Showing posts with label hope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hope. Show all posts
Saturday, September 22, 2012
What Do You Do When It Stinks?
What Do I Do When It Stinks?
Emotions of despair, those feelings that the situation that is being faced is hopeless and impossible. Realization dawns upon the consciousness bringing with it the certainty that all hope is gone and that I have arrived at the “Irr Home.” At the “Irr Home” everything living here is: Irreparable, Irremediable, Irretrievable, Irreclaimable and Irrevocable! With that realization comes a perception of impotence, which brings with it the awareness of powerlessness and weakness. Struggling with the conception of thoughts that leave one paralyzed with fear. Feeling totally ineffective to face another day of more of the same.
These are the feelings of the real world. Products of a world that is determined to take the best we have to offer and to stomp on it until it is totally crushed beyond repair. We have tried our best and our best isn’t enough! We have offered all that is sacred and dear, and it has been rejected. We have gutted it our until we feel that our guts are exposed to be literally ripped from our bodies.
The world looks at us with a look of contempt and scorn and says, “You made your bed, now sleep in it!” However, I have good news for you! The wonderful news of the Gospel of Christ! When the world says you made your bed now sleep in it, Jesus says, Take up your bed and walk!”
It is just another day like any other day for the past thirty-eight years. Somehow he drags himself one more time down by the sheep market to the Pool of Bethesda. He isn’t even sure why he goes to all of the trouble. He knows that there is no possible way for him to get into the pool if the angel were to come today. With this acknowledgment comes a feeling of despair. His situation is hopeless. He is not only physically impotent. He is powerless to ever change his life. Life will always be this way! In the midst of this chaotic jumble of embroiled emotions came Jesus!
Jesus came to this place which conveyed ideas of magical cures. A place where sometime during the year an angel would come and trouble the water and the infirm would hope to be the first into the water. The first person in the water, after the angel troubled it, was healed of their disease. This was a place that was close to the sheep market, and like is the case with large livestock sale barns, I am sure the emanation of the sheep gathered into that one small place would begin to attack the olfactory senses of those that came to the pool. In other words, it smelled!
The bodies of men and women who were sick with all manner of diseases, impotent folk. The blind, the halt, the crippled. Many of them unkept and unwashed. It was a painful picture of the chief kind of human suffering and bodily disease. It was a place of hopelessness. A feeling which must have permeated the air. A cauldron of fear percolating out feelings that each situation was irremediable, irrevocable. Screaming there is no hope! Helpless and powerless! Individuals grasping at the illusive, fragile dream that they might be the first into the pool the next time the water was troubled. Struggling to hold on to that dream through year of failure. Hearing a constant bombardment of doubt and fear from those around them that had been at the pool for so many years. Spirits, once high with hope and promise, have now shrunken in distress as realization dawns on them, their situation is hopeless. That was the atmosphere of the Pool of Bethesda!
Jesus looks on the man, knowing how hopeless his plight is, and without demanding from the man even faith, asks him, “Wilt thou be made whole?” This individual, who might have come to the place where he was doubtful of the blessing of healing because of the resulting responsibilities, is hearing a question he might have heard from others. He whines out, with a professional drawl, his oft told story, reflecting very much on his lovelessness, quarrelsomeness, and ugly temper. The melancholy recital of his frequent disappointment is given with an air of insolvent resignation. Maybe even a gloomy satisfaction with his lot in life can be heard in his voice. However, Jesus doesn’t even rebuke him for his lack of faith, as he has others. He doesn’t require anything special of him. All he simply says is, “Take up your bed and walk.”
The Psalmist said, “Why am I discouraged? Why so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again — my Savior and my God! (Psalms 43:5 NLT)
The Apostle Paul added to this, “And if we have hope in Christ only for this life, we are the most miserable people in the world.” (1 Cor 15:19 NLT)
We are living in a time when life is filled with uncertainty. Men and women are living lives filled with fear and hopelessness. No matter what is tried to improve life it seems powerless to make the needed change. There is a high rate of burnout and certainly a deep level of cynicism. Dependency upon the world system has left many in despair, wondering where to turn and when it will all change.
Our hopes in this life and what this life has to offer are bound to bring nothing but disappointment. This world, or the age in which we live, is ruled by the god of this world. As a result, it is doomed for failure. If we rely upon this world to meet our needs and to save us from our despair, we too are doomed for failure and disappointment.
Jesus stood at the tomb of Lazarus. His heart was broken, not because his friend had died. He knew and had already said that Lazarus was just asleep. His heart hurt for those who were crushed with sorrow and wept as a result of all hope laying dead for four days. He told them to roll away the stone from in front of the tomb and their response was, “He has been dead for four days and it is going to stink!”
So what do you do when it stinks? You roll the stone away! You take up your bed and walk! You refuse to let circumstances dictate to you your response to the blessings of God. Step out by faith. Do the opposite of what is natural and step into the world of the Supernatural! Let Jesus Christ have a chance to bring to live what the world says is dead!
It is in the midst of turmoil and chaos that Jesus Christ is at his best. Whether it be in the midst of a crowd at the pool where hope has faded or at the tomb of one who has been buried too long, Jesus Christ is still the answer we need today. When life is nothing but a stinking mess, Jesus Christ is still our only hope. The choice is ours. We can continue to lay in a world of cynical unbelief or we can take up our bed and walk. We can continue to lay in that which has entombed us, or we can arise and come out of the tomb.
Well, its just a thought! I refuse to be discouraged or sad, I will put my hope in Jesus Christ!
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
A Personal God in an Impersonal World
A while back my wife went to the bank to make a deposit. The teller told her, after she had waited in line for several minutes; you know you should use the ATM instead of taking our time. We had four different accounts at the bank that we signed on. I went to another bank and asked them, “I want to open several accounts, but I have one question to ask first. Will it bother you if I come into your bank and stand in line and take up your time so that I can give you my money? I just want to know!”
Our world is very impersonal. We live in a very inhospitable world. Humanity has become cold and detached from each other. We have lost our sensitivity to our neighbor. We have become indifferent and unemotional toward mankind.
Call your utility company or any business and you will spend more time listening to a computer tell you that their menu has changed so listen closely than you will talking to a real human. Our world is impersonal.
On a daily basis you will get a call from a computer. It will tell you to stay on the line and wait for a very important call. The internet is set up for online shopping. It is designed so you will never have to leave you home for anything. We have lost the personal touch.
It is an impersonal world when women can scream for help while being raped or beaten. Nearby neighbors and passerby’s turn their heads. They shut their windows. They turn their music up louder. They don’t want to be involved. They want to remain detached and unemotional abut the world around them.
As time passes, the spirit of the age in which we live becomes more and more impersonal. It becomes more and more detached and distant. However, in the midst of an impersonal world we have a very personal God! He is a God that knows and loves each of us as individuals.
In John chapter one when Jesus first began to select His disciples, He called Philip. When Philip met Jesus, he was so excited that he went to tell a friend named Nathaniel all about Him. Nathaniel decided to come and meet Jesus for himself. Now, as he approaches, Jesus speaks to him before Nathaniel ever has a chance to say anything. What he says is so personal, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!”
Only someone who knew him intimately could make that statement. It catches Nathaniel off guard, by surprise. He asks, “Whence knowest thou me?” Have we ever met? How do you know me?
So Jesus makes it even more personal. “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you,” he said to Nathaniel. He was telling him I know you inside and out. I know all about you.
He is a personal God!
Jesus came down from teaching on the mountain and great multitudes followed Him. Suddenly the crowd which had been pressing against Him pulled back. At the feet of Jesus falls the ragged, tattered figure of a man.
His face is disfigured from the hideous disease that has ravaged his body. Rags are wrapped around his arms and hands to hide the effects of the leprosy that was destroying him.
Looking at Jesus, he begins to worship Him saying, “Lord, if you wanted to you could heal me.”
Most people would have been repulsed at the sight of the man. They would have averted their gaze. Their stomachs would have heaved. The stench would have caused them to retreat as discretely as possible. The thought of physical contact would have been abhorrent and would never have taken place. There would have been no concern about the feelings of this man. They would not have worried the least if he would have been offended or hurt by their reaction and rejection.
Jesus however is a personal God in an impersonal world. The man has recognized that Jesus had the power to heal him. He has prostrated himself before Jesus, desperately hoping and believing for a second chance at life. Jesus isn’t repulsed or revolted by the man and his condition. He is moved with compassion for the man. He feels for this man deeply enough that he reaches out and touches him.
We have to ask ourselves the question, “How long had it been since someone had touched this man? How long had this man lived without a personal touch of another human being?”
Lepers could not live with their families. They were not allowed to live in the cities of Israel. Rather, they were cast out of the communities when they were diagnosed with leprosy. They left their homes, their jobs, their communities behind. They walked away from their families, friends and loved ones. They were destined to live the life of an outcast in the caves and hills that surrounded the towns.
When they approached people, they had to cry in a loud voice, “Unclean, unclean!” This allowed people to stay back or change their course of travel and not be exposed to this highly contagious disease.
One must wonder how long it had been since this man had received a pat on the back from a friend. You have to ask how long since he had received a hug from his parents. How many days and weeks, maybe months or years, since his child had ran to meet him and jumped in his arms. How long had it been since his sweetheart had put her arms around him and kissed him telling him how handsome he was and that she loved him.
These are things that we experience on a daily basis. These are happenings in our everyday lives, so we often just expect them to always be there. This man had not enjoyed the feel of another persons touch in a while.
We all need to be touched. A touch releases endorphins which are healing agents in our blood stream. Medical doctors say that ten meaningful touches, showing value, a day can add two years to a person’s life.
He needed healing. He was a desperate man in a hopeless situation. A healing would have changed his life forever. Yet Jesus recognized this man needed more than just healing. This man needed a touch and being the personal God that He is, He touched Him! Then He healed Him!
When he came to Jesus, this man would have been elated to receive his healing, but Jesus said there is more that you need than just healing. You need to know that some one finds you to be important. You need the reassurance that someone loves you, despite your condition. So Jesus touched him.
The people were all around. People were pressing, calling, pulling, and shoving. Suddenly, Jesus stops and looks around and asks, “Who touched me?”
The disciples are bewildered at the question. People are touching him from every side. Everybody wants to get his attention. They are all there because they want to get close to Him. How can He ask, “Who touched me?”
The reply they get from Jesus is unexpected. He knows that someone with a special need has touched Him. He says they have been healed because He felt virtue leave His body. However, there is more that is needed and He needs to know who touched Him.
For twelve years this woman had a disease that caused her to be considered unclean. For twelve years she had suffered not only the effects of this disease, the weakness. But also, for twelve years she had also known shame, and the rejection, of being a castaway.
When she touched Jesus, she was immediately healed. Yet Jesus didn’t let her just walk away. He stopped her, had her tell her story, letting everyone in the crowd know that she was unclean. Then he announced to the world that she was not just healed but also restored.
Yes, he is a personal God even when the world is cold and detached. He was even personal to a jailer in a Philippian jail. He sent two preachers to preach a gospel message to him. He dispatched an earthquake to get his attention so he would realize that he was important to God. He is a personal God.
He was sitting on the curb of a well on a hot, dry afternoon when she walked up; thinking no one else would be there. She came thinking she was going to take care of a natural need. Yet Jesus saw that deep thirst that was in her heart and gave her what she needed to have that need met. A need she didn’t even realize that she had. He is an individual God. He is your own God, he belongs to you.
Our God is a personal God. He knows you as an individual. He is the God of the universe. In spite of that he is your personal, individual God. He cares for your needs while he is caring for my needs. He is a personal individual God.
You don’t know me, but he knows me. If you had known me before I knew him, you would understand why I love him the way that I love him. Who am I that the great God of heaven would bleed and die for? Yet he did just that. He died just for me.
We know that he made the worlds. He made earth. He made you and me. We know that there is great demand for his attention. We know that we can bring all of our cares to him and he will care. But the beautiful thing about God is that he is so personal he cares for the small things.
In September of 1999, after several months of terminal illness, my father passed away. We had spent weeks at his bedside. There were very few nights during that time when the phone didn’t ring calling us to his bedside. Not only were we physically exhausted, we were emotionally and spiritually exhausted also.
My father had pastored the church for 25 years and then had been Pastor Emeritus for the past 10 years. So the church was also exhausted.
A few weeks after his passing, my wife and I took a night off and went to the “big city” to spend the night and have a day of goofing off. That morning at the restaurant when I went to pay for my breakfast, someone had already paid for our meal. I was in a strange town. I didn’t see anyone I recognized.
While in town I took a gift back that I was unable to use. I received much more money than I thought I would. Initially I was told I could not have my money back.
The day continued in the same manner. There were just a lot of little things that day that went right. Driving down the road that evening I realized that God had just used several small things, unimportant to anyone else, to let me know he cared. He is a personal God.
Several months later, on Fathers Day, I was in Mississippi. My wife and I were preaching a revival in a small church. I was sitting in my motel room that morning waiting on my wife to finish getting ready for church. Suddenly it dawned on me that I could not call my father and wish him a Happy Fathers Day.
For the first time in forty-three years I would not be able to tell the most important man in my life how much I loved and appreciated him. It seemed like all of the emotions that I had dealt with flooded back to the surface and I began to weep. I felt lost and alone. Dad had been my friend and confidant. I could always call Dad and he would listen. I could always count on him to be there, but suddenly it had changed and reality had set in.
It was in this desolate lonely moment that God spoke to me. It was in this time of feeling so small and insignificant that God reached down and gave me that touch that I couldn’t get from my Dad. It was in that moment that God told me, “I am a personal God in an impersonal world and I love you!”
I have been dealing with a situation for a long period of time, several years. Important things in my life have not worked out the way I had hoped and prayed they would. There have been many times that I have called on God and asked, “Where are you in all of this?”
There have been times when I felt like Job, I see the evidence of God everywhere, but I can’t feel it for my self. You are blessing people all around me, but I can’t feel anything. I have given it my all, but my all hasn’t been good enough!
I was recently in a service where God spoke to me and told me, “I am working on you because I love you.”
It wasn’t just a thought or a feeling that went through my mind. I wasn’’t just an impression that I had. It was a Word from the Lord sent by a special messenger, just for me. A man who didn’t know me from Adam, but he had a personal message just for me. You may be skeptical, but I know I serve a very personal God.
No matter what it is you might be dealing with. Whatever you might be feeling let me reassure you that God cares. If you are feeling rejection, He cares! If live has overwhelmed you, He cares! If you lie on your bed at night, afraid to close you eyes because of the pressures that are there, He cares!
He is a personal God in an impersonal world. He cares when no one else cares. In fact Peter gives us this reassurance in I Peter 5:7, “Casting all your cares upon Him, for He careth for you.”
Take them to Jesus, He cares!
Remember...it's just a thought!
Our world is very impersonal. We live in a very inhospitable world. Humanity has become cold and detached from each other. We have lost our sensitivity to our neighbor. We have become indifferent and unemotional toward mankind.
Call your utility company or any business and you will spend more time listening to a computer tell you that their menu has changed so listen closely than you will talking to a real human. Our world is impersonal.
On a daily basis you will get a call from a computer. It will tell you to stay on the line and wait for a very important call. The internet is set up for online shopping. It is designed so you will never have to leave you home for anything. We have lost the personal touch.
It is an impersonal world when women can scream for help while being raped or beaten. Nearby neighbors and passerby’s turn their heads. They shut their windows. They turn their music up louder. They don’t want to be involved. They want to remain detached and unemotional abut the world around them.
As time passes, the spirit of the age in which we live becomes more and more impersonal. It becomes more and more detached and distant. However, in the midst of an impersonal world we have a very personal God! He is a God that knows and loves each of us as individuals.
In John chapter one when Jesus first began to select His disciples, He called Philip. When Philip met Jesus, he was so excited that he went to tell a friend named Nathaniel all about Him. Nathaniel decided to come and meet Jesus for himself. Now, as he approaches, Jesus speaks to him before Nathaniel ever has a chance to say anything. What he says is so personal, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!”
Only someone who knew him intimately could make that statement. It catches Nathaniel off guard, by surprise. He asks, “Whence knowest thou me?” Have we ever met? How do you know me?
So Jesus makes it even more personal. “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you,” he said to Nathaniel. He was telling him I know you inside and out. I know all about you.
He is a personal God!
Jesus came down from teaching on the mountain and great multitudes followed Him. Suddenly the crowd which had been pressing against Him pulled back. At the feet of Jesus falls the ragged, tattered figure of a man.
His face is disfigured from the hideous disease that has ravaged his body. Rags are wrapped around his arms and hands to hide the effects of the leprosy that was destroying him.
Looking at Jesus, he begins to worship Him saying, “Lord, if you wanted to you could heal me.”
Most people would have been repulsed at the sight of the man. They would have averted their gaze. Their stomachs would have heaved. The stench would have caused them to retreat as discretely as possible. The thought of physical contact would have been abhorrent and would never have taken place. There would have been no concern about the feelings of this man. They would not have worried the least if he would have been offended or hurt by their reaction and rejection.
Jesus however is a personal God in an impersonal world. The man has recognized that Jesus had the power to heal him. He has prostrated himself before Jesus, desperately hoping and believing for a second chance at life. Jesus isn’t repulsed or revolted by the man and his condition. He is moved with compassion for the man. He feels for this man deeply enough that he reaches out and touches him.
We have to ask ourselves the question, “How long had it been since someone had touched this man? How long had this man lived without a personal touch of another human being?”
Lepers could not live with their families. They were not allowed to live in the cities of Israel. Rather, they were cast out of the communities when they were diagnosed with leprosy. They left their homes, their jobs, their communities behind. They walked away from their families, friends and loved ones. They were destined to live the life of an outcast in the caves and hills that surrounded the towns.
When they approached people, they had to cry in a loud voice, “Unclean, unclean!” This allowed people to stay back or change their course of travel and not be exposed to this highly contagious disease.
One must wonder how long it had been since this man had received a pat on the back from a friend. You have to ask how long since he had received a hug from his parents. How many days and weeks, maybe months or years, since his child had ran to meet him and jumped in his arms. How long had it been since his sweetheart had put her arms around him and kissed him telling him how handsome he was and that she loved him.
These are things that we experience on a daily basis. These are happenings in our everyday lives, so we often just expect them to always be there. This man had not enjoyed the feel of another persons touch in a while.
We all need to be touched. A touch releases endorphins which are healing agents in our blood stream. Medical doctors say that ten meaningful touches, showing value, a day can add two years to a person’s life.
He needed healing. He was a desperate man in a hopeless situation. A healing would have changed his life forever. Yet Jesus recognized this man needed more than just healing. This man needed a touch and being the personal God that He is, He touched Him! Then He healed Him!
When he came to Jesus, this man would have been elated to receive his healing, but Jesus said there is more that you need than just healing. You need to know that some one finds you to be important. You need the reassurance that someone loves you, despite your condition. So Jesus touched him.
The people were all around. People were pressing, calling, pulling, and shoving. Suddenly, Jesus stops and looks around and asks, “Who touched me?”
The disciples are bewildered at the question. People are touching him from every side. Everybody wants to get his attention. They are all there because they want to get close to Him. How can He ask, “Who touched me?”
The reply they get from Jesus is unexpected. He knows that someone with a special need has touched Him. He says they have been healed because He felt virtue leave His body. However, there is more that is needed and He needs to know who touched Him.
For twelve years this woman had a disease that caused her to be considered unclean. For twelve years she had suffered not only the effects of this disease, the weakness. But also, for twelve years she had also known shame, and the rejection, of being a castaway.
When she touched Jesus, she was immediately healed. Yet Jesus didn’t let her just walk away. He stopped her, had her tell her story, letting everyone in the crowd know that she was unclean. Then he announced to the world that she was not just healed but also restored.
Yes, he is a personal God even when the world is cold and detached. He was even personal to a jailer in a Philippian jail. He sent two preachers to preach a gospel message to him. He dispatched an earthquake to get his attention so he would realize that he was important to God. He is a personal God.
He was sitting on the curb of a well on a hot, dry afternoon when she walked up; thinking no one else would be there. She came thinking she was going to take care of a natural need. Yet Jesus saw that deep thirst that was in her heart and gave her what she needed to have that need met. A need she didn’t even realize that she had. He is an individual God. He is your own God, he belongs to you.
Our God is a personal God. He knows you as an individual. He is the God of the universe. In spite of that he is your personal, individual God. He cares for your needs while he is caring for my needs. He is a personal individual God.
You don’t know me, but he knows me. If you had known me before I knew him, you would understand why I love him the way that I love him. Who am I that the great God of heaven would bleed and die for? Yet he did just that. He died just for me.
We know that he made the worlds. He made earth. He made you and me. We know that there is great demand for his attention. We know that we can bring all of our cares to him and he will care. But the beautiful thing about God is that he is so personal he cares for the small things.
In September of 1999, after several months of terminal illness, my father passed away. We had spent weeks at his bedside. There were very few nights during that time when the phone didn’t ring calling us to his bedside. Not only were we physically exhausted, we were emotionally and spiritually exhausted also.
My father had pastored the church for 25 years and then had been Pastor Emeritus for the past 10 years. So the church was also exhausted.
A few weeks after his passing, my wife and I took a night off and went to the “big city” to spend the night and have a day of goofing off. That morning at the restaurant when I went to pay for my breakfast, someone had already paid for our meal. I was in a strange town. I didn’t see anyone I recognized.
While in town I took a gift back that I was unable to use. I received much more money than I thought I would. Initially I was told I could not have my money back.
The day continued in the same manner. There were just a lot of little things that day that went right. Driving down the road that evening I realized that God had just used several small things, unimportant to anyone else, to let me know he cared. He is a personal God.
Several months later, on Fathers Day, I was in Mississippi. My wife and I were preaching a revival in a small church. I was sitting in my motel room that morning waiting on my wife to finish getting ready for church. Suddenly it dawned on me that I could not call my father and wish him a Happy Fathers Day.
For the first time in forty-three years I would not be able to tell the most important man in my life how much I loved and appreciated him. It seemed like all of the emotions that I had dealt with flooded back to the surface and I began to weep. I felt lost and alone. Dad had been my friend and confidant. I could always call Dad and he would listen. I could always count on him to be there, but suddenly it had changed and reality had set in.
It was in this desolate lonely moment that God spoke to me. It was in this time of feeling so small and insignificant that God reached down and gave me that touch that I couldn’t get from my Dad. It was in that moment that God told me, “I am a personal God in an impersonal world and I love you!”
I have been dealing with a situation for a long period of time, several years. Important things in my life have not worked out the way I had hoped and prayed they would. There have been many times that I have called on God and asked, “Where are you in all of this?”
There have been times when I felt like Job, I see the evidence of God everywhere, but I can’t feel it for my self. You are blessing people all around me, but I can’t feel anything. I have given it my all, but my all hasn’t been good enough!
I was recently in a service where God spoke to me and told me, “I am working on you because I love you.”
It wasn’t just a thought or a feeling that went through my mind. I wasn’’t just an impression that I had. It was a Word from the Lord sent by a special messenger, just for me. A man who didn’t know me from Adam, but he had a personal message just for me. You may be skeptical, but I know I serve a very personal God.
No matter what it is you might be dealing with. Whatever you might be feeling let me reassure you that God cares. If you are feeling rejection, He cares! If live has overwhelmed you, He cares! If you lie on your bed at night, afraid to close you eyes because of the pressures that are there, He cares!
He is a personal God in an impersonal world. He cares when no one else cares. In fact Peter gives us this reassurance in I Peter 5:7, “Casting all your cares upon Him, for He careth for you.”
Take them to Jesus, He cares!
Remember...it's just a thought!
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Shoes of the Gospel of Peace
Our first inclination when we sense danger is to run and hide. We want to flee the threat of danger! Our pulse begins to race! Our adrenalin begins to pump! Fear grips our heart! The first thought we have is to make a retreat and save ourselves.
Fear is a controlling, amazing thing. The cause of fear doesn’t even have to be real, it can be something we have imagined or someone has told us. Experiences can cause fear in our lives that are either real or imagined. Fear will control you. Let me give you an example.
I was driving home from Church one Sunday with my mother. We exited the Interstate and came to a stop sign at an intersection. Across from where we sat, about a hundred feet away and to our right, we could see the shore of a lake. My mother looked at the lake and said, “That makes my stomach hurt!”
Not sure what she was referring to, I asked, “What are you talking about?” To this she replied, “That water! Looking at it makes my stomach hurt!”
Now I was very curious how the lake’s water could make her stomach hurt, so I asked her. To this she replied, “Well, when I was two years old I almost drowned. So when I look at water, it makes my stomach hurt.”
I was surprised and said, “Mom, you can’t even remember when you were two years old. How can that experience make you afraid of water to the point it makes your stomach hurt to look at it? You are just going on what someone told you.”
Mom replied, “I don’t care! It makes my stomach hurt to look at water.” I then began to recall how afraid she had been all of my life whenever water was involved. She had never, in my lifetime, gone swimming. In fact, I don’t ever remember her going wading or standing in the waves at the ocean. When we were kids, we would beg to go swimming at the river. When mom would finally give in and would take us we could only get in the water up to our knees. I was eighteen years old when I learned to swim. A fear that someone had told her about, had controlled her life for seventy-five years.
The same thing happens to us spiritually. We often deal with fears that things that we have experienced in our past have caused. Sometimes the enemy of our soul will whisper lies in our ears that will breed fears into our lives. Our imaginations begin to expand on the lies, making them larger and more real in our minds to the point fear controls us.
Paul tells us, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Tim 1:7 KJV)
John also writes and tells us, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18 KJV)
Fear is the root of so much of our spiritual troubles. It is the cause of much of the conflict we have with our brothers and sisters in the Lord. We can find ourselves going through life responding to the fears of what others think about us. We are afraid of what someone else will do or say if we dress a certain way or fail to respond in a certain way. Too often we find ourselves bound by things we are sure others are saying about us. Fear and condemnation can blind us until we become helpless.
When fear sets in it brings torment! Torment will result in the victim becoming self centered. Not because they are egotistical! This happens because they become consumed by the fear that has overtaken their lives. Everything becomes centered on this fear and how it affects them.
The “Good News” is that God hasn’t given us the spirit of fear. He has given us the “Spirit of Power.” Power is the opposite of fear. Fear leaves you feeling weak. Fear causes you to feel vulnerable and helpless. However, power is strength, ability and authority. “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you,” (Acts 1:8a KJV).
The “Good News” is that God hasn’t given us the spirit of fear. He has given us the “Spirit of Love.” Love is the opposite of fear. Fear causes you to feel alone. It will make you feel that no one cares and no one is listening to your cries for help. Fear will make you feel that no one will be there to take care of you. Love, on the other hand, is the assurance that someone is there and they do care. It is the knowledge that there is someone you can call to and they will respond and wrap their arms around you in a loving embrace. Peter admonishes us, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” (1Peter 5:7 KJV)
The “Good News” is that God hasn’t given us the spirit of fear. He has given us the “Spirit of a Sound Mind.” Several translations use the word discipline here. A mind that is undisciplined will cause fear. They allow the imagination to be in control. However, when we control or discipline our mind, fear is no longer able to rule over us. Paul admonishes us, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”; (2 Cor. 10:5 KJV).
When I recognize that I have protection from fear I am free to walk in peace. I will enjoy peace that is beyond understanding in my life. I will know peace with my fellow man. It is then that I will be free to spread the “Gospel of Peace” in a world that is searching for peace. As Jesus said in His last words to His disciples, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me” (Acts 1:8 KJV).
Paul encourages us in to, “Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:6-7 NLT)
(An excerpt from the second chapter of the book I am presently writing.)
Fear is a controlling, amazing thing. The cause of fear doesn’t even have to be real, it can be something we have imagined or someone has told us. Experiences can cause fear in our lives that are either real or imagined. Fear will control you. Let me give you an example.
I was driving home from Church one Sunday with my mother. We exited the Interstate and came to a stop sign at an intersection. Across from where we sat, about a hundred feet away and to our right, we could see the shore of a lake. My mother looked at the lake and said, “That makes my stomach hurt!”
Not sure what she was referring to, I asked, “What are you talking about?” To this she replied, “That water! Looking at it makes my stomach hurt!”
Now I was very curious how the lake’s water could make her stomach hurt, so I asked her. To this she replied, “Well, when I was two years old I almost drowned. So when I look at water, it makes my stomach hurt.”
I was surprised and said, “Mom, you can’t even remember when you were two years old. How can that experience make you afraid of water to the point it makes your stomach hurt to look at it? You are just going on what someone told you.”
Mom replied, “I don’t care! It makes my stomach hurt to look at water.” I then began to recall how afraid she had been all of my life whenever water was involved. She had never, in my lifetime, gone swimming. In fact, I don’t ever remember her going wading or standing in the waves at the ocean. When we were kids, we would beg to go swimming at the river. When mom would finally give in and would take us we could only get in the water up to our knees. I was eighteen years old when I learned to swim. A fear that someone had told her about, had controlled her life for seventy-five years.
The same thing happens to us spiritually. We often deal with fears that things that we have experienced in our past have caused. Sometimes the enemy of our soul will whisper lies in our ears that will breed fears into our lives. Our imaginations begin to expand on the lies, making them larger and more real in our minds to the point fear controls us.
Paul tells us, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Tim 1:7 KJV)
John also writes and tells us, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18 KJV)
Fear is the root of so much of our spiritual troubles. It is the cause of much of the conflict we have with our brothers and sisters in the Lord. We can find ourselves going through life responding to the fears of what others think about us. We are afraid of what someone else will do or say if we dress a certain way or fail to respond in a certain way. Too often we find ourselves bound by things we are sure others are saying about us. Fear and condemnation can blind us until we become helpless.
When fear sets in it brings torment! Torment will result in the victim becoming self centered. Not because they are egotistical! This happens because they become consumed by the fear that has overtaken their lives. Everything becomes centered on this fear and how it affects them.
The “Good News” is that God hasn’t given us the spirit of fear. He has given us the “Spirit of Power.” Power is the opposite of fear. Fear leaves you feeling weak. Fear causes you to feel vulnerable and helpless. However, power is strength, ability and authority. “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you,” (Acts 1:8a KJV).
The “Good News” is that God hasn’t given us the spirit of fear. He has given us the “Spirit of Love.” Love is the opposite of fear. Fear causes you to feel alone. It will make you feel that no one cares and no one is listening to your cries for help. Fear will make you feel that no one will be there to take care of you. Love, on the other hand, is the assurance that someone is there and they do care. It is the knowledge that there is someone you can call to and they will respond and wrap their arms around you in a loving embrace. Peter admonishes us, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” (1Peter 5:7 KJV)
The “Good News” is that God hasn’t given us the spirit of fear. He has given us the “Spirit of a Sound Mind.” Several translations use the word discipline here. A mind that is undisciplined will cause fear. They allow the imagination to be in control. However, when we control or discipline our mind, fear is no longer able to rule over us. Paul admonishes us, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”; (2 Cor. 10:5 KJV).
When I recognize that I have protection from fear I am free to walk in peace. I will enjoy peace that is beyond understanding in my life. I will know peace with my fellow man. It is then that I will be free to spread the “Gospel of Peace” in a world that is searching for peace. As Jesus said in His last words to His disciples, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me” (Acts 1:8 KJV).
Paul encourages us in to, “Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:6-7 NLT)
(An excerpt from the second chapter of the book I am presently writing.)
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Is Your Nose Pressed Against The Window?
It was so funny, one night at Church, you know that some of the funniest things happen at Church! I had to start laughing and shame on me. We were having an awesome move of God in service. I was standing up front playing the guitar and looked over to the side. My brother, Tim, was in the fellowship hall doing children’s ministry. He had come to the door and was peaking in to see what was happening. All I could see was one eye and his nose. I couldn’t help but laugh because it looked so funny.
I remembered an incident back many years ago. You can only remember many years ago when you get old. I was preaching a revival in a little town in Oregon. The revival was only for the weekend, so I had invited one of the young men from the church to accompany me so I wouldn’t have to travel alone. On Monday morning the pastor left early for work and we left, when he did, to head home. We stopped at a little restaurant in town to have breakfast. We were seated right at the window, which looked out over the street. The restaurant was right on a corner which also served as a school bus stop and there were several children standing waiting for the school bus. As we were setting at the table eating, I looked over toward the street and much to my surprise there were three little boys standing at the window with their noses pressed against the glass watching us eat.
You can imagine how funny that looked! We started laughing and they start laughing as well. I couldn’t help but think of those three little boys when I saw the big boy looking through the door. It was as if his nose was pressed against the glass and he was wishing he could have some too. If you know Tim, you know that is exactly what he was wishing!
The Psalmist tells us, “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.” (Ps. 34:8)
How many times have we stood back and watched others get blessed while we wonder how good it tastes?! How often have we looked in, with our noses pressed against the window, wishing we could have some of that?! All along each of us has the opportunity to “taste and see” for ourselves. We don’t have to be a spectator; we can be a participator in everything God offers to the believer.
I have observed as different ones plunge their dipper into the “well of living water” and take a taste. I have watched as the “well of living water” began to bubble up within them and the blessings began to purge away the pressure of the week. I have watched as some were healed, just as a result of worship. I have watched others as the weariness of life was washed from their faces. Some weep with relief. Others have responded with jubilation. They “tasted” and found for themselves the Lord is good. There is a special blessing when we realize we can place our trust in the Lord!
Each and every life is created with a hunger in it that can only be filled by God. Jesus stopped one day at a well and talked with a woman who had come to draw water to meet her natural, physical needs. Jesus offered her water that would meet the longing that was in her soul. In fact, Jesus told her, “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:14 KJV)
How many times have I wanted to buy a type of food that I was hungry for only to realize it was too expensive? At the price of beef today you need to mortgage your home to buy a steak! There have been times in my life, when we have lived on very simple, basic staples because of a lack of finances. I remember one time when I was young and times were hard, as Dad and Mom were pastoring a home mission Church, we lived on pancakes for several weeks. In the morning we had pancakes with homemade syrup. In the evening we had pancakes with jelly. That was all we could afford and were thankful for it.
However we have this invitation, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” (Isa 55:1 KJV)
I don’t have to stand outside the window and press my nose against the glass. I have a standing invitation to come inside and eat and drink until I am full. What a blessing to be invited to come in and sit down to eat at the king’s table. What a great opportunity is available, to have the assurance that satisfaction is available to each and every one of us.
Let me encourage you to step back from the window and come on in! Pull up a seat and place your trust in God, you will find out He is GOOD!
It’s just a thought! God Bless
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Be Converted and Become as a Little Child
Do you like to watch children playing? I love to just sit and watch and listen to kids as they play. I love to hear the laughter as they run and play their games. I really enjoy hearing the laughter of children, as it echos through the day bouncing off the buildings and filling the air.
This morning, as I was driving my bus route, I watched a young girl walk to the edge of her porch. It was a beautiful morning with just a touch of fall in the air. The little girl might have been about eight years old. She was wearing a backpack and was obviously waiting for the school bus to come by and pick her up. Instead of stepping down each step, she hopped down each one! It was just a small hop, not a jump, and it was done in a casual, carefree manner. Before she had reached the bottom step we had passed her house and she was out of sight.
I couldn’t help to note the difference in the manner in which she went down those stairs and the way I would have gone down them. Her descent was light, carefree and full of anticipation for the day. Mine would have been slower, burdened and wishing I was staying home.
Oh to be a kid again! They don’t walk down steps. They hop! They don’t walk down the street. They skip! Kids don’t walk to the bus. They run! They aren’t worried about what could happen. They aren’t concerned with the weather. They aren’t fretting about the economy. They couldn’t care less if it rains today or tomorrow. Their main focus is on right now and enjoying this moment of life.
On the other hand I dread going down the steps. The question runs through my mind, “Is this going to make my knee hurt?” I really don’t want to walk down the road, the question on my mind is, “How is this going to benefit me?” I drag to the bus because I would rather be going somewhere that is more fun and less demanding. I worry about tomorrow. I am fretting about the economy, especially mine. My focus tends to be on what might happen or on the complexities of the probabilities of the maybes.
A portion of scripture came to my mind. I remembered Jesus saying, “. . . become as little children.” Now my interest is tweaked! I knew God was trying to speak to me and now He had my attention. I have heard, and probably made, many references to becoming as a little child, full of innocence and faith. Was this what I was hearing from God?
I have found that it is always good for me to look up the passage and read it afresh. Being old and feeble minded I have a tendency to forget the whole passage and only remember a portion. Often I don’t even get that right. I have also learned that by finding and reading the passage again, it gives God the opportunity to bring something brand new to my attention from the passage. This is just what happened when I located and read Matthew 18:3, “And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus is giving His disciples a lesson in humility. He was asked who would be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Instead of listing all of the great deeds and accomplishments that must be accomplished, Jesus turns and calls a little child. Rather than cataloging the need of a great family tree, money in the bank and extreme intelligence, Jesus takes a child onto His lap. He tells the crowd they need to be converted and become as a little child.
Why? Why would he use a little child as an example of humility? Why not use someone or something else? Why use a child?
Who understands the simplicity of trust? A little child does. They trust their parents for everything. A child doesn’t worry about food, clothes, housing or transportation because they trust. They don’t feel like they have to handle it themselves because they trust. They don’t worry or fret about tomorrow because they trust mom and dad to take care of tomorrow. All of the worry and fretting is something they learn later, but as a little child they just trust.
The Apostle Peter encourages us to cast ALL of our cares upon Jesus because He cares for us. (1Peter 5:7) Trusting Him with our concerns is a sign of humility. Giving them to Him to take care of is a sign of humbleness. Recognizing that His grace is more than enough is truly trusting. (2 Corinthians 12:9) Becoming dependent upon Him rather than self-sufficient speaks of submission. Taking the way of the child is a requirement.
I need a conversion in my life. There needs to be a transformation to take place in my mind and in my heart. My mind needs to be renewed and I need to stop thinking as an adult thinks. The world with all of its pressures and agendas has influenced my thinking and I need to be converted once again. I need to become as a little child.
While I was writing this thought, Melinda, my beautiful and wonderful wife, came into my study. In her hand she held a mixing bowl and a spatula. Without saying a word she walked up and handed both of them to me. Immediately I knew what I was suppose to do. I became as the little boy I once was, who loved to clean the bowl after mom had mixed a cake. Everything came to a halt as I laughed and went right to work, enjoying the taste of the cake batter and the opportunity to be a kid again.
How often does Jesus try to interrupt our busy lives to give us the opportunity to just enjoy being a kid again? It’s conversion time!
It’s just a thought!
Monday, June 6, 2011
Today is the Day of Good News!
Have you ever been sorry that you received good news? I can’t think of one time that I have regretted receiving good news. I do not remember one morning when I have awakened and thought, “I hope that I get some bad news today!” I do know that most mornings I am hoping for some good news. In fact, to be honest, I look forward to hearing good news, even when it isn’t for me.
The four men looked at each other and one of them said, “This situation looks really hopeless!” Another continued the thought, “That’s right! If we continue to sit here, we are going to die. If we go to the city we are going to die and if we go to the camp of the Syrians, our enemies, we will die.” Another one said, “You are right about dying if we sit here or if we go to the city, however, there is a chance the Syrians might feel sorry for us if we go to their camp and they might feed us.” The last man said, “What is there to lose? Let’s go take our chances with the Syrian camp.”
The Syrian army had besieged Samaria causing a great famine. It was so bad and people were so desperate for food that a donkey’s head sold for twenty pieces of silver. In fact the famine had gotten so bad that people were killing their babies and eating them. There was not hope in the city! This situation compounded the hopelessness of having the dreaded disease of leprosy for which there was no cure.
The four men got up from where they were sitting and began the walk to the Syrian camp. The Bible tells us in Second Kings seven that as they walked, the Syrians heard the sound of many chariots and many horses and a mighty host approaching. They thought Israel had found some allies to join them in the war so the Syrians fled before their imagined foe.
When the four lepers came into the camp, they found it deserted! The Syrian army had fled and left everything behind them just “as it was” and fled for their lives. The four lepers had come upon a bonanza! They entered into a tent and ate and drank and then carried off the treasure they found to hide it. They returned and went to another tent and carried off the treasure and hid it as well. They were going to live! Not only were they going to live, they were going to live well!
As they were returning to get more treasure one of them said to the others, “Fellas, this isn’t right. Today is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. People are starving in the city and if someone comes upon us we are going to lose everything we have. Let’s share the good news with the King.”
The angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds in the field and said to them, “I bring you good news that will bring great joy! A savior has been born today who is Christ the Lord!” Today is a day of good news. We have a Savior!
Many of us is as the lepers were. Our lot in life is hopeless and we don’t know which way to turn. If we stay where we are we will die! If we go to the left, we will die! If we go to the right, we will die! There is not hope! However, today is a day of good news! We have a Savior!
It was His custom to go to the synagogue and so He went. As the service progressed, the minister handed Him the Book of Isaiah and Jesus turned to the sixty-first chapter and began to read; “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty they that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. “ He handed the Book back to the minister and told the people, “Today is this scripture fulfilled.” (Luke 4:18)
The word gospel simply means good news. In fact if you read this passage in the Old Testament it actually says to preach good tidings or good news. The good news is that each of us can have hope. Life deals us blows! As life happens, it often breaks our hearts. Yet let me assure you, today is the day of good news! Jesus came to heal the broken heart. The circumstances of life can leave us bound, chained by fear and defeat. However, today is a day of good news! Jesus came to deliver the captive. The fears and failures caused by the events of life often leave us blinded, unable to see what God can do and what He wants to do in our lives. But today is the day of good news! Jesus came to restore sight to the blind. The emotional and spiritual blows of life leave us laying bruised and battered, unable to continue on! I assure you that today is the day of good news! The blood of Jesus Christ will liberate the bruised and bring spiritual and emotional healing to your life.
Life happens and it happens to us all. We will be broken, captive, blinded and bruised. We will be poor in spirit, at the point of hopelessness with no where to turn. Yet in the midst of a time of despair in your life, be assured, today is a day of good news! We have a Savior!
It’s just a thought!
The four men looked at each other and one of them said, “This situation looks really hopeless!” Another continued the thought, “That’s right! If we continue to sit here, we are going to die. If we go to the city we are going to die and if we go to the camp of the Syrians, our enemies, we will die.” Another one said, “You are right about dying if we sit here or if we go to the city, however, there is a chance the Syrians might feel sorry for us if we go to their camp and they might feed us.” The last man said, “What is there to lose? Let’s go take our chances with the Syrian camp.”
The Syrian army had besieged Samaria causing a great famine. It was so bad and people were so desperate for food that a donkey’s head sold for twenty pieces of silver. In fact the famine had gotten so bad that people were killing their babies and eating them. There was not hope in the city! This situation compounded the hopelessness of having the dreaded disease of leprosy for which there was no cure.
The four men got up from where they were sitting and began the walk to the Syrian camp. The Bible tells us in Second Kings seven that as they walked, the Syrians heard the sound of many chariots and many horses and a mighty host approaching. They thought Israel had found some allies to join them in the war so the Syrians fled before their imagined foe.
When the four lepers came into the camp, they found it deserted! The Syrian army had fled and left everything behind them just “as it was” and fled for their lives. The four lepers had come upon a bonanza! They entered into a tent and ate and drank and then carried off the treasure they found to hide it. They returned and went to another tent and carried off the treasure and hid it as well. They were going to live! Not only were they going to live, they were going to live well!
As they were returning to get more treasure one of them said to the others, “Fellas, this isn’t right. Today is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. People are starving in the city and if someone comes upon us we are going to lose everything we have. Let’s share the good news with the King.”
The angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds in the field and said to them, “I bring you good news that will bring great joy! A savior has been born today who is Christ the Lord!” Today is a day of good news. We have a Savior!
Many of us is as the lepers were. Our lot in life is hopeless and we don’t know which way to turn. If we stay where we are we will die! If we go to the left, we will die! If we go to the right, we will die! There is not hope! However, today is a day of good news! We have a Savior!
It was His custom to go to the synagogue and so He went. As the service progressed, the minister handed Him the Book of Isaiah and Jesus turned to the sixty-first chapter and began to read; “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty they that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. “ He handed the Book back to the minister and told the people, “Today is this scripture fulfilled.” (Luke 4:18)
The word gospel simply means good news. In fact if you read this passage in the Old Testament it actually says to preach good tidings or good news. The good news is that each of us can have hope. Life deals us blows! As life happens, it often breaks our hearts. Yet let me assure you, today is the day of good news! Jesus came to heal the broken heart. The circumstances of life can leave us bound, chained by fear and defeat. However, today is a day of good news! Jesus came to deliver the captive. The fears and failures caused by the events of life often leave us blinded, unable to see what God can do and what He wants to do in our lives. But today is the day of good news! Jesus came to restore sight to the blind. The emotional and spiritual blows of life leave us laying bruised and battered, unable to continue on! I assure you that today is the day of good news! The blood of Jesus Christ will liberate the bruised and bring spiritual and emotional healing to your life.
Life happens and it happens to us all. We will be broken, captive, blinded and bruised. We will be poor in spirit, at the point of hopelessness with no where to turn. Yet in the midst of a time of despair in your life, be assured, today is a day of good news! We have a Savior!
It’s just a thought!
Saturday, March 26, 2011
The Miry Clay, The Rock and The Potter
Have you ever noticed that we often get a mind picture of something and that is the only way we see it? I find my self doing that way too often. I will sing a song and get a picture in my mind from that song. Even when I read the scripture passage from which the song is taken I will reflect upon the mind picture I have from the song. I am keeping it all in a neat little box! I have realized that when I get another picture there is great excitement, it is as if I have been released to see new horizons! That is just what happened to me this week. Here, let me share.
In my daily devotions I was reading a story that got me out of my little box and let me see something from a brand-new perspective. The story teller had gone to Pakistan on a missionary visit. While he was there, he and another missionary were visiting a small village and encountered a potter. As they visited with the potter, they learned that he had studied his vocation in China being taught by an old Master Craftsman who made china. This Master had taught him everything he knew about making pottery and along with many, many years of practicing the art himself had made him a Master Craftsman as well.
The story teller had asked the potter if he would show him how to make a master piece from start to finish? The potter was very excited at their interest and agreed to show them how it was accomplished. He took them to a shed behind his house-shop. It was an old tin building that looked about to fall down. When he opened the door of the shed, a horrible stench emanated from inside. The story teller said it was all they could do to follow him inside because of the horrible smell.
Inside there was a large pit full of muck and mire. The potter explained that this is where it all started for the master piece. He went on to explain that he added certain types of grass to the mud and as they decomposed they made added to the clay staying together, this gluing effect is called colloidal. He went on to explain that this mix was mixed together by him walking in the pit and mixing it with his feet. He then reached down into the mire and searched until he found a lump of clay that suited his purpose.
The clay was taken back to an area behind his house where there was a large round rock. Very carefully he placed the clay in the center of the rock. He was very careful to find the center of the rock before proceeding any further. He then sat on a stool and with a foot treadle began to turn the rock. He would dip his hands in water and as the rock and clay were spinning he began to shape a vessel.
The story teller shared a passage of scripture that came to his mind during this visit. Of course my mind had immediately gone to the encounter of the prophet Jeremiah with the potter and I had almost checked out of the story right then. I have witnessed many potters working with the wheel and felt I already knew what was going to happen and what would be shared. However, the passage the story teller referred to came as a result of the pit and was from Psalms 40:
"He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.” Ps 40:2 KJV
The picture I have always had in my mind went along with an old song we sang when I was growing up, the chorus went like this:
“He brought me out of the miry clay, He set my feet on the rock to stay, He put a song in my soul today, a song of praise Hallelujah!” (By Rev H. J. Zelley and H. L. Gilmour)
The picture I have always had was one of salvation. Being mired in the muck of sin, sinking lower and being unable to escape when God in His mercy reached down and lifted me out of that trap. He then placed me on the Rock Christ Jesus giving me hope and the promise of eternal life with Him.
The new picture was different in that now I saw God reaching down into the pit and picking me out by choice. Saying to Himself, as the Master Craftsman, this is just what I need to make a vessel of honor, good for the Master’s use. He then placed me in the center of the Rock, Christ Jesus, to shape me into that perfect master piece.
Now there is nothing wrong with the first picture. It is still applicable to our lives. However, the second picture takes us a bit further in our relationship with God. Jeremiah, the prophet, relates to us that God desires to work with us as the potter works with the clay. He desires to mold us into a vessel of honor. This process starts at the pit of mire. He lifts us from a life of hopelessness because of his desire to make something beautiful of our lives. He places us on the solid rock and as long we stay centered in Christ Jesus, the Rock, we can be made into the master piece He has pictured us becoming.
The picture of the clay being taken from the miry pit and formed into a master piece, a beautiful vessel is one that speaks to us of complete submission to the will of the Master. It speaks of being chosen and pliable in the hands of the one who has our best interest at heart. Becoming a vessel of honor, Meet for the Master’s House!
So once again, I am blessed be the old song that says:
“He brought me out of the miry clay, He set my feet on the rock to stay, He put a song in my soul today, a song of praise Hallelujah!”
Well, it is just a thought!
In my daily devotions I was reading a story that got me out of my little box and let me see something from a brand-new perspective. The story teller had gone to Pakistan on a missionary visit. While he was there, he and another missionary were visiting a small village and encountered a potter. As they visited with the potter, they learned that he had studied his vocation in China being taught by an old Master Craftsman who made china. This Master had taught him everything he knew about making pottery and along with many, many years of practicing the art himself had made him a Master Craftsman as well.
The story teller had asked the potter if he would show him how to make a master piece from start to finish? The potter was very excited at their interest and agreed to show them how it was accomplished. He took them to a shed behind his house-shop. It was an old tin building that looked about to fall down. When he opened the door of the shed, a horrible stench emanated from inside. The story teller said it was all they could do to follow him inside because of the horrible smell.
Inside there was a large pit full of muck and mire. The potter explained that this is where it all started for the master piece. He went on to explain that he added certain types of grass to the mud and as they decomposed they made added to the clay staying together, this gluing effect is called colloidal. He went on to explain that this mix was mixed together by him walking in the pit and mixing it with his feet. He then reached down into the mire and searched until he found a lump of clay that suited his purpose.
The clay was taken back to an area behind his house where there was a large round rock. Very carefully he placed the clay in the center of the rock. He was very careful to find the center of the rock before proceeding any further. He then sat on a stool and with a foot treadle began to turn the rock. He would dip his hands in water and as the rock and clay were spinning he began to shape a vessel.
The story teller shared a passage of scripture that came to his mind during this visit. Of course my mind had immediately gone to the encounter of the prophet Jeremiah with the potter and I had almost checked out of the story right then. I have witnessed many potters working with the wheel and felt I already knew what was going to happen and what would be shared. However, the passage the story teller referred to came as a result of the pit and was from Psalms 40:
"He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.” Ps 40:2 KJV
The picture I have always had in my mind went along with an old song we sang when I was growing up, the chorus went like this:
“He brought me out of the miry clay, He set my feet on the rock to stay, He put a song in my soul today, a song of praise Hallelujah!” (By Rev H. J. Zelley and H. L. Gilmour)
The picture I have always had was one of salvation. Being mired in the muck of sin, sinking lower and being unable to escape when God in His mercy reached down and lifted me out of that trap. He then placed me on the Rock Christ Jesus giving me hope and the promise of eternal life with Him.
The new picture was different in that now I saw God reaching down into the pit and picking me out by choice. Saying to Himself, as the Master Craftsman, this is just what I need to make a vessel of honor, good for the Master’s use. He then placed me in the center of the Rock, Christ Jesus, to shape me into that perfect master piece.
Now there is nothing wrong with the first picture. It is still applicable to our lives. However, the second picture takes us a bit further in our relationship with God. Jeremiah, the prophet, relates to us that God desires to work with us as the potter works with the clay. He desires to mold us into a vessel of honor. This process starts at the pit of mire. He lifts us from a life of hopelessness because of his desire to make something beautiful of our lives. He places us on the solid rock and as long we stay centered in Christ Jesus, the Rock, we can be made into the master piece He has pictured us becoming.
The picture of the clay being taken from the miry pit and formed into a master piece, a beautiful vessel is one that speaks to us of complete submission to the will of the Master. It speaks of being chosen and pliable in the hands of the one who has our best interest at heart. Becoming a vessel of honor, Meet for the Master’s House!
So once again, I am blessed be the old song that says:
“He brought me out of the miry clay, He set my feet on the rock to stay, He put a song in my soul today, a song of praise Hallelujah!”
Well, it is just a thought!
Saturday, March 12, 2011
The Hardest Part of Discipleship
The Hardest Part of Being a Disciple
I have often thought of how great it must have been to be a disciple of Jesus. I could see him everyday. I would love to have the opportunity to visit with him. To sit in the same room, or area, and just listen to him talk and share his wisdom and understanding. That would have been incredible.
I have often thought if I could have been one of the disciples of Jesus, I wouldn’t have all the problems that I have now. All I would have to do is take each problem to him and he would solve it. Life would have been glorious.
Then I realize I am a disciple of Jesus. As a disciple I can enjoy those privileges. I can take my problems to him. I have the opportunity to fellowship with him. To listen to him talk and share his wisdom. I can take my all problems and my cares to Jesus. Bringing them all to him with the knowledge, he cares.
Yet, the role of discipleship is not without its difficulties. There are no drawbacks, but there are areas that require adjustment in our lives. Our priorities will change. Sometimes even our vocations might change. Like the vocations of some of the disciples of Jesus changed. Furthermore there is a position of discipleship that can be difficult for even the most ardent of disciples.
To be a disciple simply means to be a learner. It means to follow the teachings of the teacher. When a person becomes a disciple they begin to adhere or hold fast to the teachings of the teacher. A disciple is more than just a student. The disciple actually conforms to the teaching. He in reality becomes an imitator of the teacher. In this case we are talking about being an imitator of Jesus.
In the writings of Luke we find requirements, listed by Jesus, for a disciple. Jesus speaks of a disciple hating his mother, father, sister, brother and his own life. He talks of counting the cost before you start otherwise you might not be able to finish the task. Jesus also said in order to be his disciple we had to forsake all that we have.
In the Book of John, chapter one, we are introduced to a man that was one of the first disciples of Jesus. In studying this man we find a picture of true discipleship. John the Baptist stood with two of his disciples and saw Jesus walk by. He said, “Behold the lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. One of the two disciples was Andrew who was identified as Simon Peter’’s brother.
In the life of Andrew we find a picture of the most difficult part of being a disciple of Jesus. Most of us know very little about Andrew. There are only four references of him personally to show us anything of his character. Yet in those few words he shows us how to be a true disciple.
Andrew was first a disciple of John the Baptist. He was among the first to follow Jesus. Tradition says that he was the first. That might be because John doesn’t name the other disciple of John the Baptist who was with Andrew. So when we look at the twelve who became Apostles, Andrew is the one with the most seniority.
Andrew does not have a real reputation of his own. Even the first time he is introduced to us, by John, he is introduced as the brother of Simon Peter. The ironic thing is we haven’t met Simon Peter yet.
He was part of the first men’s quartet, Peter, James, John and Andrew. They were all friends. They all grew up in the same town and worked in the same vocation as fishermen. However, we find that even the children’s Sunday school song fails to mention anything about Andrew. The song just speaks of “Peter, James and John…” being in the sailboat out on the deep blue sea.
Even with his seniority Andrew is not a part of the “inner circle” with Jesus. It was Peter, James and John who were with Jesus on the Mountain. The three of them were the ones who went with Jesus into the room of Jarius’s daughter. They were the trio that went a little further with Jesus in the Garden.
When the disciples were ordained and called Apostles, the writer Mark said that Jesus changed their names giving them a new identity. Simon became known as Peter that means rock. James and John were identified as the Son’s of Thunder. Yet Andrew’s name remains the same. He kept the same identity as before.
Andrew, however, from his first introduction to us shows us what is important. Even with as limited knowledge of Andrew as we have we are witnesses of what he considered to be of great magnitude. It is obvious from the start; there is a hunger in the heart of Andrew to know the Messiah. There is an intense desire to know Jesus.
He was a disciple of John and John’s whole ministry was pointing to Jesus. As soon as John said to him, “Behold the Lamb of God,” Andrew followed Jesus. However he did more than walk behind him. He had questions that would allow him to know Jesus. He asked questions like, “Where do you dwell?””
He was saying, “I want to know you. I want to know where you are living. I want to know where you are coming from. I want more than just a passing knowledge; I really want to know you.” He spent time with Jesus and came to recognize the Jesus was the answer to all he had been seeking.
We find that Andrew is the first soul winner. After he first met Jesus he went to his brother Simon Peter and John tells us that Andrew said to him, “We have found the Messias, the Christ.” We have come to know the one we have been looking for.
When Greeks, who had come to Jerusalem to worship, heard about Jesus they encountered Philip in their search. They asked him for help saying, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” What did Philip do? Philip went and found Andrew and informed him about the men. Then Philip and Andrew went and found Jesus and told him.
In John chapter 6 Jesus looked at the multitude that followed him and realized they were hungry. He turned to Philip and asked him where they could buy bread so the people could eat? Philip’s reply shows the bewilderment I would have felt in his place, “There is no way we can come up with enough money today to feed this many!”
At this moment Andrew, the disciple who was learning Jesus, steps forward to introduce an opportunity for a miracle. We might not have the money, but here is a young boy who is willing to share his lunch of five loaves and two fishes. It isn’t much among so many nevertheless here you are.
Andrew was willing to fit the part that Jesus had for him in the kingdom of God. He wasn’’t colorful or articulate as Peter was. He wasn’t as fervent or intense in his personality as James or John. He didn’t become part of the inner circle that was seemingly so close to the Master. He never was identified as ““the one Jesus loved.”
Yet when we look at Andrew we see that Andrew recognized Jesus as his Rabbi or his teacher. He called Jesus his Messiah or Savior. Andrew, without being angry or jealous, was faithful. He was the steady one. Andrew was the soul winner. Andrew wanted to know Jesus and to point others to him as well.
The hardest part of being a disciple is coming to know Jesus. Realizing that it is not the recognition that is received or the credit that is given that is important. What is important is recognizing who your Master or Savior is. The hardest part of being a disciple is coming to the knowledge that each disciple has a part in the kingdom of God and then striving to become that part to your fullest capability.
The hardest part of being a disciple is to become and imitator of Jesus Christ and in doing so, pointing others to him. Thank you, Andrew, for being a true disciple.
I have often thought of how great it must have been to be a disciple of Jesus. I could see him everyday. I would love to have the opportunity to visit with him. To sit in the same room, or area, and just listen to him talk and share his wisdom and understanding. That would have been incredible.
I have often thought if I could have been one of the disciples of Jesus, I wouldn’t have all the problems that I have now. All I would have to do is take each problem to him and he would solve it. Life would have been glorious.
Then I realize I am a disciple of Jesus. As a disciple I can enjoy those privileges. I can take my problems to him. I have the opportunity to fellowship with him. To listen to him talk and share his wisdom. I can take my all problems and my cares to Jesus. Bringing them all to him with the knowledge, he cares.
Yet, the role of discipleship is not without its difficulties. There are no drawbacks, but there are areas that require adjustment in our lives. Our priorities will change. Sometimes even our vocations might change. Like the vocations of some of the disciples of Jesus changed. Furthermore there is a position of discipleship that can be difficult for even the most ardent of disciples.
To be a disciple simply means to be a learner. It means to follow the teachings of the teacher. When a person becomes a disciple they begin to adhere or hold fast to the teachings of the teacher. A disciple is more than just a student. The disciple actually conforms to the teaching. He in reality becomes an imitator of the teacher. In this case we are talking about being an imitator of Jesus.
In the writings of Luke we find requirements, listed by Jesus, for a disciple. Jesus speaks of a disciple hating his mother, father, sister, brother and his own life. He talks of counting the cost before you start otherwise you might not be able to finish the task. Jesus also said in order to be his disciple we had to forsake all that we have.
In the Book of John, chapter one, we are introduced to a man that was one of the first disciples of Jesus. In studying this man we find a picture of true discipleship. John the Baptist stood with two of his disciples and saw Jesus walk by. He said, “Behold the lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. One of the two disciples was Andrew who was identified as Simon Peter’’s brother.
In the life of Andrew we find a picture of the most difficult part of being a disciple of Jesus. Most of us know very little about Andrew. There are only four references of him personally to show us anything of his character. Yet in those few words he shows us how to be a true disciple.
Andrew was first a disciple of John the Baptist. He was among the first to follow Jesus. Tradition says that he was the first. That might be because John doesn’t name the other disciple of John the Baptist who was with Andrew. So when we look at the twelve who became Apostles, Andrew is the one with the most seniority.
Andrew does not have a real reputation of his own. Even the first time he is introduced to us, by John, he is introduced as the brother of Simon Peter. The ironic thing is we haven’t met Simon Peter yet.
He was part of the first men’s quartet, Peter, James, John and Andrew. They were all friends. They all grew up in the same town and worked in the same vocation as fishermen. However, we find that even the children’s Sunday school song fails to mention anything about Andrew. The song just speaks of “Peter, James and John…” being in the sailboat out on the deep blue sea.
Even with his seniority Andrew is not a part of the “inner circle” with Jesus. It was Peter, James and John who were with Jesus on the Mountain. The three of them were the ones who went with Jesus into the room of Jarius’s daughter. They were the trio that went a little further with Jesus in the Garden.
When the disciples were ordained and called Apostles, the writer Mark said that Jesus changed their names giving them a new identity. Simon became known as Peter that means rock. James and John were identified as the Son’s of Thunder. Yet Andrew’s name remains the same. He kept the same identity as before.
Andrew, however, from his first introduction to us shows us what is important. Even with as limited knowledge of Andrew as we have we are witnesses of what he considered to be of great magnitude. It is obvious from the start; there is a hunger in the heart of Andrew to know the Messiah. There is an intense desire to know Jesus.
He was a disciple of John and John’s whole ministry was pointing to Jesus. As soon as John said to him, “Behold the Lamb of God,” Andrew followed Jesus. However he did more than walk behind him. He had questions that would allow him to know Jesus. He asked questions like, “Where do you dwell?””
He was saying, “I want to know you. I want to know where you are living. I want to know where you are coming from. I want more than just a passing knowledge; I really want to know you.” He spent time with Jesus and came to recognize the Jesus was the answer to all he had been seeking.
We find that Andrew is the first soul winner. After he first met Jesus he went to his brother Simon Peter and John tells us that Andrew said to him, “We have found the Messias, the Christ.” We have come to know the one we have been looking for.
When Greeks, who had come to Jerusalem to worship, heard about Jesus they encountered Philip in their search. They asked him for help saying, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” What did Philip do? Philip went and found Andrew and informed him about the men. Then Philip and Andrew went and found Jesus and told him.
In John chapter 6 Jesus looked at the multitude that followed him and realized they were hungry. He turned to Philip and asked him where they could buy bread so the people could eat? Philip’s reply shows the bewilderment I would have felt in his place, “There is no way we can come up with enough money today to feed this many!”
At this moment Andrew, the disciple who was learning Jesus, steps forward to introduce an opportunity for a miracle. We might not have the money, but here is a young boy who is willing to share his lunch of five loaves and two fishes. It isn’t much among so many nevertheless here you are.
Andrew was willing to fit the part that Jesus had for him in the kingdom of God. He wasn’’t colorful or articulate as Peter was. He wasn’t as fervent or intense in his personality as James or John. He didn’t become part of the inner circle that was seemingly so close to the Master. He never was identified as ““the one Jesus loved.”
Yet when we look at Andrew we see that Andrew recognized Jesus as his Rabbi or his teacher. He called Jesus his Messiah or Savior. Andrew, without being angry or jealous, was faithful. He was the steady one. Andrew was the soul winner. Andrew wanted to know Jesus and to point others to him as well.
The hardest part of being a disciple is coming to know Jesus. Realizing that it is not the recognition that is received or the credit that is given that is important. What is important is recognizing who your Master or Savior is. The hardest part of being a disciple is coming to the knowledge that each disciple has a part in the kingdom of God and then striving to become that part to your fullest capability.
The hardest part of being a disciple is to become and imitator of Jesus Christ and in doing so, pointing others to him. Thank you, Andrew, for being a true disciple.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Gotta Have a Good Connection!
You gotta have a good connection! There is no other way if you are working with anything electrical and want it to work properly. If the connection isn’t good, you experience a lot of frustration until it is corrected. If the connection is good, you will find that you never think about it at all.
I have talked, in the past, about the adventure of fixing Jared’s car. We replaced the alternator and the car wouldn’t start. We replaced the battery, which had died when the alternator went out, and the car started but the battery light wouldn’t go off. We found there were fuses out and replaced those. Still the battery light stayed on and the battery would run down. We found there was a bad connection on the battery and fixed that. Still, we had the same problem. We had a diagnostic test done and found the new alternator was bad. We replaced that and drove it for a couple hours only to have the battery light come on again and the battery ran down.
Car problems are no fun! They are not even fun when your car is still under warranty and you have lots of time and money. When it is no longer under warranty and your time and money is limited car problems can be even more frustrating!
Sunday night we found the source of the problem was a small ground wire that connected to the alternator. It had become worn and frayed causing a short-circuit in the system. They just clipped the wire and crimped on a new connector. Three days later it is still working fine. All of these problems were because of a bad connection.
For some reason, at five A.M. this morning, I thought about that bad connection and couldn’t help but think about my connection to God. How much frustration have I experienced in my life because I haven’t made sure I have a "good connection" to God? How often have I struggled and became "spiritually rundown" because my "ground" wire has become frayed causing a spiritual short?
The Psalmist David wrote, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." (Ps 51:10 KJV) He spent some time talking about sin that had been in his life and asking God to cleanse him from those sins. He is exact in his request to God. He wanted a good connection, a clean heart! He wants to make sure there isn’t anything in his life that will cause a short in the circuit between himself and God.
How often have I let the things of life and sin bring a bad connection in my relationship with God? It isn’t always bad things that have caused me to have a short. It is sometimes something as simple as a distraction. So I began to ask myself what could cause a bad connection between me and my God?
One of the things that came to mind was distraction. Distractions are those things which divert your attention. Distraction comes so easy and appears in so many disguises. When Jared was young, I would tell him that he was easily distracted by shiny objects. It didn’t take much to make him forget what he was doing and he would be doing something else. I have found this to be so true in my spiritual life.
I go to pray and think of something I need to do first. The next thing I know I haven’t prayed and time is gone. I want to read my Bible but get caught up in answering an email that is important or even something else and time is gone. Pretty soon I realize it has been a while since I talked to God or allowed Him to talk to me and there is a bad connection.
I sometimes find myself struggling in my spiritual walk. I am not experiencing the joy that I know I should be feeling. My attitude isn’t really what I want it to be. Some of the "wonder" is missing in my relationship with God. When I begin to check the connections, I often find that I haven’t been as focused in giving praise to God. My worship hasn’t been as intense as it sometimes is. There is a bad connection between me and my God. It is time for me to stop coasting on what others are doing and make a good connection between me and God.
There are times I find myself stymied, at a stand still. In checking my connections I have found that I haven’t been applying the Word of God to my life. When I read His Word I need to ask Him to show me what I need to do with what I am reading. The Bible is more than a good book. It is the road map to life. If I don’t apply it and live by it the Bible just becomes another book. However, when I allow God to reveal His truth to me and begin to live truth the connection is made.
Now I don’t mind admitting that I am a "Jesus Fanatic." Just to make sure that I am, I looked up the word "fanatic" and this is the definition: Enthusiast; Marked by excessive enthusiasm for and intense devotion to a cause or idea: "rabid isolationist."
I was so excited because that is how I feel about Jesus! I am His biggest fan. I am not afraid that someone will say I go overboard in my lifestyle for Jesus. I do not go through life asking why I can’t do certain things in order to live for Him. I try to make my question, "What more can I do to have a better connection with Jesus?"
Let me encourage you to spend some time checking your connections! Go to God in prayer and ask Him to help you see the areas in your life and walk with Him that are becoming frayed and corroded. Get a good connection and watch the power flow in your life!
Remember. It is just a thought!
I have talked, in the past, about the adventure of fixing Jared’s car. We replaced the alternator and the car wouldn’t start. We replaced the battery, which had died when the alternator went out, and the car started but the battery light wouldn’t go off. We found there were fuses out and replaced those. Still the battery light stayed on and the battery would run down. We found there was a bad connection on the battery and fixed that. Still, we had the same problem. We had a diagnostic test done and found the new alternator was bad. We replaced that and drove it for a couple hours only to have the battery light come on again and the battery ran down.
Car problems are no fun! They are not even fun when your car is still under warranty and you have lots of time and money. When it is no longer under warranty and your time and money is limited car problems can be even more frustrating!
Sunday night we found the source of the problem was a small ground wire that connected to the alternator. It had become worn and frayed causing a short-circuit in the system. They just clipped the wire and crimped on a new connector. Three days later it is still working fine. All of these problems were because of a bad connection.
For some reason, at five A.M. this morning, I thought about that bad connection and couldn’t help but think about my connection to God. How much frustration have I experienced in my life because I haven’t made sure I have a "good connection" to God? How often have I struggled and became "spiritually rundown" because my "ground" wire has become frayed causing a spiritual short?
The Psalmist David wrote, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." (Ps 51:10 KJV) He spent some time talking about sin that had been in his life and asking God to cleanse him from those sins. He is exact in his request to God. He wanted a good connection, a clean heart! He wants to make sure there isn’t anything in his life that will cause a short in the circuit between himself and God.
How often have I let the things of life and sin bring a bad connection in my relationship with God? It isn’t always bad things that have caused me to have a short. It is sometimes something as simple as a distraction. So I began to ask myself what could cause a bad connection between me and my God?
One of the things that came to mind was distraction. Distractions are those things which divert your attention. Distraction comes so easy and appears in so many disguises. When Jared was young, I would tell him that he was easily distracted by shiny objects. It didn’t take much to make him forget what he was doing and he would be doing something else. I have found this to be so true in my spiritual life.
I go to pray and think of something I need to do first. The next thing I know I haven’t prayed and time is gone. I want to read my Bible but get caught up in answering an email that is important or even something else and time is gone. Pretty soon I realize it has been a while since I talked to God or allowed Him to talk to me and there is a bad connection.
I sometimes find myself struggling in my spiritual walk. I am not experiencing the joy that I know I should be feeling. My attitude isn’t really what I want it to be. Some of the "wonder" is missing in my relationship with God. When I begin to check the connections, I often find that I haven’t been as focused in giving praise to God. My worship hasn’t been as intense as it sometimes is. There is a bad connection between me and my God. It is time for me to stop coasting on what others are doing and make a good connection between me and God.
There are times I find myself stymied, at a stand still. In checking my connections I have found that I haven’t been applying the Word of God to my life. When I read His Word I need to ask Him to show me what I need to do with what I am reading. The Bible is more than a good book. It is the road map to life. If I don’t apply it and live by it the Bible just becomes another book. However, when I allow God to reveal His truth to me and begin to live truth the connection is made.
Now I don’t mind admitting that I am a "Jesus Fanatic." Just to make sure that I am, I looked up the word "fanatic" and this is the definition: Enthusiast; Marked by excessive enthusiasm for and intense devotion to a cause or idea: "rabid isolationist."
I was so excited because that is how I feel about Jesus! I am His biggest fan. I am not afraid that someone will say I go overboard in my lifestyle for Jesus. I do not go through life asking why I can’t do certain things in order to live for Him. I try to make my question, "What more can I do to have a better connection with Jesus?"
Let me encourage you to spend some time checking your connections! Go to God in prayer and ask Him to help you see the areas in your life and walk with Him that are becoming frayed and corroded. Get a good connection and watch the power flow in your life!
Remember. It is just a thought!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
How's Your Thinking Been?
Have you ever read a passage of scripture, or maybe just a verse, many times and one day read it only to realize you haven’t read it that way before? This happens to me on a frequent basis. In fact it just happened the other night. Let me share what happened.
Jared and I had been having a discussion. We had been talking about some different things, some of which were happening in our lives and some that were not happening. After several minutes of talking I told Jared, "I really feel like I need to spend some time in prayer, will you join me?" Of course he joined me and we enjoyed a good time of discussion with God about our concerns.
Many months ago, while in a prayer meeting, a passage of scripture had come very forcefully to my mind. I had looked it up and the verses had become directive and favorites in my personal arsenal of scriptures. In fact I wrote an article about the incident titled, "My Friend Said Don’t Be Careful!" As I was praying this passage came to mind and I felt to share it with Jared.
As I began to read the verses I was inspired that God would again use these verses for a reminder of the peace He offers and assures us of. Only this time I did not stop where I usually stop but continued reading the next several verses. That is when I realized I had missed something on the earlier occasions of reading the verses. In fact I had been missing something here all my life.
In Philippians chapter four and verses six and seven the writer Paul tells us, "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Another word for careful is worry which is the main thing I needed to hear on the previous occasion. God, or my friend, told me to stop worrying!
Worry is simply the wringing of your hands wondering what you are going to do or what is going to happen. I have been around some worriers in my life. A really good worrier can create monsters out of nothing. Their minds will make mountains out of ant hills! It is the result of an undisciplined mind and Paul said we are not to worry but to take our needs to God in prayer. We are to ask of God, with thankfulness, those things which we are concerned about. When we do this, God will allow a peace to come upon us that will protect our emotions and our thoughts. To me this is exciting!
Here is where my last reading became even more interesting. I have found it to be true that when we pray we often undo our prayers because of a lack of faith which is evident through our verbal conversation. We ask God to meet a financial need, then talk about how poor we are, what a struggle we are in and how much we lack. We ask God for healing and then talk about all of the pain and suffering we are experiencing. Our conversation destroys our faith and also negates the peace of God which God has given us. Lookout, here come the ulcers!
Paul continues with his instruction in Philippians chapter four and verse eight by saying, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." HOLD THE BUS! I had never read this passage with the passages mentioned earlier. What a new thought this produced!
Jared mentioned how powerful scriptural principles will be to us if we read them as they are written, in the proper context. I have often read and quoted verse eight and given instruction that we should use it as a guide for living or thinking. However, I have never thought of it as a guide for believing!
So basically Paul is telling us to stop worrying. He is telling us to pray in a certain way. He is telling us that God will send an unexplainable peace to protect our hearts and minds. Then he is telling us to think on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous and praise worthy. Wow! So instead of destroying my faith and tearing down what I am actually trying to accomplish, I will be strengthening them through this change of attitude. I will be continuing to reside in peace because I will be erecting a wall of protection around my heart and mind by my conduct.
Paul underlines this principle in verse nine when he said, "Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you." Do what we know is right. Follow Paul in as he follows Christ. Listen to the Word and apply it to your life. Doing these things will result in "the God of peace" being with us.
In a nutshell we need to stop worrying! Bring our needs to God in prayer, asking of Him with thanksgiving. We can enjoy the peace in the midst of turmoil knowing God will protect our emotions and thinking. We are thinking on the good things and pushing aside the bad worrisome things. We keep doing what we have heard to do from the Word of God. As a result God will be with us. God will, I know I already said it but I have to say it again, be with us!
Just remember, It’s just a thought!
Jared and I had been having a discussion. We had been talking about some different things, some of which were happening in our lives and some that were not happening. After several minutes of talking I told Jared, "I really feel like I need to spend some time in prayer, will you join me?" Of course he joined me and we enjoyed a good time of discussion with God about our concerns.
Many months ago, while in a prayer meeting, a passage of scripture had come very forcefully to my mind. I had looked it up and the verses had become directive and favorites in my personal arsenal of scriptures. In fact I wrote an article about the incident titled, "My Friend Said Don’t Be Careful!" As I was praying this passage came to mind and I felt to share it with Jared.
As I began to read the verses I was inspired that God would again use these verses for a reminder of the peace He offers and assures us of. Only this time I did not stop where I usually stop but continued reading the next several verses. That is when I realized I had missed something on the earlier occasions of reading the verses. In fact I had been missing something here all my life.
In Philippians chapter four and verses six and seven the writer Paul tells us, "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Another word for careful is worry which is the main thing I needed to hear on the previous occasion. God, or my friend, told me to stop worrying!
Worry is simply the wringing of your hands wondering what you are going to do or what is going to happen. I have been around some worriers in my life. A really good worrier can create monsters out of nothing. Their minds will make mountains out of ant hills! It is the result of an undisciplined mind and Paul said we are not to worry but to take our needs to God in prayer. We are to ask of God, with thankfulness, those things which we are concerned about. When we do this, God will allow a peace to come upon us that will protect our emotions and our thoughts. To me this is exciting!
Here is where my last reading became even more interesting. I have found it to be true that when we pray we often undo our prayers because of a lack of faith which is evident through our verbal conversation. We ask God to meet a financial need, then talk about how poor we are, what a struggle we are in and how much we lack. We ask God for healing and then talk about all of the pain and suffering we are experiencing. Our conversation destroys our faith and also negates the peace of God which God has given us. Lookout, here come the ulcers!
Paul continues with his instruction in Philippians chapter four and verse eight by saying, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." HOLD THE BUS! I had never read this passage with the passages mentioned earlier. What a new thought this produced!
Jared mentioned how powerful scriptural principles will be to us if we read them as they are written, in the proper context. I have often read and quoted verse eight and given instruction that we should use it as a guide for living or thinking. However, I have never thought of it as a guide for believing!
So basically Paul is telling us to stop worrying. He is telling us to pray in a certain way. He is telling us that God will send an unexplainable peace to protect our hearts and minds. Then he is telling us to think on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous and praise worthy. Wow! So instead of destroying my faith and tearing down what I am actually trying to accomplish, I will be strengthening them through this change of attitude. I will be continuing to reside in peace because I will be erecting a wall of protection around my heart and mind by my conduct.
Paul underlines this principle in verse nine when he said, "Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you." Do what we know is right. Follow Paul in as he follows Christ. Listen to the Word and apply it to your life. Doing these things will result in "the God of peace" being with us.
In a nutshell we need to stop worrying! Bring our needs to God in prayer, asking of Him with thanksgiving. We can enjoy the peace in the midst of turmoil knowing God will protect our emotions and thinking. We are thinking on the good things and pushing aside the bad worrisome things. We keep doing what we have heard to do from the Word of God. As a result God will be with us. God will, I know I already said it but I have to say it again, be with us!
Just remember, It’s just a thought!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Signs of the Believer in Osceola, Arkansas
"And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;" Mark 16:17 KJV
On March 19, 2010, in a little northeast Arkansas town called Osceola, the signs of the believers were manifest. It was a Friday night that was filled with great anticipation. For the past forty days the United Pentecostal Church of Osceola had been praying and fasting. They had been reading the Book of Acts and asking God to do a supernatural and spiritual work in their lives. They were desiring to be released into the Spirit of Apostolic Revival. Their prayer was, "God we want the Spirit of the Early Church! We want what they had!" Now, for the next few hours they were determined to worship God with all they had and let God do His part.
The Osceola City Center had been rented to accommodate the expected crowd. Several slipped into a racquetball court that had been designated as a prayer room and began to seek God for the service that night. Little did those prayer warriors know God’s attention had already been captured by their desire.
The service started with a great Spirit of Praise and from the start people were caught up in the Spirit of Worship. A gentleman, seated toward the front, stepped out from his seat and began to walk back and forth praising God. It was just a few moments later that the Worship leader stopped everything!
Pastor Tim Doran, of Osceola, was leading the Praise and Worship. He came over to Anthony Brown, the worshiper, and said, "You have cancer, don’t you?" Anthony said, "Yes sir I do."
Pastor Tim said, "The Doctors said it is bad and don’t give you any hope, is that right?" Anthony said, "Yes sir, that is true!"
Pastor Tim said, "When we were in the prayer room, God saw how you worshiped Him in spite of your illness and pain. He told me to tell you that He is going to heal you of cancer!" As he said this Pastor Tim reached out to lay hands on the sick man and jerked his hand back and said, "I don’t even have to touch you! God has already healed you. In Jesus Name be made whole!"
During the twelve and some half weeks that have passed since that time, Anthony Brown has reported that he is getting stronger each and every day. On Sunday, June 6, 2010 he came to Pastor Tim Doran, who is now Anthony’s pastor, and told him that he needed prayer for his feet. One of the symptoms of the cancer was that his feet would itch so bad that he would actually scratch the skin off trying to get relief. Pastor Tim prayed for him and the itching is completely gone!
On Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Anthony Brown went to see his doctor for his scheduled cancer checkup. After the test and examinations were complete his doctor came in and sat down with Anthony and said, "I don’t understand how a man with pancreatic cancer taking four insulin shots per day has a blood sugar reading of 80? I just don’t understand. In fact I am going to go get another doctor to look at this."
He left and returned with another doctor who went over the reports and looked at Anthony and said, "I don’t understand how a man with pancreatic cancer who takes four insulin shots a day can have a blood sugar reading of 80? I just don’t understand!"
The first doctor pulled out his cell phone. He showed Anthony and the other doctor a picture that he had taken of Anthony earlier. There were sores from the cancer all over Anthony’s body. His figure looked sickly and gaunt. The doctor looked at the healthy looking energetic figure before him and said, "This is not the same man, I just don’t understand!"
Anthony told the amazed doctors, "I understand exactly what is going on. Jesus Christ has worked a miracle of healing in my body. He has healed me of cancer!"
Both doctors shook their heads in amazement and said, "It is a miracle, we can’t argue with that!"
These signs shall follow the believer. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover! However, sometimes God gets so excited about healing a worshiping believer that He doesn’t even wait for the laying on of hands!
On March 19, 2010, in a little northeast Arkansas town called Osceola, the signs of the believers were manifest. It was a Friday night that was filled with great anticipation. For the past forty days the United Pentecostal Church of Osceola had been praying and fasting. They had been reading the Book of Acts and asking God to do a supernatural and spiritual work in their lives. They were desiring to be released into the Spirit of Apostolic Revival. Their prayer was, "God we want the Spirit of the Early Church! We want what they had!" Now, for the next few hours they were determined to worship God with all they had and let God do His part.
The Osceola City Center had been rented to accommodate the expected crowd. Several slipped into a racquetball court that had been designated as a prayer room and began to seek God for the service that night. Little did those prayer warriors know God’s attention had already been captured by their desire.
The service started with a great Spirit of Praise and from the start people were caught up in the Spirit of Worship. A gentleman, seated toward the front, stepped out from his seat and began to walk back and forth praising God. It was just a few moments later that the Worship leader stopped everything!
Pastor Tim Doran, of Osceola, was leading the Praise and Worship. He came over to Anthony Brown, the worshiper, and said, "You have cancer, don’t you?" Anthony said, "Yes sir I do."
Pastor Tim said, "The Doctors said it is bad and don’t give you any hope, is that right?" Anthony said, "Yes sir, that is true!"
Pastor Tim said, "When we were in the prayer room, God saw how you worshiped Him in spite of your illness and pain. He told me to tell you that He is going to heal you of cancer!" As he said this Pastor Tim reached out to lay hands on the sick man and jerked his hand back and said, "I don’t even have to touch you! God has already healed you. In Jesus Name be made whole!"
During the twelve and some half weeks that have passed since that time, Anthony Brown has reported that he is getting stronger each and every day. On Sunday, June 6, 2010 he came to Pastor Tim Doran, who is now Anthony’s pastor, and told him that he needed prayer for his feet. One of the symptoms of the cancer was that his feet would itch so bad that he would actually scratch the skin off trying to get relief. Pastor Tim prayed for him and the itching is completely gone!
On Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Anthony Brown went to see his doctor for his scheduled cancer checkup. After the test and examinations were complete his doctor came in and sat down with Anthony and said, "I don’t understand how a man with pancreatic cancer taking four insulin shots per day has a blood sugar reading of 80? I just don’t understand. In fact I am going to go get another doctor to look at this."
He left and returned with another doctor who went over the reports and looked at Anthony and said, "I don’t understand how a man with pancreatic cancer who takes four insulin shots a day can have a blood sugar reading of 80? I just don’t understand!"
The first doctor pulled out his cell phone. He showed Anthony and the other doctor a picture that he had taken of Anthony earlier. There were sores from the cancer all over Anthony’s body. His figure looked sickly and gaunt. The doctor looked at the healthy looking energetic figure before him and said, "This is not the same man, I just don’t understand!"
Anthony told the amazed doctors, "I understand exactly what is going on. Jesus Christ has worked a miracle of healing in my body. He has healed me of cancer!"
Both doctors shook their heads in amazement and said, "It is a miracle, we can’t argue with that!"
These signs shall follow the believer. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover! However, sometimes God gets so excited about healing a worshiping believer that He doesn’t even wait for the laying on of hands!
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
40 Days to Focused Life Summit Benton, AR Summary
40 Days to Focused Life Summit
Benton, AR
April 18 - May 21-23, 2010
Benton, AR
April 18 - May 21-23, 2010
Seeking to be Released into the Spirit of Apostolic Revival!
On April 18th Apostolic Tabernacle and TEAM Ministry launched 40 Days to Focused Life Summit. Actually it was 33 days because the launch had to be put off a week because of death in the Church family.
God met in a special way that evening as the Church made commitments to pray a committed number of minutes a day. They focused on praying for a spirit of unity in the Church, for God to do a supernatural and spiritual work in their lives, to renew their first love for the Word of God and for lost souls. They committed to fast a committed number of days each week. This included fasting food and also the media (radio, video, internet, tv, etc.) They committed to reading the Book of Acts through during this time and asking God to us the vision of the Early Church. They committed to a financial commitment to help with extra expenses.
Pastor Jay Emerson and Youth Pastor Jared Doran began teaching prepared lessons to the Adults and Youth. These lessons covered Healing for the Church, Spiritual Warfare, Created for Wholeness and The Apostolic Church. These lessons were designed to help bring into Focus what God desires for our lives and what He has put at our disposal to accomplish it.
On May 2, Don Doran came and taught the lesson Created for Wholeness. God created us in His image, complete. Sin has broken and destroyed our lives. God wants to bring us back to that completeness He designed for us. The power of God fell and many lives were touched that night as God began to heal broken hearts.
On May 16, Don Doran again came and preached Forgiveness is Not an Option! It is impossible to have a relationship with Jesus Christ without forgiving others. It is impossible to feel good about ourselves and not carry condemnation and shame if we have an unforgiving spirit. Again, God began to deal with our hearts as we asked Him to reveal the unforgiveness in our lives.
On May 21, Tim Doran, pastor of Osceola UPC, preached a powerful message on being full of the 
Spirit. God began to fill lives and miracles and wonders began to take place. In that service one received the baptism of the Holy Ghost after seeking it for ten years. Another was healed of kidney failure. There is no way to tell how many hearts and lives were healed.
Spirit. God began to fill lives and miracles and wonders began to take place. In that service one received the baptism of the Holy Ghost after seeking it for ten years. Another was healed of kidney failure. There is no way to tell how many hearts and lives were healed. May 22, Jared Doran, Youth Pastor of Apostolic Tabernacle of Benton, preached on Jesus Christ being our refreshing. We will go through desert places but can be refreshed by Jesus Christ. Again, many were on their faces before God seeking that refreshment.
May 23 AM, Don Doran, evangelist from Conway, Arkansas preached on God is on a Leash! The
only limit that God knows is the one we put on Him. He can do anything we want or ask, if we take the leash off and let God go! Don challenged the Church to get a "New Revelation of God’s Love for Them!" God, again, began to minister to hearts as people began to release God to do the work they needed done in their lives.May 23 PM, God preached! Don Doran was scheduled to preach but, during a song about how much God loves me and you, God poured out His Spirit in a powerful way. People were slain in the Spirit! Others just began to weep in the sweet presence of the Holy Ghost. After a while a Brother came to the front and began to tell of a vision that God had just given him which reassured this Brother that God really did love him. He said he had been going through a desert and unable to cry for a couple of years. He had wondered at times where God was. God had just revealed He was there all the time, loving him and he wept! A Sister got up next and said God had revealed his love to her too. Taking her to times when He had been there caring and loving! Oh what a time we had that night.
I can talk about this but thought you might be better blessed with testimonies of some who were there and what they felt.
I feel like I have been in a cracked, dry desert place...flooded by cool refreshing rain! God is SO good! It blessed me immensely to be a part of these services. I regret having to work on Friday evening. Witnessing God touch my three guys was amazing. -VK
God healed me in many ways mainly my heart. Throughout the weeks prior I had been dealing with feelings of depression, inadequacy and some others mainly because of my lack of employment. I had applied for a job that I had thought was going to work out to be something really good for me. Upon finding out that they had filled the job I began to have some issues with self degradation.On the Thursday before summit Jared asked if I had finished reading acts and, of course, I had not. He then preceded with the words "read it and be encouraged. Your faith is low right now and u need strength" or at least it was something along those lines. For the next 18-24 hrs I began where I had stopped (Acts8) and read it through, almost unable to put it down. By Friday night I was focused again on God, however my faith was still very, very low. The pivotal moment didn't come in praise and worship nor did it even come in what we would consider the technical "alter call" it came when Bro. Tim went around praying healing into peoples hearts and lives. He came to me looked me square in the eye and said " do you have a job yet?" and I said no. At that moment he placed his hand on my head and prayed encouragement, healing, and faith into my life when he spoke the words "let it happen this week" I believed him, not because of the faith I had in the man but because I had never said a word to him about the issues with which I was dealing thus his knowledge of said issues had to have been divinely given him. I basically said all of that to say this. I had revelation this weekend of Gods love for me. What did it mean to me? Everything. Had I not gotten what I got, had I not felt what I did, I'm convinced my life would have spun out of control. I just had to learn to UNLEASH God in my life and let Him do what He does best...everything. - DK
This past week I applied for the Math and Science School in Hot Springs. I wasn't sure whether or not it was God's will for me to go. Friday I asked God to help me make the decision if I'm accepted and when Bro. Tim Doran prayed for me he told me "To go after my dreams, God will make a way" it was so amazing how God used him to speak to me.This is just one way. My heart was also healed and I let go of many things.Thank You! The Summit was incredible. - CS.
The Summit changed my life in a way that I have been hoping and praying for. Due to my busy schedule, I usually do not attend many extra services. On Wednesday night before that Friday Bro. Jared was sharing what Bro. Don and he had been discussing on the patio. He said that God was going to heal the broken hearted and heal the sick. I have had such a longing to see some old time miracles I told myself I am not going to miss this! I am so glad I pushed my old self aside and went to church! Not only did my husband receive the Holy Ghost after ten years of praying but, I have been praying for a change in our church for a long time. I have been praying that God restore that first love in me. I have also been praying that the church get a burden and love for lost souls. - KB.
I feel like God renewed . . . refreshed , , , restored . . . re-energized . . . re-vitalized . . . reestablished me. I appreciated all God did. - DE.
Wow, what can I say? It just shows what can happen when you FOCUS on a move of God! God healed broken hearts and did some physical healing at this Summit! My mom was healed of a kidney disease that has had her down physically and spiritually. She had immediate results! Bro Tim Doran said he noticed immediate color in her cheeks. She had so much energy right away, it was amazing! She said there was evidence by the next day that she felt her kidneys were healed! God is so Awesome, He knows exactly what we need when we need it!It really showed in the ministry of Bro Tim, Bro Jared, and Bro Don Doran that we had FOCUSED and they had FOCUSED on a move of God! I'm so excited to see what God is going to do for Apostolic Tabernacle of Benton, AR!-MD.
Bro. Doran on Friday night God really did some Amazing things in my life but the one thing that really blew my mind was I got an answer for something I have been praying about for many years. I had prayed and prayed and asked God to give me an answer and I started to think it would never come but God gave it to me on Friday night. I will never forget that service it really has change my life forever. I'm so excited about what God has done and is doing! God bless, AD.
God blesses when we Focus our lives on Him desiring a to be released into the Spirit of Apostolic Revival! Thank you for all your prayers and intercession. There were many from TEAM Ministry Group on Face Book who contacted us to say the were praying and fasting with us for these services. Many texts came in saying they were praying while we were ministering. You will never know the strength and boldness that allows to minister in the Holy Ghost. God Bless and TEAM!
Friday, May 21, 2010
It's All In How We View The Storm
We might all see the same thing but when we tell what we have seen there will be very few times that two stories are the same. We each view an incident from a different perspective. So is it with the storms of life! We each have a different perspective on each storm. It is all in how we view them.
I came across a story I read somewhere and thought I would share it. It is the story of a first grade girl who had been begging her mother to let her walk to school. Since the very first day she had pleaded with her mother to let her walk to school and home. Her mother was afraid she wasn’t old enough but finally she relented.
The little Lady was up early the next morning and was quick to get ready. The mother was having second thoughts about allowing her daughter to experience this new step of independence. Along with these doubts came the weather report that there was a good chance of rain that day. However, our little Lady begged and pleaded and Mother finally relented, on the condition the little Lady take the umbrella and use it in case of rain.
Just at the time that the little Lady was heading home, rain came and along with the rain came thunder and lightning. Rain was one thing, but the Mother had to go and pick up the little Lady because she was not only worried about the danger from the lightning, but was worried the noise of the thunder would frighten her daughter.
When she found our little Lady, walking down the street, she noticed that each time there was a flash of lightning the little Lady would move the umbrella aside and look up in the sky. Her mother asked her, as she got into the car, "Why were you moving the umbrella aside?" The little Lady looked at her mother with a big smile and said, "Mother, God is taking my picture! Every time there is a flash I move the umbrella aside and look up and smile at Him."
How do we view the storms of life? Do we cower in fear? Do we scream in frustration? Do we recognize God is watching us and has the best planned for us? Paul said in Romans 8:35-39 there would be a lot of "junk" come our way but none of it can separate us from the love of God. It is all in how we few the storm.
It’s just a thought! God bless . . .
I came across a story I read somewhere and thought I would share it. It is the story of a first grade girl who had been begging her mother to let her walk to school. Since the very first day she had pleaded with her mother to let her walk to school and home. Her mother was afraid she wasn’t old enough but finally she relented.
The little Lady was up early the next morning and was quick to get ready. The mother was having second thoughts about allowing her daughter to experience this new step of independence. Along with these doubts came the weather report that there was a good chance of rain that day. However, our little Lady begged and pleaded and Mother finally relented, on the condition the little Lady take the umbrella and use it in case of rain.
Just at the time that the little Lady was heading home, rain came and along with the rain came thunder and lightning. Rain was one thing, but the Mother had to go and pick up the little Lady because she was not only worried about the danger from the lightning, but was worried the noise of the thunder would frighten her daughter.
When she found our little Lady, walking down the street, she noticed that each time there was a flash of lightning the little Lady would move the umbrella aside and look up in the sky. Her mother asked her, as she got into the car, "Why were you moving the umbrella aside?" The little Lady looked at her mother with a big smile and said, "Mother, God is taking my picture! Every time there is a flash I move the umbrella aside and look up and smile at Him."
How do we view the storms of life? Do we cower in fear? Do we scream in frustration? Do we recognize God is watching us and has the best planned for us? Paul said in Romans 8:35-39 there would be a lot of "junk" come our way but none of it can separate us from the love of God. It is all in how we few the storm.
It’s just a thought! God bless . . .
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Won't Need E-flat
Auturo Tscanini, the great conductor, was sitting at his podium prior to a concert one evening. As the orchestra warmed up just minutes before the performance, a bassoon player approached him in a fearful panic. "Maestro, I am very sorry, but my instrument has suffered an accident, and the E-flat will not sound. I am afraid I will not be able to play tonight."
Upon hearing the news, Toscanini went silent and closed his eyes. The bassoon player cowered in fear of his fury. The great conductor put his hands to his head and continued in silence, adding to the poor bassoon players agony.
At last Toscanini looked up and said quietly, "Don’t worry, E-flat does not appear in your music tonight." Toscanini had played through the entire concert in his mind, reviewing every note the bassoon player would have to play. With his intimate knowledge of the music, the conductor was able to reassure the bassoon player that everything would be alright.
"I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Jer. 29:11
God already knows what notes you will need to hit in the concert of life. He is trying to equip you so that you can play and do well! Several translations us the word "Plans" for the word "thoughts." God has it planned, it is His desire that we experience peace. We just have to trust Him.
It’s just a thought! God Blesslll
Upon hearing the news, Toscanini went silent and closed his eyes. The bassoon player cowered in fear of his fury. The great conductor put his hands to his head and continued in silence, adding to the poor bassoon players agony.
At last Toscanini looked up and said quietly, "Don’t worry, E-flat does not appear in your music tonight." Toscanini had played through the entire concert in his mind, reviewing every note the bassoon player would have to play. With his intimate knowledge of the music, the conductor was able to reassure the bassoon player that everything would be alright.
"I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Jer. 29:11
God already knows what notes you will need to hit in the concert of life. He is trying to equip you so that you can play and do well! Several translations us the word "Plans" for the word "thoughts." God has it planned, it is His desire that we experience peace. We just have to trust Him.
It’s just a thought! God Blesslll
Monday, March 1, 2010
Umbrella of Protection and Power Part 2
Every one of us should have a desire to have more power with God and to come under His protection. Several years ago, God impressed upon my mind the importance of having this type of a relationship with Him. I want to have a relationship of protection and power with God. I called it “The Umbrella of Protection and Power.” This is the second blog in a series on this subject.
There is a relationship between pride and self-respect. Pride that leads to self-respect is controlled pride. We must have self-respect, which is a sense of self-value or self-esteem. This is seeing ourselves as God sees us. However, the pride that God hates is uncontrolled pride and it motivates the works of our flesh. This is the pride where the “I” is in control. “P-r-I-d-e” where the big “I” is in the center and dominates.
If I want protection from God, it will only come through my submission. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5:5-7, “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” (KJV) It is better to humble ourselves than to have God humble us!
To humble myself requires self-discipline. It means that I must deny myself and bring myself under authority. However, by humbling myself to God I place myself under the “Umbrella of His Protection and Power.” Notice also that by humbling myself to God I am also now the recipient of a great benefit from God. The offer given to me is that I can cast my cares, my anxieties and worries upon Him. He cares about me. He will also take care of all my worries.
Submission does not know distinction. Peter tells us to submit ourselves to our Elders. We need to understand that Peter is writing to the Church and is not talking of age when he uses the terms younger and Elder. The word younger, as used here, speaks of one that is new or fresh. We would call them a Beginner, or Rookie. The word Elder speaks of those who would be the ministry and Spiritual Guides of the Church. He also directs us to submit to one another. We need to put humbleness on as a “cover-all!” By doing so we give ourselves protection from pride, arrogance and insolence. We must submit ourselves to God! This brings us under His protection. It makes us reliant on His power. It also allows God to exalt us.
I have noticed that when we read certain passages of the Bible, which have become familiar to us, we sometimes fail to read all the scriptures that pertain to the subject. For example, we often use 1 Peter 5:7 to say God wants us to give Him all of our cares. Yet we fail to include the condition to be able to cast our cares upon Him is our submission. We quote James 4:7 saying if we resist the devil he will flee from us. Yet we fail to include the first part of the verse that tells us to submit ourselves to God. By missing these key components, we set ourselves up for failure and frustration.
Paul gives us key instructions, in Ephesians 5:21-33, regarding our relationship as the Church with God. He likens the Church to the wife of Christ and likens Christ as the husband of the Church. In this instruction, he tells the wife to submit herself to her husband just as the Church submits to Christ. He instructs the husband to love his wife and give her the same sort of love that Christ gives the Church. We place emphasis upon the wife submitting herself to her husband. However, again, we often fail to read the first verse on this subject and here Paul tells us in verse 21, “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” (KJV) Paul tells us we need to submit ourselves to each other. That would be wives submit yourself to your husband. In addition, husbands submit yourselves unto your wife!
Paul is instructing us to submit ourselves unto each other because of our commitment to Christ. By doing so, we again bring ourselves under the “Umbrella of Protection.” Here is how the Protection works: Christ protects all under His “Umbrella of Protection.” Through submission to Christ and to his wife, the husband comes under the “Umbrella” of Christ and protects those under his own “Umbrella” which would be his wife and his children. Through submission to her husband and to Christ, the wife is under the “Umbrella” of her husband and the “Umbrella” of Christ. This submission protects those under her “Umbrella” her husband and her children.
Nothing can get to the submitted wife without passing through the “Umbrella of Protection” that her submitted husband has placed over her. Nothing can get to the husband without passing through the “Umbrella of Protection” that a submitted wife has placed over him. Nothing can get to their family without passing through these “Umbrellas” and the “Umbrella of Protection” that Christ places over those living in submission. He gave Himself for His bride!
The enemy of our soul would have us to live in fear of submission! This is a lie of the enemy. He refused submission choosing rather to rebel. When we hear the word “submit” he paints a picture of a mouse, a door mat, weakness and being timid. However, we find that true power comes to us as we submit ourselves to God. In fact, in Matthew 5 as Jesus is teaching what we call the “Beatitudes” His first one tells us they way to receive the Kingdom of God is to realize that we are nothing without Him. The third one tells us if we are meek, submitted, we will inherit the earth. We will be victorious! These are just the opposite of what we would naturally assume to be true.
God somehow help us to realize the power and protection that will come to our lives when we submit ourselves to you and to others. There is power in submission.
This is the second in the series “The Umbrella of Power and Protection.”
It’s Just a Thought…God Bless!
There is a relationship between pride and self-respect. Pride that leads to self-respect is controlled pride. We must have self-respect, which is a sense of self-value or self-esteem. This is seeing ourselves as God sees us. However, the pride that God hates is uncontrolled pride and it motivates the works of our flesh. This is the pride where the “I” is in control. “P-r-I-d-e” where the big “I” is in the center and dominates.
If I want protection from God, it will only come through my submission. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5:5-7, “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” (KJV) It is better to humble ourselves than to have God humble us!
To humble myself requires self-discipline. It means that I must deny myself and bring myself under authority. However, by humbling myself to God I place myself under the “Umbrella of His Protection and Power.” Notice also that by humbling myself to God I am also now the recipient of a great benefit from God. The offer given to me is that I can cast my cares, my anxieties and worries upon Him. He cares about me. He will also take care of all my worries.
Submission does not know distinction. Peter tells us to submit ourselves to our Elders. We need to understand that Peter is writing to the Church and is not talking of age when he uses the terms younger and Elder. The word younger, as used here, speaks of one that is new or fresh. We would call them a Beginner, or Rookie. The word Elder speaks of those who would be the ministry and Spiritual Guides of the Church. He also directs us to submit to one another. We need to put humbleness on as a “cover-all!” By doing so we give ourselves protection from pride, arrogance and insolence. We must submit ourselves to God! This brings us under His protection. It makes us reliant on His power. It also allows God to exalt us.
I have noticed that when we read certain passages of the Bible, which have become familiar to us, we sometimes fail to read all the scriptures that pertain to the subject. For example, we often use 1 Peter 5:7 to say God wants us to give Him all of our cares. Yet we fail to include the condition to be able to cast our cares upon Him is our submission. We quote James 4:7 saying if we resist the devil he will flee from us. Yet we fail to include the first part of the verse that tells us to submit ourselves to God. By missing these key components, we set ourselves up for failure and frustration.
Paul gives us key instructions, in Ephesians 5:21-33, regarding our relationship as the Church with God. He likens the Church to the wife of Christ and likens Christ as the husband of the Church. In this instruction, he tells the wife to submit herself to her husband just as the Church submits to Christ. He instructs the husband to love his wife and give her the same sort of love that Christ gives the Church. We place emphasis upon the wife submitting herself to her husband. However, again, we often fail to read the first verse on this subject and here Paul tells us in verse 21, “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” (KJV) Paul tells us we need to submit ourselves to each other. That would be wives submit yourself to your husband. In addition, husbands submit yourselves unto your wife!
Paul is instructing us to submit ourselves unto each other because of our commitment to Christ. By doing so, we again bring ourselves under the “Umbrella of Protection.” Here is how the Protection works: Christ protects all under His “Umbrella of Protection.” Through submission to Christ and to his wife, the husband comes under the “Umbrella” of Christ and protects those under his own “Umbrella” which would be his wife and his children. Through submission to her husband and to Christ, the wife is under the “Umbrella” of her husband and the “Umbrella” of Christ. This submission protects those under her “Umbrella” her husband and her children.
Nothing can get to the submitted wife without passing through the “Umbrella of Protection” that her submitted husband has placed over her. Nothing can get to the husband without passing through the “Umbrella of Protection” that a submitted wife has placed over him. Nothing can get to their family without passing through these “Umbrellas” and the “Umbrella of Protection” that Christ places over those living in submission. He gave Himself for His bride!
The enemy of our soul would have us to live in fear of submission! This is a lie of the enemy. He refused submission choosing rather to rebel. When we hear the word “submit” he paints a picture of a mouse, a door mat, weakness and being timid. However, we find that true power comes to us as we submit ourselves to God. In fact, in Matthew 5 as Jesus is teaching what we call the “Beatitudes” His first one tells us they way to receive the Kingdom of God is to realize that we are nothing without Him. The third one tells us if we are meek, submitted, we will inherit the earth. We will be victorious! These are just the opposite of what we would naturally assume to be true.
God somehow help us to realize the power and protection that will come to our lives when we submit ourselves to you and to others. There is power in submission.
This is the second in the series “The Umbrella of Power and Protection.”
It’s Just a Thought…God Bless!
Friday, February 19, 2010
Take Up Your Bed and Walk!
We experience emotions of despair! Those feelings that the situation we face is hopeless and impossible. The realization dawns upon our consciousness bringing with it the certainty that all hope is gone and we have arrived at the “Irr Home.” Everything that lives here is “Irreparable,” “Irremediable,” “Irretrievable, ““Irreclaimable,” “Irrevocable.” With this realization comes a perception of impotence, bringing with it the awareness of powerlessness and weakness. Struggling with the conception of thoughts that leave one paralyzed with fear, feeling very ineffective to face yet another day of the same.
These are the feelings of the real world. Products of a world that is determined to take the best we have to offer and to stomp on it crushing it beyond repair. We have tried our best, and our best is not enough! We have offered all that is sacred and dear to us, only to have it rejected. We have gutted it out until we feel that our guts are literally ripped from our bodies. The world looks at us with a look of contempt and scorn and says, "You made your bed now sleep in it!"
However, I have good news for you! The wonderful, glorious, marvelous and miraculous news of the Gospel and that is, "When the world says you made your bed now sleep in it!” Jesus says, “Take up your bed and walk!"
It is just another day like any other day for the past thirty-eight years. Somehow, he drags himself one more time down by the sheep market to the Pool of Bethesda. He is not even sure why he goes to all of the trouble, knowing that there is no possible way for him to get his self into the pool if the angel were to come today. With this acknowledgment also comes a feeling of despair. There is the realization that his situation is hopeless. Not only is he physically impotent; he is powerless to change his life! Into the midst of this chaotic jumble of embroiled emotions came Jesus!
Jesus came to this place, the Pool of Bethesda, which conveyed ideas of magical cures. Bethesda was a place where sometime during the year an angel would come and trouble the water. Hoping to be healed the infirm tried to be the first into the water. It was a place that was close to the sheep market, and like is the case with the local dairies, I am sure the emanation of the sheep gathered into that one small place would begin to attack the olfactory sense of those who came to the pool. There were also bodies of men and women who were sick with all manner of diseases, impotent people. They were people who were blind, the halt, the crippled, and the withered. It was a painful picture of the chief kind of human suffering and bodily disease. It was a place of hopelessness! It was feeling that must have permeated the air. It must have been like a cauldron of fear percolating out feelings that each situation is irremediable and irrevocable! Coming to the realization there is no hope!
Helpless, powerless, that was the atmosphere of the pool of Bethesda. Individuals grasping at the illusive, fragile dream that they might be the first into the pool the next time the water are troubled. Each person is struggling to hold on to that dream of healing through years of failure. Listening to a constant bombardment of doubt and fear come from those around them that had been at the pool for so many years. Their spirits, once high with hope and promise, have now shrunken in distress as realization dawns on them, their situation is hopeless.
Jesus looks on this impotent man, knowing how hopeless his plight is. He does not even require faith from him. Jesus just asks him, "Wilt thou be made whole?"
This individual might have come to the place in his life where he was doubtful of the blessing of healing because of the resulting responsibilities. Now he is hearing a question he might have heard from others. We hear him as he whines out, with a professional drawl, his oft-told story. He shows his loveless ness, quarrelsome ness, and ugly temper. He gives the melancholy recital of his frequent disappointment with an air of insolvent resignation. You might even sense a gloomy satisfaction with his lot in life. However, Jesus does not rebuke him for his lack of faith. He does not require anything special of him. All he simply says is "Take up your bed and walk."
We are the ones who determine how we are going to relate to God. The Psalmist asked himself the question, “Why am I so discouraged and sad? I have decided to put my hope in God. I have decided to praise Him again! He is my Saviour and my God!” (Ps. 43:5) We do not have to go to a “church” service and wait for God to “zap” us with a lightening bolt from heaven. We should not wait for God to change and solve our problems before we worship Him. We need to put our hope in God and worship because He is God! Hope in His Word! (Ps 119:81) When you feel that you have come to the end, gone as far as you can, you have tried everything there is to try. Your only hope is in His Word.
Many times we say, “I can't see it being any different, I can't perceive it changing, it will always be this way!”
Paul said in Romans 8:24-25 “It is not hope if I can see it!” Hope is waiting with endurance for that which we cannot see!
Jesus stood before the tomb and shouted, "Lazarus, come out!" "I'll resurrect you but you have to come out of the grave." "I'll give you hope, but you have to come out the tomb!" "I'll make a change in your life, but you have to make a change in your residence!"
Blind Bart was in a hopeless place in life, blind, begging, and sitting alone on a dusty road, when Jesus came down that road. Bart calls out to Jesus but others tell him to shut up! His situation seems to be even more hopeless. He cries out even louder, in his despair. Again, they tell him to shut up! Nevertheless, hearing the despairing cry, Jesus stood still! He stopped His world! He called for Bart to come to Him.
That blind man jumped up! However, before running to Jesus, he stopped and took off his coat, which told the world he was a blind man. He left his old life behind. He then ran to Jesus and told Jesus that he wanted his sight
We allow ourselves fall into traps and snares of the enemy as he desires to create a feeling of hopelessness in our lives, it works like this: We plant God’s Word in our hearts the same as we plant seed in the field. However many times we allow the cares of this life to choke, strangle, clog, retard, stifle, throttle, smother, suffocate, asphyxiate and gag the Word of God. It dies like a plant choked by weeds.
The bombardment of our lives by financial problems, many of our own creation and others that are just the circumstances of life, cause us to feel it is hopeless. We need to leave behind the clothes of a beggar and go to the king. Stand on his Word. Stop telling God how big your problems are; start telling your problems how big your God is.
Life brings us problems and heartaches. It delivers broken hearts and bruised lives. It binds us in chains of despair and blinds our eyes to the promises of God. We say I will worship God when He blesses me. I will shout when I feel like it. I need to get up out of my seat, shout and praise God because I want to... I want to because He is God! I need to take up my bed and walk!
I do not have to resolve to live this way; I can take up my bed and walk. It is time I realize the situation is not hopeless, God has walked into the stinking situation that I am dealing with and told me to take up my bed and walk. It is time to change locations.
Therefore, when the world tells me I have made my bed now I have to sleep in it! There is no hope! There is the assurance that Jesus is telling me to take up my bed and walk!
It’s just a thought! God Bless…
These are the feelings of the real world. Products of a world that is determined to take the best we have to offer and to stomp on it crushing it beyond repair. We have tried our best, and our best is not enough! We have offered all that is sacred and dear to us, only to have it rejected. We have gutted it out until we feel that our guts are literally ripped from our bodies. The world looks at us with a look of contempt and scorn and says, "You made your bed now sleep in it!"
However, I have good news for you! The wonderful, glorious, marvelous and miraculous news of the Gospel and that is, "When the world says you made your bed now sleep in it!” Jesus says, “Take up your bed and walk!"
It is just another day like any other day for the past thirty-eight years. Somehow, he drags himself one more time down by the sheep market to the Pool of Bethesda. He is not even sure why he goes to all of the trouble, knowing that there is no possible way for him to get his self into the pool if the angel were to come today. With this acknowledgment also comes a feeling of despair. There is the realization that his situation is hopeless. Not only is he physically impotent; he is powerless to change his life! Into the midst of this chaotic jumble of embroiled emotions came Jesus!
Jesus came to this place, the Pool of Bethesda, which conveyed ideas of magical cures. Bethesda was a place where sometime during the year an angel would come and trouble the water. Hoping to be healed the infirm tried to be the first into the water. It was a place that was close to the sheep market, and like is the case with the local dairies, I am sure the emanation of the sheep gathered into that one small place would begin to attack the olfactory sense of those who came to the pool. There were also bodies of men and women who were sick with all manner of diseases, impotent people. They were people who were blind, the halt, the crippled, and the withered. It was a painful picture of the chief kind of human suffering and bodily disease. It was a place of hopelessness! It was feeling that must have permeated the air. It must have been like a cauldron of fear percolating out feelings that each situation is irremediable and irrevocable! Coming to the realization there is no hope!
Helpless, powerless, that was the atmosphere of the pool of Bethesda. Individuals grasping at the illusive, fragile dream that they might be the first into the pool the next time the water are troubled. Each person is struggling to hold on to that dream of healing through years of failure. Listening to a constant bombardment of doubt and fear come from those around them that had been at the pool for so many years. Their spirits, once high with hope and promise, have now shrunken in distress as realization dawns on them, their situation is hopeless.
Jesus looks on this impotent man, knowing how hopeless his plight is. He does not even require faith from him. Jesus just asks him, "Wilt thou be made whole?"
This individual might have come to the place in his life where he was doubtful of the blessing of healing because of the resulting responsibilities. Now he is hearing a question he might have heard from others. We hear him as he whines out, with a professional drawl, his oft-told story. He shows his loveless ness, quarrelsome ness, and ugly temper. He gives the melancholy recital of his frequent disappointment with an air of insolvent resignation. You might even sense a gloomy satisfaction with his lot in life. However, Jesus does not rebuke him for his lack of faith. He does not require anything special of him. All he simply says is "Take up your bed and walk."
We are the ones who determine how we are going to relate to God. The Psalmist asked himself the question, “Why am I so discouraged and sad? I have decided to put my hope in God. I have decided to praise Him again! He is my Saviour and my God!” (Ps. 43:5) We do not have to go to a “church” service and wait for God to “zap” us with a lightening bolt from heaven. We should not wait for God to change and solve our problems before we worship Him. We need to put our hope in God and worship because He is God! Hope in His Word! (Ps 119:81) When you feel that you have come to the end, gone as far as you can, you have tried everything there is to try. Your only hope is in His Word.
Many times we say, “I can't see it being any different, I can't perceive it changing, it will always be this way!”
Paul said in Romans 8:24-25 “It is not hope if I can see it!” Hope is waiting with endurance for that which we cannot see!
Jesus stood before the tomb and shouted, "Lazarus, come out!" "I'll resurrect you but you have to come out of the grave." "I'll give you hope, but you have to come out the tomb!" "I'll make a change in your life, but you have to make a change in your residence!"
Blind Bart was in a hopeless place in life, blind, begging, and sitting alone on a dusty road, when Jesus came down that road. Bart calls out to Jesus but others tell him to shut up! His situation seems to be even more hopeless. He cries out even louder, in his despair. Again, they tell him to shut up! Nevertheless, hearing the despairing cry, Jesus stood still! He stopped His world! He called for Bart to come to Him.
That blind man jumped up! However, before running to Jesus, he stopped and took off his coat, which told the world he was a blind man. He left his old life behind. He then ran to Jesus and told Jesus that he wanted his sight
We allow ourselves fall into traps and snares of the enemy as he desires to create a feeling of hopelessness in our lives, it works like this: We plant God’s Word in our hearts the same as we plant seed in the field. However many times we allow the cares of this life to choke, strangle, clog, retard, stifle, throttle, smother, suffocate, asphyxiate and gag the Word of God. It dies like a plant choked by weeds.
The bombardment of our lives by financial problems, many of our own creation and others that are just the circumstances of life, cause us to feel it is hopeless. We need to leave behind the clothes of a beggar and go to the king. Stand on his Word. Stop telling God how big your problems are; start telling your problems how big your God is.
Life brings us problems and heartaches. It delivers broken hearts and bruised lives. It binds us in chains of despair and blinds our eyes to the promises of God. We say I will worship God when He blesses me. I will shout when I feel like it. I need to get up out of my seat, shout and praise God because I want to... I want to because He is God! I need to take up my bed and walk!
I do not have to resolve to live this way; I can take up my bed and walk. It is time I realize the situation is not hopeless, God has walked into the stinking situation that I am dealing with and told me to take up my bed and walk. It is time to change locations.
Therefore, when the world tells me I have made my bed now I have to sleep in it! There is no hope! There is the assurance that Jesus is telling me to take up my bed and walk!
It’s just a thought! God Bless…
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