January 15th, 2016, Isaiah 40:28-31

Isaiah 40:28-31

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

his understanding is unsearchable.

29 He gives power to the faint,

and to him who has no might he increases strength.

30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,

and young men shall fall exhausted;

31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint.

God's word is amazing!

Today in the midst of a Master's program, feeling tired, even maybe a bit overwhelmed.

Getting ready to help lead a debate team, nervous, don't want to let anyone down on the team...

I sit an am reminded....

Can you not hear a bit of the scold in that parent's loving voice

"HAVE YOU NOT KNOWN? "

You've see His love before.

You've experienced His care and protection as well!

But you are tired and have forgotten.... AGAIN!

Notice where your strength lies... IN HIM!

Not in your own weak, feeble, frail, mortal being...

But in the Almighty's STRONG, SOLID, UNBREAKABLE, IMMORTAL SELF.

He will give you strength.

But will your life be effortless? Will it be so easy that you never learn like a spoiled child experiencing the real world for the first time?

Think about an eagle. What does the Mother Eagle do?

When the baby is ready to learn to fly what does the mother do?

From the HIGH nests on the tallest tree's the mother PUSHES the baby out.

The mother says it is TIME to learn...

But the entire time the mother is right there and if the baby is to able to fly she doesn't wait until the baby hits the ground but SOARS DOWN AND CATCHES THE BABY ON HER BACK!

WITH THE WINGS OF AN EAGLE HE LIFTS YOU UP!

He will not let you stumble and fall when you are dependent on HIM!

So walk, Run, this journey of Faith knowing that your HOPE and STRENGTH is in the LORD.

Praise God that it isn't in me.

God you are simply amazing!

We give you our lives.

Lord I pray that we will all see that YOU MUST COME FIRST!

Above all else.

Our Job, our family, our friends. YOU MUST COME FIRST.

These earthly things are temporal but your are eternal!

I am so in awe that by giving you my life, my family, and my all that you give it back to me renewed, restored, and thus I am able to enjoy them so much better than I could before!

God I praise you!

With all my breath may I praise you!

Jan. 14th, 2016 Hebrews 12:7-13

Hebrews 12:7-13

7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?

10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,

13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

My kids love it when they are disciplined. Don't your's?

We enjoy the pain of a butt spanking!

We enjoy the chastising of our parents, that scolding look of disapproval.

NOT!

Because we dislike it as a child we scorn it.

Then later in life we look back in hind site and see WHY they did it.

Then you have children and you fully understand!

Thus why do we scorn God's reproof?

Why do we complain "WHY ARE YOU ALLOWING THIS TO HAPPEN TO ME!"

It is because we don't see what He is doing.

He is MOLDING YOU.

For the moment we grieve, we ache, we morn.... Yet our HOPE is in the NEW DAY!

So therefore: RAISE UP YOUR HANDS! Dry your eyes!

Turn up the worship music in your life and PRAISE HIM.

Your focus on praise will allow your focus to be removed from the pain.

Trust God.

Trust His plan!

Trust HIS purpose!

Believe that HE created you for a PURPOSE!

Jan. 12, 2016 1 Chronicles 16:8-14

1 Chronicles 16:8-14
8 Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples!
9 Sing to him, sing praises to him;
tell of all his wondrous works!
10 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!
11 Seek the Lord and his strength;
seek his presence continually!
12 Remember the wondrous works that he has done,
his miracles and the judgments he uttered,
13 O offspring of Israel his servant,
children of Jacob, his chosen ones!
14 He is the Lord our God;
his judgments are in all the earth.

You know those Braveheart speeches? Those rally cries that we all love in movies?
This morning this sounded like one of those to me.

Remember that the hebrews were very ORAL in their tradition and would have read this aloud!
In fact it is known that if a priest, who was ordained JUST to read, could be fired and 'de-frocked' just for reading it poorly!

Just think about vs. 8. You can't read that without wanting to add a 'You' in front. Now that does make this come alive but in Hebrew culture again it was CORPORATE.

OH WE give thanks... etc...

Are you in community with believers that can all say this?

Read it once this morning making it personal but then read it once adding in the plurals to make it corporate!

Do you sing praise to Him?
Do you get your STRENGTH from Him?
Do you take time to remember the things that He has done that only HE could do in your life and in your communities (Oikos, family, friends, community!)

Is HE your Lord, your God?

Then look at that last verse. It seems a bit strange doesn't it.
We just heard these great things and then it says "His JUDGEMENTS?"

One meaning was to decide a case... or the process and procedure before a judge....
So all of these things (Getting our strength from Him etc) are part of HIS judgement?
The way I take that is that HE is so loving that He judges himself on how much He makes known to us His love?

Isn't that amazing?
He really LOVES US!

Ezekiel 36:24-28 Jan. 11th, 2016

Ezekiel 36:24-28

24 For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land.

25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.[a] 27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.

28 “And you will live in Israel, the land I gave your ancestors long ago. You will be my people, and I will be your God.

This is a story of REDEMPTION!

Everything in life is a story about redemption. God is seeking to restore our HEARTS. In Heaven he will restore creation to where it was suppose to be.

But when God restores the heart.... LOOK OUT WORLD!!!

This verse explains why the NT Christian is not under the law as Paul said. It is because the LAW GIVER has written the LAW ON THEIR HEARTS!

Do you have that? Think about it... when you are driving down the road in Delaware the speed limit (THE LAW) changes. If a wonderful police officer pulls you over and tells you that you were speeding (BREAKING THAT LAW) and you said "Oh but I didn't know it changed" does he say "Oh, ok... since you didn't know it was wrong then it doesn't count!"

NO!!! He says... "TOUGH. Ignorance ain't bliss!"

You are held to the law even if you didn't know it was the law!

BUT because God loves us so much and wants to help us he WRITES THE LAW ON OUR HEART!!!!

We will ALWAYS KNOW IT!

That is the 'Jimminy Cricket' on your heart. That conscious that is saying "You shouldn't do that..."

OH but that comes with a warning... James tells us that when you do what you know you shouldn't do it is a sin.... OUCH!

I am so grateful for a God who writes his law on my heart. Who guides me, directs me, picks be up each and EVERY time when I fail him.

My GOD IS AMAZING!

Jan. 9th, 2016 1 Peter 1:3-9

1 Peter:1:3-9 (NLT)

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. 5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

6 So be truly glad.[a] There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

8 You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. 9 The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.

I really enjoyed the message version this morning but didn't think it fully captured the GLORY of this verse...

It was so perfect today for me....

1) Because I can not begin to tell you the number of people I have spoke to this very week who are dealing with these 'trials'. Yet as I keep encouraging them, this verses proves that they have something to still rejoice for!

The Trial is now, but it isn't permanent. It may seem like it won't end, that the sorrow doesn't go away, but there is a SALVATION and a HOPE that we can focus on in Jesus' eternal home for us.

2) Because as I was reading it a song was playing on my Spotify list... "Bless the Lord" by Will Reagan. It just repeats on the chorus "Bless the Lord oh my soul and let all that is within me SHOUT OUT!!!"

What if? What if in your sorrow you choose to SHOUT OUT to God with PRAISE?

What if? What if you focused on HIS saving Grace and Hope of eternity and not on your present trail?

If your focus was not inward but OUTWARD would that change your position? Would that change your posture of praise?

There was a time that Mandy and I were experiencing a deep trial in our life. We knew we were on the journey God wanted us on... but it was not easy.

One day someone told us, in fact it might have even been in a sermon... I can't recall... but they challenged us to pray over our past and ask God to show us all the times he SHOWED UP for us!

As we did we began to step through our lives chronologically. We had things like our marriage, our first born etc... but along the way an amazing thing happened...

You see we remembered things that we had forgotten.

As a child I spent some time in the hospital. The doctors had come down to only one possible cause and that was the word "Lukemia". How scary for a young child. I can still see my mother standing next to the dr. crying.

But then I remembered that God healed me. It became something as simple as an allergy to Red Dye #40!

Then we walked down life further and God reminded us of Skylar.

You see our first ultrasound of Skylar we found that her heart was on the wrong side of her body. Now there is a anomaly where all organs etc are reversed but it was only her heart. Thus outside the womb her blood would flow in the wrong direction and she would not survive. It was like this for multiple ultrasounds... BUT GOD showed up and healed her!

HOW DO WE FORGET THESE TIMES WHEN GOD SHOWED UP?

It's like the Israelites who continually SAW GOD but then turned and forgot him or cursed Him.

We are so FICAL as humans...

We get so focused on our CURRENT issues the we MISS how much GOD LOVES US!

What do you need to do today to be reminded about WHO GOD IS and HOW HE HAS SHOWN UP IN YOUR LIVES?

Jan. 7th, 2016 Philippians 3:7-14

Philippians 3:7-14 MSG
7-9 The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.

10-11 I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.

12-14 I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.

WOW!!!
Every now and then we need a swift kick in the rear. We need that BRAVEHEART speech, or the St. Crispin Day Speech (My favorite from Henry V with Kenneth Branagh).
This is one of those speeches!

Notice the phrase "NOT THAT I HAVE THIS ALL TOGETHER!" 
But its that he knows where his HOPE lies!

It reminds me of the old hymn:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

If you STAND on Christ... you have nothing to FEAR.
If you focus on this life and its cares then we are stuck... we are desperately lost... but if you FOCUS on CHRIST and HIS redeeming plan then we find HOPE!

Are you trusting in Jesus today? Do you trust His heart when you don't see His hand guiding your circumstances?
Our Job is simply to continue on... don't stop and be happy that you are 'saved' but PRESS ON! GROW! DEVELOP! LISTEN! Pray!

Check out Richard Fosters Spiritual Disciplines... one of my favorite books on the growth of a Christian Life!

Jan. 6th, 2016 Jeremiah 29:11-14

Jeremiah 29:11-14

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
12 In those days when you pray, I will listen.
13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. 
14 I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”

Welcome to my most overused "Get out of Jail Free" card in scripture.
When you are hurting or struggling some well meaning Christian comes and says "He knows the plans he has for you... it has a future and a hope"

And sometimes that is what we need to hear... but folks there is so much more to this passage. Just look at vs. 10... start with the chapter start... or read all of Jeremiah. 

God is telling the Israelites all the reasons he is punishing them! Why they are in bondage, exile, slavery etc... and after all of that HE says "But you know I am still SOVEREIGN right?"

Just because your favorite Aunt is dying of cancer, or Just because your marriage is falling apart due to your poor choices in the past decade... don't blame it on God. For if you come out the other side of these pains, these trials you will see that God did in fact have a plan, he had a purpose.

Does God cause our suffering? No. A sinful world causes this. God made a world that was faultless and we added the crack in that pot. We sifted in our selfishness, our insecurities, our inability to Love as He Loved us. We ruined it.

A while back I read a news story about a student on a field trip was messing around and put a hole in a 1.5 million dollar painting.  http://www.cnn.com/…/as…/boy-trips-punches-hole-in-painting/

We do that each and every day. But we do it to a PRICELESS work of art. Our sin puts holes in our lives, in our hearts, in the lives of those around us. We are walking around punching holes through art all day long...
Yet God is standing there saying, It's okay! Come back to me. I will be here and I hear you. God is saying that He can take our brokenness and remold us back into the Priceless masterpiece that He intended!

How GREAT is our GOD?
Our future may not be bright in this world but our HOPE is in the Future life that God has created us for. That is where our Future and Hope lie. He is a GOOD, GOOD Father!

Jan. 5th, 2016 Psalm 90:12-17

Psalm 90:12-17

12 Teach us to realize the brevity of life,

so that we may grow in wisdom.

13 O Lord, come back to us!

How long will you delay?

Take pity on your servants!

14 Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love,

so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives.

15 Give us gladness in proportion to our former misery!

Replace the evil years with good.

16 Let us, your servants, see you work again;

let our children see your glory.

17 And may the Lord our God show us his approval

and make our efforts successful.

Yes, make our efforts successful!

It has been a long day and I have not had time to read through this today... until now...

What an amazing and powerful group of verses!

There is a power when you realize the 'brevity' of your life. When you think that today could be your last. When you have had a near death experience.

You want to make sure that each moment counts. But often we are distracted and we allow for trivial things to get in the way of the important things. Health, Family, Salvation, God....

We allow our pains to get in our way... we FOCUS on them... WE DWELL on them! What if we really prayed "God give me gladness in the same proportion as to our MISERY!"

He is a GOOD father and will answer that prayer!

Then can we work and do so with God's approval because HE will show us HIS will and guide us!

I am reminded of the Character of Sherlock Holmes. Watson would ask him simple questions about the latest gossip etc. and Holmes never knew about it. Why? Because he said for everything I learn I have to forget something else and that something else might be important so I ensure that only the things I learn are of equal or greater importance!

What if we lived our lives like that?

What if we ensured that all of our thoughts, movies, reading, etc... were all things that would ENCOURAGE, LIFT UP, STRENGTHEN, and GLORIFY GOD?

Would our lives have a different outcome?

Wouldn't we live a different way?

Jan. 3rd, 2016 Ecclesiastes 3:11-15

Ecclesiastes 3:11-15

11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

12 So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.

13 And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.

14 And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him.

15 What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.

From the very first verse you'll find yourself stripped of your control today. If God makes things beautiful in its own time... well what things? Ecclesiastes has just told us what things in the prior verses... There is a time for sorrow, for pain, for laughter and joy... Each THING has been ordained by God for you to go through at that time.

Or put it this way: "For each of these God has appointed its time or season, and in its season each is good. But man does not recognise this; for God has put in his heart an expectation and longing for abiding continuance of the same, and so he fails to understand the work which God does in the world."

We find that all of human kind have 'eternity' in our hearts. What is the biggest argument of our day? Is there a God or not? Is there a creator or not? Ultimately it is an argument of eternity. If we see the world and all its sufferings only, and miss the beauty and the joy that comes as well into this world, then we miss the point. We focus on one to the detriment of the other. Suffering overwhelms our joy. Pain excludes us of our peace.

Yet we don't have a clue what God is doing. We can't see the puzzle. only the piece in our hands. It might be a jagged and rough piece and we are upset that God has us with it at this moment... so we give up... and miss the beautiful piece He had prepared for you next.

Notice then in vs. 14. Enjoy life. This doesn't mean we fall in love with our money, or fall in love with the happiness that we feel when we are extravagant. It means that if you are blessed with funds, or blessed with possessions, or blessed with something completely different... see them as GIFTS from God and they will NEVER control you. But even knowledge can corrupt if seen as of ourselves and our own hard work... Even insight can be prideful if seen as of our own devising and not given to us by God.

The Gift is not greater than the GIVER!

The last two verses can really be a struggle. We love our Dr. Who stories, or our Voyagers, or our Sliders (All Sci-Fi shows for those who don't know). In these we watch as time can be changed, history re-written, futures manipulated. Yet... they can't be. God has it written out.

OKAY WAIT.. does that mean no matter what I do I am stuck.... Predestined as you will... where is my Free Will?

Picture it this way: God is not controlled by Time. He invented time! So to Him our mortal timeline was ended when it was created.

He can see simultaneously the beginning and the end. This is how the prophecies of the Messiah of Jesus could be given thousands of years earlier with clarity and details. He KNOWS what choices we will make before we made them. He watches as we make the same mistakes over and over again, but rejoices when we come back to Him. He is a creator who wants relationships with his creations.

The promise, the joy, in this is that God has a plan! Nothing can shake His plan! AND YOU ARE APART OF THAT PLAN! In Holy Fear we worship our God. He is not our friend, but a parent who is friendly. He is not just love, but also loving justice.

HE has placed the longing for Him and for Eternity into the hearts of all men. Will you help to share your love of Him with others? Connect them to the only one who can fill the hole in their heart that they seek to fill will unhealthy relationships, drugs, alcohol, and many other imitations of God.

A thought from a Temple

So in every province we went to, our sight seeing consisted if visiting the oldest Buddhist temple in the province.

Now I have been in temples that made my flesh crawl. These weren't one of those. In fact it made me want to weep.

These temples were beautiful. The multiple Buddha statues were beautiful. Yet all i could see or think was Biblical warnings. Graven images made of gold. Praying to these dead Buddha's who can't do anything to help.

When walking in one temple they rang a bell every time someone made a wish or prayer. I asked why and was told "to try and get the buddha's attention so that he will hear the wish and maybe grant it."

In the most recent temple i watches as a lady fervently, white knuckled, grasped her prayer beads and prayed. Yet i didn't hear heartfelt words just one phrase over and over making me recall "and when you pray don't pray as the pagan who babels...".

I listened an asked many questions and in each answer I see:
They worship these Buddha's or so called perfect men. They work and strive, and pray an beg hoping to be considered worthy.

The devotion matches that of the most devote catholic and even many misguided protestants. Yet they are missing a single element: GRACE.

We worship a perfect God who used imperfect people to make His name known.

In that Grace we find hope. In prevenient grace we see possibility. In saving grace we find redemption and in sanctifying grace we see our potential in Christ.

I wish I could preach it from the mountain tops. Jesus saves. Jesus saves.

Hebrews 10:23 Do I trust God? REALLY?!?!

Heb 10:23 "Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise."
We discussed this group of verses (Heb. 10:19-23) this morning in our prayer group. And this one stuck out. "For God can be trusted..."

Then our sermon was on trusting him with our measure of success. Not the world, not our job, our health or our families. But trusting HIM!

I am sitting here with thousands of thoughts going through my mind about what my measure of success is. It use to be my work. I was the youngest Assistant Manager in Wal-Mart history, then the youngest District Manager in Family Christian Stores history at the time.

Then little by little my success was found in my 'things'. I liked having either owned or seen all the new movies or even the new music. I wanted to be known as knowing that stuff.... Then it became my family and caring for their needs...

lately though God has been shifting us. We have been trimming back. Cut out the newspaper, the Cable, the Movie rentals, and soon even netflix... We are trying to cut out the EXCESS fat in our spending in order to get out of debt and be able to help more people who are in need... But not for our glory but for GOD'S!!

Verse 24 says "Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works." That is what our family wants to do.. to point others to JESUS!!

Yet in chapter 11 I read the FAITH CHAPTER...
There were the people that seemingly had it all together.
God had blessed them and promised them GREATNESS!!
Yet the people of faith died without seeing what was promised them.

Do I trust God enough to allow him to use me even if I can't see the outcome?
Do I trust God to pull at my strings and say "SELL YOUR HOUSE!" "Downsize" "Sell the Van and by a clunker...

The Prophet Hosea was told by God to marry an unfaithful woman and he listened... Every time he found her in bed with another man, or himself caring for another child that was not his, he trusted God. He knew that God had a plan even when he couldn't and didn't see the end in site.

I am willing to Trust God that his PROMISE might be the promise of a heavenly home when I die? Can I trust that? Can I put the things of this life in jeopardy for a call from God?

Now friends, be sure to get this... I have yet to sell my house and down size... but that doesn't mean it won't happen. I know I trust God enough to provide... for others...

"Lord, I believe! Help my un-belief!"