Getting Stoned- for His Glory

Christ tells us as Christians that we will face persecution as believers. That we won't be recognized in our home towns. Never in the bible does it say that we will life a life free from persecution or that we will have an easy life.
Too often we act as though we expect to get through this life without battle scares and sorrows. That is not the promise at all. It sucks somedays to be quite honest. It would be a lot easier if Christ would have made that promise to us and subsequently we would not suffer, but He didn't.
An unfortunate consequence is that we go through life almost alone sometimes, it is the rare friendship that is true enough to listen and understand everything. i.e. we don't have a real place to take our issues. Most of us are unaware of our responses to things, as in we don't know why we act the way that we do.
I recently went through a class on shame and grace. What an amazing experience. Rev. Robert Walter taught it at The Masters Institute in Minneapolis Minnesota. We were taught such great things as identifying some of the things from our childhood, times when we were shamed, or guilted into certain things. Those play a part in our childhood and how we felt with things as well as our adult lives and how we still do things.
As we learn how to recognize those symptoms and how to deal with them, we can then start the healing process. Learning how to forgive and break the chains that bind will without a doubt break the chains that bind. In my life there have been so many different things that have brought shame, but I thought that I forgiven those things and those people that caused the shame. I thought that I had forgiven myself for the things that I have done to myself and others. I had stated that I forgave and found that for what ever reason I am holding onto some of those things.
We (my seminary class) got an amazing opportunity - we got to do some Theophostic prayer. An amazing time that involves some of those ingrained memories and thoughts. Recognizing the belief as well as the feeling and then asking Jesus what He might think about it. The amazing part is seeing for yourself that He cares for us, He cares for me and for you. We worship a great God and I am thankful for Jesus and His sacrifice. By my own effort I am not worthy, by His economy, I am made worthy.

Learning to be real with each other and being there for one another, is a great beginning. I pray for God's strength to continue the therapy with Christ and the healing that I know He wants for me. Phillipians 3:20-21-"²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,²¹ who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." I continue to grow in Christ and continue to flesh out what the word relationship means. He has laid this on my heart and as well as a genuine love for people. His healing will aid me in being the same person in all circumstances. To be able to Love all His kids, not just the ones that I agree with.

I praise God for His goodness and long for His spirit to dwell so richly in me and for me to be able to walk with Him in all that I do.

If we do this thing in His will, we may just get out of here alive!

we have enough- Elizabeth Canham

We Have Enough

Elizabeth Canham

"Knowing that we have enough takes us out of the never-ending tension created by greed, out of the constant envy of others that causes us to overlook our own riches, and out of the turmoil of unmet desires.

Traveling back one afternoon to the seminary where I taught two decades ago, I found a seat on the upper deck of a red London bus. Smoking was permitted 'upstairs,' so I usually chose seats below, but on this day they were all full. Maybe God wanted me 'upstairs' that day, for as we journeyed south along the Old Kent Road, a sign painted high on a building caught my eye: CLUTCH CLINIC.

It took a few moments for me to realize that the advertisement referred to an automobile service center specializing in the repair of defective clutches, for I heard the advertisement that day as God's invitation.

"Supposing you spent time in my clutch clinic," God seemed to say. "What are some of the things you need to relinquish so that your hands can be open, ready to receive the grace I wait to give?"

Beloved, do you have enough yet? What is enough? Can you put a stick in the shore and wait until the tide rises above that stick and say, thank you God for all that you have given me, and pursue no more? Will you be like most everyone else and change your level of "need" ?

Beloved when the day is over and your game has been played will you have realized how much is enough, or will you forever pursue more?

If we do this thing right, we might just get out of here alive!

Psalm 56

Psalm 56:1-4 Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; My enemies trample on me all the day long, for many attack proudly. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid, What can flesh do to me?
I am guessing that I am not the only one that feels this way some days? It is tough, this life and the way that we live it. We are called to love our neighbors, aren't we? If we are called to it, are we doing it? I struggle with both of the commandments that Jesus left us with. I have a hard time loving those who seem to take advantage of me. I might even come across a little harsh sometimes.
If I were to really love my neighbor and stop attacking or oppressing my neighbor, what would happen?

v:6 They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life.
I don't go out doing these behaviors purposely, but I know that I do this. I have not been the brother that I need to be and sometimes get a little self righteous. This, by lack of love, is doing those very things. If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem.
Why do people feel alone in this day and age? We are living in a world with more people in it than ever before and yet we have people, children feeling alone and unwanted. We have children that are so picked on that they kill and hurt other children. We then make them out to be monsters and point fingers at how awful they are. Are they? or are they just really alone and hurting with no where to go? Has anyone introduced them to the Lord and showed them how valuable they actually are? We may never do this thing perfectly but I believe beloved that we can do it better.

v:8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?
How deep the Fathers love for us, how far beyond all measure. Beloved, we can make a difference in this thing we call LIFE. Please read this Proverb and then go and read 1Cor. 13:1-4. All that we are doing is no good beloved, it is no good if we don't have love.

Please, Please, Please, Love your family today and tomorrow and everyday from here to eternity. Repent openly to your children and God for mistakes made. They will forgive you, this I know. Humble your self in the sight of the Lord, ask Him for strength and guidance. Can we learn to Love our neighbors, even if they are not believers or overtly friendly?

Beloved we are empowered by the strength of the Holy Spirit as were the disciples to go and Love and make disciples of every nation. God said it and He has given us the ability to do it, now go and do it.

Beloved, if we do this one thing, we might just get out of here alive!

Sacrifice is ESSENTIAL!

Sacrifice is Essential

Thomas Keating

Sacrifice is absolutely essential for human growth; yet the abiding disposition of sacrifice is rarely established without some experience of suffering. Of course suffering itself does not make one holy and can even lead to despair. Despair is suffering that fails to teach.

This is not what I needed to hear this week. I was perfectly content whining about my pain and my discomfort and a few other things that aren't going exactly right. So I started recovery last night. Recovery from whining about it. At church there was a small message about victim mentality and that hit me right between the eyes.

Yes it is ok to feel bad when bad stuff happens, but you have to get over it. How do you do that, stop thinking of yourself. You haven't died on a cross or been beaten to within and inch of your life. Although it sure may feel like it. 

Reach out to those people that will listen, we all have someone at least one other person, don't we? If you don't find one, you might even find that Jesus is waiting for His little brother or sister to come cry on His shoulder. Have your cry and get over it. Yes I know it is hard but we have to, the alternative sucks.

I always talk about learning something from everything so that I cannot count it a loss. Some things it is hard to do that. If we search hard enough we can find that one thing - do we need to learn more about what just happened so we might stop it in the future. We have to learn something and the best part is that we get to learn something. A professor learned a lesson from his Dad - ignorant is not a crime, staying ignorant is!

So although it is tough to do, even when the pain feels as though it is going to eat you alive, lean on your friends and family, Lean on Jesus, learn how to fix it and get on with it. We all have to do something besides outward expressions of our discontent. Help others to learn the same thing you just learned, so they might not have to go through it. DO NOT DESPAIR!

If we do this thing right, we might just get out of here alive! 

Make your time count - He does

Make your time count

I was recently blessed with a trip back home. This trip back home was significant first because it felt like I was going home. I have wandered along ways over the course of my life and although I keep coming back to the same place, this time was different, this time it felt like I was going home. Ya see although I knew where home was, it never gave me that great feeling that you might get from a Hallmark card or even one of their great tear jerking movies.This was blessing one of two. This was the first gift that God gave me this Christmas

God has blessed me with dear friends. These are friends that will truly be with a guy his entire lifetime. This trip back how was going to be a bit different. I was counseled to put together an intercessory prayer group for myself and the church that God, I feel, is having me plant. So at church that first Sunday I asked a few people and amazingly, they had the time and the desire to enter into prayer for me. This may not seem like a huge deal to many of you, but to me it was monumental.

We were sitting at the table when it hit me. All these people had come to know me and still accepted me and not only that, they were there to pray for me. These friends opened their home to me and prepared a meal for me as well. This was absolutely amazing to me that anyone would do this for me. That is when it hit me right square  between the eyes, God has called me to be a Pastor. Not only did He call me, but He is telling people about it. These people were gathered around the table to pray for me and this church. This was one of those kairos moments, where God intervenes into your life and shows you how much He truly loves you. This was one of those moments in my life that I will never forget. I have to thank those friends that were there that morning, you know who you are and you will always be so very special to me, Thank you!

While this moment may not seem that out of the ordinary for most or many people, it was for me. This moment signifies the moment where all of God’s hard work on my character and spirit had come together. The moment where I finally started believing that I might truly be used by God. I had known what He had called me to for years and was willing to do it for Him. Now was different, now I know that I can do this. I know that God has been continually pruning me to do a work for Him. He has been equipping the called, and definitely not calling the equipped!

You see that so often in our lives we feel that we are unworthy or incapable. We may have heard that “ God equips the called” or some other corny Christian saying. None of these truly do much good, we have to walk in His goodness ourselves. We have to get to a point in our lives where we feel the loving presence of God. We have to make the most of the time that God has given us. We do this by spending time in His word and praying as well as meditating on His goodness. We have to go with Him on these sojourns that He has called us to. I never thought that I could be a pastor, I was not that kind of guy. God knows different and is making that come true.

If He has called you to something that is more than your character can handle, TRUST! Trust Him in all things to include your time and your dreams. Make those moments count, those moments that God sneaks in and gives you a crazy dream. Don’t sit idle with a dream in your heart. Press in and fulfill that dream. Dare to be that person that God desires you to be. He will see to it that you make it. He will not call you and leave you hanging in the wind. He is faithful and true to His word. He will create in you a clean heart as it says in Psalm 51:10

 Dream my friends Dream! Live to Love Him who first Loved You!

If we do this thing right, we might just get out of here alive.