Mental Inventory

My mom and uncle were in a car accident yesterday and it was an interesting mental inventory that I took. It seems that in the past two and a half years I have taken quite a few of those. They are both fine, but the reality that we are not promised tomorrow hit me square in the face. If you think about it, we live in a world of false guarantees. We build our lives and attitudes assuming that we will live to see tomorrow when really that is a great myth. Every time I get up in the morning I may not live to see that night and I think we need to always remember that. When my dad called me this morning and told me about my mom and uncle I wondered what the rest of the sentence would be. In thinking about the report that I got from the doctors in St. Louis this past week I was reminded yesterday that I need to live for today and not base my attitude on the incorrect assumption that I will even live to see tomorrow. This really reinforces my thoughts on not worrying about tomorrow because that is exactly what the devil wants you to do to steal your today

Had a Hard Day

I had a hard day yesterday. I was not able to get my Remicade treatment because of an anti-bacterial medicine that they just put me on. Now I can’t take one of the drugs to stop my eye from being eaten away by my immune system but I need to take another medication to fight a possible reason for the inflammation. Wow. This just gets more interesting. I may make this part of the chapter in my book that will possibly be titled – “When the “Crap” seems to outweigh the “Holy”. This is definitely a time in my life when I need to practice what I preach/sing about the voice of truth and what are the voices I choose to listen to right now.

Good Trip to St. Louis

We had a good trip to St. Louis (and I got my St. Louis ribs – woohoo!!) and all the doctors there did a good job. I appreciated their honesty and taking all the time they did to look me over. They are putting me on an anti-bacterial/fungal medication to see if that helps for the next month. If that doesn’t work then they may want to go in and do a biopsy to see if there are any masses in the eye. This is actually sticking a needle in my eye. With even the possibility of this happening I know there was a little saying when I was growing up that will never come out of my mouth ever again; “I promise, hope to die…” and then something about sticking a needle in my eye. Ahh, the things we say when we are young and don’t really realize what they mean! I am starting the anti-bacterial medication today and we will see. (no pun intended)

The big eye trip

I go to St. Louis this week to get my eye looked at by a guy that is supposed to be the best in the country for the type of eye condition that I have. I don’t know what to expect with him looking at it. I have been seen by over 30 doctors so to me it’s just another opinion. I really believe that God is putting me in a place of trusting in what he says about my eye in the Bible that I am already healed by the work that Jesus did on a cross for me 2,000 years ago. For whatever reason, it’s easy to trust the doctor with giving me a prescription to help something that is going on in my body but hard to trust that the Bible needs to be like a prescription for me as well. I know that God is challenging my actions in the physical realm to see a change in my body and believe for a change in the spiritual realm as well. We want to see God do a great work in Denver and know that it will come through our obedience in prayer and asking God to do great things here. I had a conversation with my dad the other day and we came to the conclusion that with all the things that God has for us to do in this life that my eye just doesn’t seem as important as we make it.

Its not the tears, its the time

My intimacy with God is never going to be judged by the amount of tears I cry but by the amount of time that I spend in his presence. I have always grown up with the thinking that the more I cry the more I am close to God. God has really given me the revelation that I need to not just emotionally want to feel his presence but also commit to spending time with him. There is nothing wrong with emotionally feeling God and wanting to be touched in that way, but if I just say that I know him and his thoughts but never spend time getting to know him than I am lying to myself and I have nothing to give people around me who need Jesus. I can never give away anything that I first have myself and I believe that includes a relationship with Jesus. It always seems like I never have enough time to spend with God unless I build it into my day somehow. I used to think that I would get up just a little earlier before work and spend time in prayer and read my Bible but it ended up me getting up earlier and getting to work earlier. I want to challenge you today to really seek that time with God and to let him show you his heart and take you places that you have never been. I know that it is always easier to make that time a priority when you have crap going on in your life but the best kind of time spent with God is when you are enjoying life and still making him a priority.

"Churchy" Word Definition

I have decided to define what I call "churchy words" every so often on my blog to help people decode the language of "churchy's" if they ever encounter one. A "churchy" is someone who likes to use big religious words that can many times be confusing to a listener with no church background. This is not meant to disrepect those people who find it necessary to use big religious words with a non-believer and i actually want to be a type of "bridge" to help explain words that can sound kind of funny if you dont have a reference of growing up in church all your life. Also, if you ever encounter a "churchy" and hear a word that they use that you dont understand please post a comment on any of my blogs and I will try and help define it for you.

Consistency leads to Conformity

Did you realize that whatever you are consistent in you conform to? I think this is in all areas of our lives but even more so with our walk with God. I know that God wants us to have consistency with him so that we can conform to what he wants us to be. When everything is going good in our lives we can sometimes lose the commitment to stay consistent with God in prayer or Bible reading. As a long time believer in Christ, I know that I have had a misconception of what prayer is to me. Without admitting it, I would have said that prayer is a wish list to Jesus that includes everything that will make me feel better about my day and life. The power that I see in prayer now is as much the consistency as it is the actual request. The same is true with the Bible. I can either view it as a nice book of ethical stories, or I can see it as important as the prednisone that I have to take every day or my eye will rot out of my head. The Bible says in Romans 12:2 that we should not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. We will conform to what we are consistent with. If you want to know the mind and heart of God and let him help you to make decisions that will be for your best then have consistency in your Bible and prayer time. These are both exercises that will help your mind focus on Him and not on the crap that you may be going through in your life. Our mind is what the devil wants to attack and our mind is what God wants us to set on him so that we can have an awesome life that is full of blessing. I believe that God lets us get into struggles in our lives to push us towards that consistency that leads to conformity. Conformity can sound like such a terrible word. It has implications or having to surrender your will or to be like someone else and have to lose your identity. I want my identity to be in Christ and I want to willingly conform to what he wants because I admit that I don’t know as much as God and want to have his mind in me everyday to not only help me make important decisions, but to also have a relationship with me.

What is your integrity worth?

What is your integrity worth? I was at a restaurant the other day and I had an interesting experience. I was getting a burrito with guacamole and came up to the cashier and they rang my order up for a burrito with no guacamole. The lady asked me for my money and I told her that she needed to charge me for guacamole. She looked at me like I had a third eye. It was interesting that she was so shocked that I wanted her to charge me more for my meal. She asked me why I did that and I told her that my integrity was worth more than 89 cents. She laughed about it, but it was a great opportunity for me to be a witness by not taking advantage of the situation. What is your integrity worth? I really think its important for people that call themselves Christian to think about every action that they take during a day and really take inventory about what their integrity is worth. It is worth it to me to pay an extra 89 cents to be able to witness for Christ.

Dont take the simple things for granted

We always want what we don’t have. I think I understand what that statement means now more than ever. Since I have been sick I have had a chance to take a mental inventory of my life and really think about the things that are important to me. I have never really been a person who liked to read books but once I got sick I thought of the possibility of not being able to read anymore because of my eye condition. I also was thinking of all the things that I visually took for granted when I had perfect vision; a beautiful sunset or sunrise, the mountains, etc. I never even thought about the things that were so basic to me when I was not sick. I know that I am a different person now that I have this perspective in my life and can really appreciate the things that I would have taken for granted even a few years ago. When you don’t think that you will be able to see anymore your vision becomes like a commodity and you think about how you are going to “spend” that commodity. Don’t take for granted the things that God gives you like the ability to see, walk, touch, smell, taste and hear. These are some of the greatest gifts that God has given us and we need to be grateful that we have them and realize that there are others in the world that don’t have these basic gifts that we so often take for granted.

Happiness is a decision not a condition

Dont ever forget that your happiness is not a condition its a decision. When you live life based on happiness that is conditional you give the circumstances around you power to alter your future. When you DECIDE that you are going to be happy you take control of your destiny because no matter what happens to you in life you cause the quality of your life to improve. I know that the past couple of years of crap in my life has forced me to decide to have happiness in my life. Having an eye condition my sickness is always in front of me from when I open my eyes in the morning to when I go to bed at night. I dont have the luxury of ignoring my sickness. If you dont have the attitude that is choosing happiness I challenge you to make the emotional and physical effort to choose happiness. Try it this week and just see how much more authentic your happiness will become. Take control of your destiny because the decisions you make in life will determine the direction of your life.

Praying versus Complaining

God gave me a pretty cool revelation about something yesterday. I really believe that at your job, if you are not praying for you boss then you are complaining about them. I really think this goes along with gratefulness and God really wanting us to live our lives in a “grateful manner”. I know that God has placed me where I am at to be able to lift up my leadership up in prayer and to see God teaching them things and using them in ways that even surprise them. I know that when I stop praying for them that my attitude start to sour and I will start to look at the things that I don’t like about my job instead of focusing on the ways that God has blessed me to have a great opportunity to minister to Denver through the local church. I don’t think that this process is limited to the church. I think that no matter where you work that you have a great opportunity to make a difference in your work environment by praying for all the leadership over you. You will either be shooting at your leadership with negative bullets or be looking to guard them with prayer and being blessed by it.

Focus on eternity

After being sick for the past two and a half years I am convinced that God uses situations and circumstances to focus our lives on our eternal existence and get our eyes off of the temporal. I can honestly say that all the things that my wife and I have been through the past couple of years have really forced me to seek my eternal purpose in my physical existence instead of continuing to ask God why this is happening to me in the physical. When my focus is on the eternal I realize that my time here on earth is pretty short considering the time I will spend in eternity with him. If I don’t keep that in mind then I can get in a place of looking at the pain instead of his plan for me and thanking God each day I’m able to open my eyes (literally) and thank him for another one. I can say that there are lots of things that I took for granted before I got sick like being able to see a sunrise or sunset, reading a book or just being able to see correctly out of both eyes in general. I want to live my life here on earth as a grateful person who does everything in his power to change the destiny of the people around him. Like I said a few blogs back, my life will not be the result of a lack of prayer and I want to live a life that changes the people that come in contact with me. I know that there are a lot of people watching not only for my healing but also my attitude in the middle of this storm.

Commitment

Have you ever wondered about the power of commitment? In a world that is willing to give up easily if something feels too hard it is often difficult to stick to something even though it would be easier to give up. I really think it is a lost art form and something that sets people apart from just existing in this life to really making a difference in the world around them. When you commit to something you are saying that you are not looking at the surrounding circumstances but considering the value of what you have started. I know that when I talk to people about following Christ, I always say that it is not easy but definitely worth it. Today, examine your life and recommit to finishing things that you are maybe considering quitting.

Its the COPS!!!

Have you ever been driving and seen a cop, look down at your speedometer and hit the brake a little maybe to make sure that you are not going to get in trouble or pulled over? Its funny, but I think we can treat God that same way. We think that sometimes God is waiting up in heaven to catch us when we mess up or waiting for us to make a wrong choice while “driving the highways of life”. If we feel like God is watching “extra close” we put the brakes on in life to make sure that we are not breaking the “goodness expectation” of God. Really, we should not be speeding or driving recklessly and our vehicle should be in good working order and that is that same with our Spiritual lives as well. We should not have to be thinking about “hitting the brakes of life” because we are already doing what we should be doing anyways. If you are “speeding through life” and not paying attention to the signs and signals around you and you feel like God has “pulled you over” just take the ticket, listen to what He tells you and be more careful next time. It really is for your own safety that He is keeping a careful watch on your life and is concerned about you speeding out of control.

Who is Jesus to You?

Who is Jesus to you? A great question to ask yourself today.

Are you a Dumfart?

Although this is a funny picture, we really need to think about what our gravestone will say when we are gone. What will we be remembered for and what kind of impact did we make on the world around us? I believe that we have a responsibility to make the world around us better because of the life we live and not just to take up space. These people will always be known as the "dumfart's" but, (no pun intended) the greater question is what kind of life did the dumfart's live while they had a chance to change the world around them? What will you do today that will possibly change someones tomorrow? Live life on purpose not on accident.

Expecting Church or Expecting a Move of God?

I firmly believe that if you were raised in church then you have the possibility of a type of Spiritual deficiency that could have developed. I am always in awe at how people overseas can see such great moves of God and miracles that we just don’t see here in the states. It has always been a mystery to me and a great question in my heart as to why we don’t see the kinds of moves of God that change lives, families and countries. I had a type of revelation this weekend about all of this. We have a prayer time each month called “city prayer”. It’s where people from all over the Denver area meet together and pray for all different kinds of things as a corporate church body including revival in Denver. This includes over 120 churches from the area that can be represented on any given Saturday morning at our church. I was walking and praying and I thought, we have become so accustom to the act of prayer that I think we forget what we are doing in communicating with God and asking to have a relationship with him. We have actually come to place of coming to a prayer meeting or church and just expecting to have church instead of coming and expecting God to move or do something to display his power in a new and fresh way. Because of the type of familiarity with God we havr trained our minds and hearts to expect a prayer meeting instead of expecting something to mighty and great to come from that meeting. I think the great question then is what do we do to break out of that mode? It is always easy to ask the question but it is much different to actually provide solutions to the problem. I want to encourage you, if you have never, give a response to this question in the respond section of this blog. You don’t need to register or anything and you can just leave a comment connected to this blog and then I can post some of the answers in a later blog telling how some people responded. This sounds funny, but I don’t want to get so “familiar” with God that I lose the awe, respect and hungry expectation to see change in my life and the lives of the people around me including Denver.