loves you.

He loves you enough to watch you make decisions that don’t make much sense. And he doesn’t intervene because he doesn’t want to take away your free will. He loves you enough to make sure things don’t get too out of hand. Imagine how much worse things could have been? If you thought about it, you could think of folks who are doing worse. In fact it seems that no matter how bad you are doing, there is someone doing worse.

These are the little things that the Lord stays on top of while he is waiting for us to acknowledge him. In fact, he said that if we would acknowledge him here, he would acknowledge us before his father in heaven (Matt. 10:32).

Why don’t you spend the rest of this year acknowledging him. The bible tells us to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not unto our own understanding, but in all our ways acknowledge him and he will direct our paths (Prov. 3:5,6).

He’s waiting on you. Call him up friend, call him up in prayer.

June 22, 2013
Does your life put Christ in a place of honor?

Honor is a funny thing in our society. Normally it is given to those who have earned it. It was never designed to be given simply due to a title — it was something to be acquired.

We honor judges, politicians, clergy, successful businessman and public officials all because of the service they give. We honor fathers and mothers mostly because the bible tells us so and we even honor our spouses — sometimes whether they deserve it or not. Teachers are honored, seniors are honored and even a person who has done a good deed can get our honor.

Honor is a good name or public reputation. It’s a showing of usually respect:recognition. A privilege. One who’s worth brings respect or fame. Credit. So now chew on this:

Romans 5:10 says, “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

We know that Christ died, “while we were sinners” and “while we were without strength”. His death, burial and resurrection which are the very facts of his gospel had a profound effect on our place of honor on judgement day.

You see, his death (shedding of his blood) cleansed our sins and made reconciliation possible. For now God can begin a new relationship with us because of that death. His burial was just as important as it serves as the launch pad for resurrection. You have to have a death and burial or else there is no need for a resurrection. Baptism serves as our burial (launch pad) today as anyone who believes on Jesus and is baptized shall receive a resurrection.

Romans 6:4 says, “therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life.”

The last part is the resurrection or newness of life. Jesus’ life is what actually saves us (re: Romans 5:10). We are baptized into his death and are resurrected into his life. So that when God judges me, it will be on the merits of Christ’s life and not my own. His life was perfect and my life will be his. This is what is meant in Gal. 2:20 when it says “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, not I, but Christ lives in me.” Gee, I wonder how that happened?

So, I have been placed in a position of honor by God and I am now to live a life worthy of the honor I have been given. I have been accepted in the beloved and because of grace that is where I shall stay. The life that I now live in the flesh is a life lived by faith in the son of God who has loved me and gave himself for me!

If I really understand this, then my life must honor his gospel. If I am to take my place in glory it will only be because I demonstrated my understanding of what Christ did for me by my life. There is no greater honor than this.

May 4, 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
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
Thank God! Spring is here!

Spring symbolizes a new beginning. The death of winter is gone and all things are made new. Spring is like a second chance.

Have you ever been in an unhealthy relationship? Or worked a dead-end job that stressed you out whenever you thought about the drive to it? Or how about a bad circumstance that needs to end? The advent of spring should be the start of a new beginning for you.

New beginnings are symbolized in scripture by the number eight. It means the next in a new series or a new beginning. For example, when Noah was told to build the ark and warn the wicked world that God was angry, he preached about the next chapter or new beginning the world would take. You see, God was getting ready to start over and Noah and everyone who listened to him would be part of that new series.

It is no wonder then in 1 Peter 3:20 that it says of Noah’s time that “8 souls were saved by water”. And in 2 Pet. 2:5, Noah is referred to as a preacher of righteousness and called the “eighth person”. I would’ve thought with Noah being the head of his household, he would be number 1. This text calls him the eighth person for a reason: He represents the new beginning. He was the next in a new series.

There are many others in scripture that could be pointed out, but the point is to show the healing power of Spring. This is your new beginning. What are you going to do with it? The rest of your year will be dictated by what you do now, today, during the spring season.

It’s time to stop planning and making excuses. Now is the time for action! Don’t let everything around you change and become beautiful and you stay the same.

You deserve a new beginning. God knew that and allowed you to live and see the Spring. Make the most of it! This is your season!

March 20, 2013