It's not about the event of healing

It should not be the event of healing that gives us a motivation to truly be who God wants us to be. If that were the case, we would need a “miraculous event” on a consistent basis to keep us motivated to serve him and become who he has created each of us to be. I have learned these past years that if I want to be the absolute best that I can be I need to find who I am in the middle of my storm instead of waiting for the storm to end and then committing to a healthy relationship with God. My wife and I have recently started a prayer schedule. We use Sunday nights to pray for others needs that we know of, Monday nights are for prayers for healing and Tuesday nights are for our finances. I used to think that I needed to pray for hours everyday if I wanted to see change in my life. I believe that we need to spend some amount of time everyday with Jesus but that it needs to be intentional time and not just convenient time. When we spend intentional time with Jesus we are saying to him, “I want more than just and event of healing in my life. I want to be different and learn from every experience that I go through in life”. When we take that attitude with Christ we open a door to a relationship that we will not be able to contain and it will spill out all over every one we come in contact with. Jesus knows what we need, how we need it and how much we can take. Never forget that.

doubt is an opinion

If I am spending time trying to get to know Jesus better, I will not have time to doubt him. It’s the age old adage that "those who row the boat generally don’t have time to rock it". Either you are helping with the direction of the boat or you are being dead weight and making it hard to go anywhere. If you think about it, doubt is based on a personal opinion of someone or something. If I doubt someone I have already set in my mind how I feel about that person. I am telling myself that I don’t trust that person because of a set of mental rules. If I tell myself that I am still trying to get to know that person, I will maybe have questions about the relationship but I am open to learning more about them before I have an opinion about our relationship. With Jesus, I think he always wants us to be in a mode of seeking his face and not his hand. What that means is that I am not looking for what he can do for me, I am looking for who he is for the development of the relationship. Any relationship that is based on “what can you do for me” is doomed from the start. If I had that type of relationship with my wife it would only be a matter of time before she would feel used and probably leave. If you have friends around you that you treat that way it is the same thing. They will probably stop being your friend after a while and not want to be around you because of your attitude. With Jesus I think we treat our relationship with him differently and we shouldn’t. We need to consider the fact that he gave his life for us and we should want to do anything we can to give our lives to him. We cannot let the storms and crap of life determine the depth of our relationship with Jesus. We need to work on getting to know him better and in that process see doubt leave our minds and hearts. The crappy thing about it is that this is an everyday process. It’s not something that we can do infrequently or just when we feel like it. It is a daily discipline that will reap a great reward and change us into people who can touch a world that is hurt and needs hope.

expectation

Have you ever thought about the word “expectation”? I am beginning to see the greater importance of this in communicating with God. I heard a message at church tonight about the amazing miracles that are being seen and experienced overseas and I compare that with what is going on in America and it is pretty sad. We don’t see the demonstrations of God’s power like they do overseas and it gets me in a mode of thinking about my own life and the healing that I want to see in my eye. If you have grown up in church like me, you have those church services where you can just sense something different and I believe that comes from expectation. Do I really expect God to heal me or am I content with my Rheumatologist thinking that my life is in his hands? Do I expect to be debt free and take the steps to see that happen and believe that God is blessing those actions? I think that expectation is dulled by all the comforts of America and really being spoiled into a sense of false security. It is the truest sense of the statement that good will always be the mortal enemy of the great. I am going to start asking God to show me how to have a heart of expectation with everything I pray for. Not even just my healing but in everything. Even that statement is hard for me to type right now with where I am financially and physically. I guess I just have to expect that I will see something different than I have seen for the past three years in my health, emotions and finances.

christianity needs fruit

Watchman Nee Quote:

Show the world the fruits of Christianity and it will applaud; but show the world Christianity, and it will oppose it vigorously.

This was revelation to me today. I have always thought that people that didn’t know Christ would only need to by introduced to the concept of Christianity for it to be real to them and for them to make a decision to follow Christ. I think this comes from growing up in the church all my life and not really thinking about the introduction of Christ to others. I was always taught to be a good boy and that if I didn’t want to go to hell that I would follow Jesus and not question the directives of the church. Now that I am older I realize that if I don’t have fruit that is evident in my life that others can see then I need to re-evaluate my relationship with Jesus. Christianity without fruit is just another rule or regulation that the world is told it needs to “be right”. Christians are notorious for being ready to tell others “like it is” but not being able to listen to what a nonbeliever is going through in their life. If there is fruit that comes from following Christ it becomes attractive to people and gives them a desire to have the great things that a Christian has. If there is no fruit in a Christian’s life then a walk with Christ can become a great burden and really a waste of time. Why call yourself a follower of Christ and have nothing to show for it? Today, look for the fruit that comes from a living relationship with Christ. If you don’t, you will not only be leading others away from the best thing the will ever need, but you will frustrate yourself and dishonor God in the process by not doing what he asks.

your attitude in loss will determine your relationship with God

Your attitude in loss will determine your relationship with God. Your relationship with God cannot be judged when everything is going well for you. Those times are not the true test of any relationship. When God allows something to be taken you have an instant test to judge your heart and to see how much you trust him. I know that there are people in my life that if they take something from me and I trust them I will not even question what they are doing. If I don’t feel like I know a person very well and they take something from me I get frustrated and angry. The same is with God. When we are spending time with him and get to know him we are learning to trust him and find out his heart for us. When that time of loss comes we have an opportunity to show our love for him by trusting that he has our best interests in mind and that he is not going to take anything from us to purposely hurt us or modify our lives in a way that is not for our good. What state is your relationship with God right now? Are you in a place of loss and need to submit to his will and trust that he is working everything out for your good? It may be your time to see a miracle but you have to trust him. That part of the relationship is up to you.

God's perfect timing

Quote from Watchman Nee – "Those who know God have no need to protect their rights. Because they believe in Him, they learn to rely on Him for the outcome – knowing that whatever His will should be, it will be to their benefit in one way or another".

This is a great truth about relying on God. We live in a society that is motivated by a mindset that says “I have rights and don’t violate them”. The problem is that we may think we know what is best for our lives but only God is the one who knows us well enough to guide and direct us from where we are to where we need to be. I was making a list that I am going to put in my book about things that I thought were going to happen one way and they were for something else. Here is an example; my wife bought me some bags to hold my pills that I am taking from the store. They actually turned out to be too big for what I needed and they sat in the cupboard for over a year. I just started another natural drink that to see if it will help with my eye and needed to have bags to put the mix in that I put with water when I take it. I had the bags my wife brought and they ended up being the perfect size for what I needed. The first thing that came to my mind was that I had other intentions for those bags but they were not what I thought they would be used for. At the time we got them I thought, “What a waste of money”. But if we didn’t have those bags I would have had to try and find something to hold my drink mix in. I know that may sound a little corny, but I believe that there are seasons in our life with God that are just like that. We expect God to do one thing with us but if we step back and trust that His ways are higher than ours we will see that the our lives will be perfect if we can wait and learn to trust the timing of His will more than just the timing of our lives. When we think that God is not doing anything our things are “a waste” we need to understand that God has it all under control and He working everything out.

greatness after the mistake

The greatness of a person is not seen in what they do when everything is going their way and is positive, but what they do after they make a mistake. Every one of us has the natural ability to do wrong things in our life and make mistakes of all kinds. When we make a mistake we have a distinct opportunity to show what we are made of in getting back up and asking for God’s help. The next time you make a mistake think about whether or not you are going to be great and make a positive decision to give all your crap to God or continue to let a trail of mistakes take you to a place that you never wanted to go. So now you can think of a mistake as an opportunity for you to show your greatness in what you decide to do after making a poor decision.

did you lock it?

I had an interesting thought the other day when I was driving to work. I had one of those moments when I forgot if I locked my door at my house when I left. It was one of those things where you always lock the door before you leave but one day you think you may not have because it almost has become an automatic response to leaving your house, going to your car and driving away. I thought about my relationship to God and how I can have a similar relationship to him. We get so familiar with our actions in interacting with Him that it can just become an automatic response. I don’t think this is a good thing. We should never get to a place with God where we just have “auto responses” to him. I think that our walk with God should always have a level of intentionality behind it. So, the next time you forget if you locked your door or not remember the importance of spending intentional time with God. He always remembers if you spend time with him!

what are you "going through"?

Going through something is an interesting process. When we say that we are “going through” that obviously means that there is a start and a finish to what is being gone through. The difference is that when we give our hearts and lives to God we surrender the right to look for the exit out of the situation that we are going through and we say “God, you are the one that we trust to teach us what we need to learn as well as getting us through that stretch of life.” The fact is that we will always be “going through” something in life whether it’s physical, emotional or spiritual. The variable is who will we let guide and direct what we do in the middle of that situation? If its God, then we need to stop continuing to look for the reason why and accept the fact that He is trying to teach us something in the middle of our stuff.

trust

One of the hardest things to humanly do is trust. I know that with where I am with my life that I am in a place of having to trust that God has my future in his hands. My truck broke down yesterday and I just felt like I was going crazy. It is hard when everything in the physical realm looks pretty bad but I have God telling me in his Word that He is going to take care of me in every way. I have my wife telling me that God is just allowing things to happen to us so that he can set us up for an even greater miracle. Honestly, that is just hard for me to hear because we have to go through the crap to see what’s on the other side.

the greatest praise

I think that the greatest praise that you can give the Lord is what I call “no reason praise”. This is the kind of thanksgiving to God that is really born from nothing or from bad circumstances. I know that because God is great that He has every right to be praised but there are times in life when it feels like we have no reason because of personal circumstances. When we praise God in the middle of the trouble in our lives we do many things. We encourage other people that are watching our lives, we make the devil mad because he wants to steal our praise to God and we put ourselves in a position to be used by God that is beyond our human ability. Let God be the super that combines with your natural and live a life that is supernatural.

Life's too short

Here is a picture of the car my mom and uncle were in when they got in their accident. I looked again at this picture and thought to myself again that life is way too short to worry about things that don't really matter in eternity. I want to challenge you to think about the things that affect your life in a negative way and really evaluate whether they are worth the worry. Think about it.

The power of Proverbs

We have been talking about the power of Proverbs in our small group and the importance of it being a consistent part of your emotional diet in life. It is not a Biblical book that has stories or principles in it that need to be deciphered in some way. It is a book that is based on practical actions in life that matter in your walk with God. Anything you decide to put in you will make up who you are. That is not just food but also emotionally what you decide to make part of your diet. Make the word a part of your emotional diet and see your self stay in great emotional shape.

What motivates you in life? What happens when that motivation is gone? Evaluate your life today and consider what it is that takes you from where you are to where you need to go in life. If its money, then don't ever run out of it. If its someone else, make sure that person never leaves your life. If its Jesus Christ then be ready for anything because He is the master of unlimited motivational potential.

Snotty People equals Great Coffee

Where there are snotty people there is great coffee. I found this out at a Starbucks that I like to go to every once in a while over by my work. I don’t like to really go in there because it is usually very busy and full of people that are so in love with themselves and their money that if they could legally marry themselves they would. I know that sounds like a rude statement but I noticed something about the quality of coffee and service that you get in this specific Starbucks; it’s impeccable. You are greeted well, your coffee is never wrong and it’s always hot and served quickly. It is the expectation of these people that come in to get coffee that the service will be excellent, the coffee hot and served fast so that they can get on with their day. The Starbucks knows this and does everything in its power to make sure that the people in that store are happy when they walk out. I believe that expectation is a key element in getting the best out of life. When things are not going well we have a tendency to lower our expectations in life so that we are not disappointed. It is always easier to expect less in life than it is to push yourself to expect God to do something special. It has been so hard with my eye condition to expect anything but “pills, ills and bills”. I guess I need to be like snotty people ordering coffee at Starbucks; expect the best and get the best.

My dog's new name is Colonel Sanders

My dog got into our garbage the other day and started to eat the greasy chicken out of the trash. I told my wife that I am going to start calling him Colonel Sanders aka Mr. Kentucky Fried Chicken. I thought about how much we are like my dog when it comes to our relationship with God. My dog wanted to get into the trash because he thought he smelled something that would taste good and although it was in a trash bag he really didn’t care. He didn’t understand that there was probably a reason why we had put chicken in a plastic bag on the floor of our kitchen instead of keeping it in the fridge so that it would still be edible. All he knew was that it smelled good, he was hungry and he wanted it. How many times do we ignore God when he doesn’t give us something and we think is so important for us to have not thinking that God knows why we are not getting what we are asking for? Needless to say, my dog was not feeling too hot for that night and the better part of the next day. We push it with God sometimes when he says no to our requests in life and then we wonder why we have consequences to our actions. I want to trust that there is a reason why God is not giving me what I want and understand that he is smarter than I am knowing what I need when I need it. Don’t be like my dog that was rummaging through the trash for things that he should have never gotten into. Trust that there is a reason why God is not giving you what you want.

God Pills

Happy New Year everyone! Now for my first new years revelation about life and our relationship to Christ; I am convinced that the majority of believers in Christ don’t really want to change they just want to feel better about themselves and their situations so that they can continue to live life the way they want to. I was talking to my wife last night about people who really want to change their lives and people who basically want just a band aid for their lives or a type of “God pill” to make the pain go away so they can continue to live life on their own terms instead of letting Christ be the boss. I have a pretty good perspective on this with the 28 pills that I take a day. I take some pills that are vitamins and some that help my adrenal gland not shut down from the prednisone that I am on right now but I also take pills that if I didn’t I would be in some serious pain. I really feel like we treat God the same way as pain medication. We ask God to “take the pain away” but are we willing to do what it takes to not just be free but to stay free? It’s a big question for our lives because a walk with God takes effort everyday and its not just a one shot deal. If you have been told different then you were lied to. Think about your life this year and how you will be different January 1^st of 2008 from who you are today. Don’t just take the “God pill” for pain, give him your life completely and see what happens. This is not just praying and asking God for what you want, it is making your actions line up with the Bible.