Category Archives: Spiritual Warfare

A Thankful Heart

Leave a reply

Family_Fall2015

I pondered this post for a few days.  Thinking exactly where I would focus as we draw closer to Thanksgiving.  When I look over my life and all that is around me, it fills me with a thankful heart.  I have been blessed with such a beautiful wife that is such a beautiful soul.  A true Proverbs 31 woman in my life.  We’ve been blessed with 3 beautiful kids.  They are our pride and joy.  My boys are the apple of my eye and my daughter is my delight.  Proud of all 3 of them.  We’ve gone through a lot together as a family and we’ve made it through storms together.  I’m very thankful to the Lord for having each of them in my life.

There are so many other things I can call out to be thankful for.  The biggest thing above all things, however has to be full and complete transformation.  I can stand here today and say that 2015 has been a year of complete transformation, not just for me, but for my family.  Jesus took a hold of my life this year like I had never imagined possible and boy oh boy, this is just the beginning of what I can tell already will be an exciting life of following Him and leading the lost to Him.

CrossLoganville

Through all of this transformation, through all of this change, there are so many things, just in this short period of time that I can point to and that am very thankful for.  I am thankful for my church family at The Cross Loganville.  My pastor, Tim Cash, and the rest of the team, our men’s ministry, the awesome small group Amber and I joined, and all the connections and friendships we have made so far.  Truly blessed to be walking with such an awesome body of believers.  They’ve welcomed us in and have been very instrumental to our lives.

FB_IMG_1422913518795wpid-2015-01-29-06.01.07.jpeg.jpeg

I’m thankful for Ransomed Heart Ministries, led by John Eldredge, and the opportunity to attend the Wild At Heart Boot Camp in Colorado.  This was the pivotal life changing moment for me.  One that God was prepping me for through many encounters right up to the day I left and I knew He was really leading me to, because of the spiritual warfare I dealt with before I left.  When I made it there, however, I was able to let go.  My life completely surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ as I stood in those mountains and I knew I would never be the same.

I’m thankful for the change of my heart to know I needed to follow Jesus into the unknown.  To live the unscripted life and follow Him to wherever He is leading.  I’ve always lived a life with a plan about where I was headed.  I can no longer do that and since then, there is so much freedom in knowing God is now leading the way, not me.  I go myself out of the way and stopped trying to control things that were not in my control and let Him take control.

LibertyUni

I’m thankful for the opportunity to attend Liberty University to pursue a Masters in Counseling.  Something I never thought I would do, but somehow, I feel as if God has been leading me here for many years through the many encounters I’ve had and the moments of counsel that I have given to others.  I never recognized it until this year, but once did, He put me on the fast track.  I’ve been blessed with great teaching, great fellowship when getting to go on campus, and great Christ centered learning and development.  Truly excited to see what the Lord is going to do with my life through all of this.

Amber_Fall2015

I could honestly go on and on and on here.  All of this points to what the Lord has done in my life since I surrendered completely to Him.  He’s been leading me back to Him for the last few years and this was the year He decided it was time to unleash.  The transformation for my life has transformed my home.  Seeing my kids light up, but most of all seeing my bride light up.  Now watching her day after day getting into the Word on her own and journaling.  Seeing her build up the courage to break out of her shyness to fellowship and know others in our church family and building the courage to share what is a very powerful story.  She just glows in it as I see her eagerness to grow and know God.  Of that I am also very thankful.

2015 has been the Lords year for me and family.  He’s taken the reigns and is leading us into the unknown.  It’s no longer about living the good, comfortable, content, and ‘successful’ life.  It’s about living the unscripted life that follows where we are led.  My heart is very thankful for this transformation and where He takes us from here.

Baptism2

I want to wish every one of you a very Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving from my family to yours.

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! – 2 Corinthians 9:15

Understanding The Flawed Motives

Leave a reply

There is motive and motivation that drives nearly every aspect of our decisions and directions.  Motivation can impact our family life, our careers, our spiritual choices, and so much more.  I’ve written about this before, but reading this week and then in conversations I have had, it reminded me again about the importance of understanding our motivations behind everything we do.  Something we all have difficulty with is allowing our motivations to be driven by anything outside of relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  This is certainly a flaw in my life that I have had to come to terms with and still struggle with and I know I will continue to struggle with throughout the course of my life.  The problem here lies in the fact in our fallen nature, and with so much to tempt us in this world, it is so easy to strive to seek having our needs net apart from a relationship with with God through Jesus Christ.

In his book, “Effective Biblical Counseling,” Larry Crabb explains that motivation is “the drive or urge to meet our needs.”  It is that sense of momentum that impels us to do something to become significant and secure. As a fallen people we experience an acute, keen desire to be significant secure.”  Simple stated we are all filled deep down a sense of longing and need.  We know there is something out there we need to fill that need to help us feel significant and secure.

In this world it is everywhere.  We may tend to feel secure in our work and career and believe that striving to continually earn more will show significance to your life.  Believe me, this is where I was for a long time.  For married couples, it could be trying to find significance with your spouse and thinking you need to keep doing things to make them love you.  Crabb gives a great example of this.  Even in the church, we may find significance in getting ourselves involved in every aspect of what is going on and allowing people to take notice of your works.

Now, I am not saying there is anything wrong with career advancement, anything wrong with doing things for your spouse, or anything wrong with heavy church involvement.  Those are not the problems.  The problem here in can lie in the motivations behind that.  Is the motivation driven for self or is it driven out of a sheer desire to glorify Christ in your life.  Proverbs 16:2 says, “All ways of a man are clean in his own sight, But the LORD weighs the motives.”  James 4:3 says, “You ask and do not receive, because you with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”  Lastly, Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:1, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.”

Our motivations drive our lives in many ways and if the motives are not right and are not centered on our faith in Christ, which for one is called sin, then we need to do some serious re-evaluating ourselves.  Like I mentioned, I had to do some real evaluating of my life.  For a long time, I found my significance and security in career advancement.  Building my experience and education so that I could make a higher income and give my family more.  You know what I found in that? Emptiness.  Why?  Because the motivation was wrong.  It was all built around me and what I wanted and thought I needed to do.

Now moving into a life as a Christian counselor, once again, I had to check my motives.  Was I doing this because I was stuck and wanted an escape or was it really driven on faith and the desire to truly glorify God and fulfill the Great Commission making disciples for Christ through helping people find their significance in Him and healing and restoration through Him alone.  I cannot heal people and I know that.  I can only help lead them to the one that can provide the real healing and restoration.  The same thing that I found through Christ and is available to everyone.

I’ve had to do some evaluating of myself nearly everyday to ensure my motives are in line with my faith.  I pray every morning to have my actions and thoughts centered on Christ. With each passing day, I realize that God is leading me and now being centered on Him, I can follow Him as my motivations are now centered on Him. Is this the case for every part of my life? No.  I have to continually check my motives in everything.  We all do.  Understand the results that flawed, self-driven motivations bring.  Real significance and security in this life is not possible apart from a relationship through Christ.  Trying to seek it through worldly things will lead to emptiness and deeper brokenness.  This is another part of the reason why I believe God is leading me as a counselor.  So many have found this emptiness through self-reliance and need to be led differently.  Having been there bares a strong testimony.

So I’ll close with this, motives drive us.  We need to closely evaluate what really drives us in our desire of significance and security in this life.  Don’t let a self-driven life be your motivation.  Instead, seek your motivations through your faith in Christ and let Him be the driver of your motives.

“We have a Father, and He cares about our internal world – issues of motive, issues of fear, issues of validation.”  – John Eldredge

Never Be Stagnant… Be Ready

Leave a reply

Everywhere we turn today, the world seems to heading on a downward spiral in many different ways.  I believe the closer we get to the return of Christ, which seems to be drawing nearer, things get worse.  The world has has come to a point where evil is taking hold into every segment of society.  As we see day in and day out, our Christian faith is continually under attack.  If you dare to stand in public and declare your faith to the world, you are going to be ridiculed, mocked, and attacked.  It’s the way this world has come as the enemy continues to run rampant and people continually fall away from any sense of faith, or they follow false doctrines and teachings that draw them away from the faith.

I was pointed to an blog post by a gentleman named John Wesley Reid (click to read) that talked about things that Christian millennials need to stop doing.  It was very telling as to the state this world has come.  Tolerance, neglecting theology, drawing to the world, bashing the church, and declining accountability.  From the age of the baby boomers, to gen X, to the millennials, this world has lost a sense of itself and of true faith.  Look at me…it took me 33 years to get a real thirst of learning about God and another 3 years or so to finally come on fire for my faith.  The world and the heartaches, temptations, and everyday garbage, pulled me away.  I was too focused on success and making more money, to know that God had a different plan for me.

In our teaching this past Sunday, we dove into 2 Timothy 4:1-5.  In verse 2, Paul calls on us to “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction” (NASB). We are all called to continue sharing the word of God, just as Paul tells Timothy and always be ready to do so.    The NLT translation says, Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not.  As we were in the teaching, never lose your sense of urgency, never be stale, stagnant, & complacent.

Unfortunately, too many of us in the church have become stale and stagnant.  We are so caught up in the pains, temptations, and struggles of this world, to even worry about our faith except on Sunday.  How many of us actually look at our Bible or sink to our knees at any other point of the week.  There’s a line from a Luke Bryan song that says, “we cuss on them Mondays, pray on them Sundays.”  Not ripping on Luke, but the line shows a lot of truth in the way people approach faith and life.  It’s a Sunday thing, if at all.  For me it was a never thing, then became an occasional Sunday thing, before it finally became an every single day thing.  I have to start my day in prayer and then in the Word.  It sets the tone for everything that day.  Doesn’t me I’m perfect, but it helps me to focus on what is important and keeps God the center piece of the story.

Be ready…Be prepared.  That’s what we have to do know.  Get to know the Word and in the face of all the chaos of this world, in the face of the certain struggles we will face, in the face of our brokenness, we will be prepared, no matter what to stand on the Truth of our faith through every facet of our day.

In Verse 3 Paul says, “For a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine” (NASB).  NLT says, “For a time is coming when people will not longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching.”  That time is upon us.  People want their ears tickled with what they want to hear only.  We have to be bold in standing on the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not the prosperity gospel or other false teachings that the enemy uses to cloud us and our thinking and draw us away from Christ, from repentance, from sanctification in Christ, from healing, from real restoration in Christ.  We cannot compromise our faith and what is Truth.  Be ready always.

“Be Bold in Proclaiming. Urgent in your approach. Uncompromising in convictions. Patient in style. And: Intelligent in understanding and delivery.” – Chuck Swindoll

Be Joyful Always

Leave a reply

I was finishing up my current reading through 1 Thessalonians this morning.  Every time I pick up God’s Word, He tends to reveal something new to me, or at least remind me of something I may have gotten away from.  In chapter 5, there are, as always, so great teachings, from being prepared for the day of the return of Jesus and how He will come like a thief in the night to needing discernment in testing the spirit of everything in order to avoid evil.

One verse that stuck out to me was verse 16 where Paul says to “Always be joyful.”  That seems like such a cliche statement nowadays.  Be joyful, be happy, or as the song goes, “Don’t worry….Be happy.”  I thought about this statement more and meditated on it a little deeper this morning.  I believe there is a reason this is just a 3 word verse.  There is so much power in that statement and where we stand in the faith as children of God through Jesus Christ.

Always be joyful.  In the world we now live in, this seems like something that is just not realistic.  We see pain and suffering unfold before us in the news and we see it in our own lives and with those we love around us.  In the midst of all of this struggle, how can we be joyful? What is there to be joyful about?

The answer to this question is very simple….Jesus Christ.  He is the reason we can stand in this world and be joyful.  Why?  Because of the victory that Jesus has already won over our lives.  The Fall of mankind came just 3 chapters into Genesis.  From that point, God did not abandon us.  Through our fallen state, God had and has orchestrated a plan to restore man to the glory we were meant for as His image bearers.  He has been orchestrating our rescue.  The great invasion to execute this plan came when God took on a robe of flesh in Jesus setting aside deitic privileges in order to walk with man.  Having given his life for us on the cross and being raised to life again and ascending to the right hand of God with all authority in heaven and earth, Jesus was and is victorious.  He has won the battle for our restoration.  We, however, have the free will to decide whether we accept this and follow Him or choose to live for our selves seeking this world and all it offers, which is very temporary.

We can also choose to walk in the victory that Christ has won.  Now, because this world is still fallen and Jesus has yet to return to finally fully restore creation and man, we will continue to have pain and struggles in this life.  We will have worries, doubts, and fears.  We will lose loved ones, we will fall to addictions, we will turn to the less wild lovers of this world.  It’s now etched in our nature because in the flesh we still hold the fallen nature that came from Adam.  Christ is the second Adam and the new man.  He is what we will be restored to when we reach our inheritance in the Kingdom and at the wedding feast..

Paul says in Romans 5:1 says that we have peace with God through Jesus Christ because we have been justified by our faith.  As I have said before and I learned this from reading Larry Crabb, that we will never reach full happiness in this life, but we are justified because of faith in Christ to seek Christ and be sanctified in this life until we are glorified when we enter the Kingdom.  We can be joyful because we are justified.  We are victorious in Christ.  We will continue to have battles through out our walk in this life and in the flesh, but if we keep a fix on Jesus, we can remember to be joyful.

Verse 17 in 1 Thessalonians 5 tells us to “Never stop praying.”  This is a key to how we can keep our hearts fixed on Jesus.  Getting in the practice of praying each day and meditating on the Word.  Not just reading to read, but reading to get deeper understanding.  This will help to keep a constant reminder of the victory Christ has won for us and we can be joyful each day in that and armor ourselves to be able to withstand the spiritual battles we will face in this life.

“Joy is the serious business of Heaven.” – C.S. Lewis

“Joy is not necessarily the absence of suffering, it is the presence of God.” – Sam Storms

Why Is Compromise So Easy?

Leave a reply

What is compromise to you?  When you hear this word, what does it make you think of?  Does it make you think of ways to get things done?  Does it make you think of ways that marriages and friendships work?  We hear this word thrown around a lot.  In the business world, in politics especially, in our communities and people around us, and even in our churches.  Compromise is something so easy to do and something that so many people are willing to take part in.  When I look at compromise, however, I see a lot of red flags.  I see the onset of evil that tries to creep into a situation.  I see people who are so willing to not stand on any kind of moral or spiritual foundation and in the spirit of getting things done, give up a part of themselves.

In its purest sense, compromise is evil.  A dictionary definition of compromise is: “a settlement of differences by mutual concessions; an agreement reached by adjustment of conflicting or opposing claims, principles,etc., by reciprocal modification of demands.”  Now some of you may think, what’s wrong with mutual concessions if an agreement can be reached.  Look at the second part of the definition, “adjustment of conflicting or opposing claims, principles.”  That’s where the evil comes in.  The road to compromise leads one to give up on certain principles they may hold, this includes principles and convictions in their faith in order to come to agreements.

I’ll use the government as one example.  We always see republicans and democrats going back and forth with disagreements on one thing or another.  They run campaigns on promises to stand on principle, or the Constitution.  Then when they get into office, in order to pass laws, there is always a concession of principles.  Campaign promises are broken and politicians give in and put aside their own convictions.  It happens all the time and they call it progress where as all we see is a bunch of corrupt politicians on all sides.

The same things happens in the church.  With pressures from the outside world on issues such as gay marriage, some churches have set aside what the Word of God says and the Truth that is spelled out in an institution that God, Himself, created, not man, from the very beginning and allow people to openly walk in this sin.  It would be the same thing as allowing someone to openly declare they are addicted to drugs or addicted to pornography or any of many of other sins that we are all called to repent from.  Yes God loves every single one of us, and we are commanded to love each other, but if we are truly to walk as His sons and daughters in Christ, we are also called to turn away from our old self.  You can’t compromise allowing one sin to be okay, but not others.   This is how the evil creeps in, when the Word is compromised to pressures from the post-modern era.

Psalm 119:2-3 says,“Joyful are those who obey his laws and search for him with all their hearts. They do not compromise with evil, and they walk only in the paths” (NLT).  In Peterson’s translation, The Message, God says in 2 Corinthians 6:17, “So leave the corruption and compromise; leave it for good.” We are not to compromise our convictions and our faith for the sake of this world or what this world says we should do.

Ayn Rand shares a very strong quote about compromise in ‘Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.’  It states, “In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.”  

When the world calls on you to compromise your faith and beliefs, you are called to stand strong on your faith and not give in.  This is how the fall came.  Adam capitulated, became passive, and failed to stand strong before the devil and his temptation.  The enemy is constantly trying to get us to compromise ourselves for things that in the moment may feel good, be enjoyable, or just because it’s what others are doing, even though they know better from God’s Word.

It’s a spiritual battle we have to face everyday.  To stand on the conviction and Truth that is set out before us, or to compromise our faith for things of this world.  That is how the enemy wants to creep into our hearts and take us out.  If we can compromise our faith, it becomes easier for Him to setup shop and continue pecking away.  This is where it becomes important to stand strong, pray the armor of God over your body, soul, and spirit every day.  This is a primary focus of how I start my day.  Look at Ephesian 6:10-17.  Learn to pray the full armor God.  This is not just for compromise, for any evil the enemy tries to throw at you.  Each day is a battlefield and you have to prepare yourself or you can get taken out.

You Have an Enemy That Fears You

Leave a reply

As many of you know, a great deal of what I write walks in the message of Ransomed Heart Ministries.   This ministry, along with my awesome church family, has been an intricate part of my rebirth and learning to walk with God fully, without compromise and unashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  2015 has truly been the year of the Lord’s favor in my life.  God took hold of my heart in the mountains of Colorado and transformed me for good, more than I had ever thought possible or hoped for.  Is the transition done, no, but I now know where I stand in God’s epic story.  When I see Ransomed Heart’s daily readings, which are excerpts from various books, it is a daily reminder of who I am and of the great battle and story we live in.

There’s something very substantial about giving your life over to God that simply strikes fear into the enemy.  When God’s glory shines through us and we stand a beacon of light in a world of darkness, the enemy just fears us.  In Waking the Dead, John Eldredge says, “You are not what you think you are. There is a glory to your life that your Enemy fears, and he is hell-bent on destroying that glory before you act on it.” The stronger we stand on the Word of God and the closer we draw to an intimate relationship with Him, the more the enemy will try to destroy any part of that relationship.  Satan planned to go after what is most drawn to God’s heart, His own children.  His creation.  He wants to destroy that and when we pull closer to God, the more the enemy will try to strike us.  We are warned of this ongoing battle.  Jesus tells us the enemy wants to steal, kill, and destroy.  Peter tells believers that the enemy is prowling looking for someone to devour.  This is an ongoing threat to the believer and the stronger your faith, the more you have to battle.

I don’t take this lightly.  You can see the enemy everywhere trying to influence this world, trying to destroy the hearts of men and of God’s children.  Through our pain, we can find the salvation that is in Christ, but even when we find that salvation, the pressure remains strong on us.  The enemy knows the hearts of men and knows it can be easily swayed.  This is where it becomes very important to stay equipped with the armor of God everyday.  To be prepared to face the spiritual warfare that abounds.

Just this week, I was faced with a situation that brought a great deal of anger and emotion. Being armored up with the Father, allowed me to see this attack for what it was.  The enemy was trying to take me out.  It could have been very easy and still would be very easy to deal with the situation in a way full of rage and anger.  This would have probably been the case previously.  I stopped what I was doing, dove into the Word, and sat in prayer alone and then with my wife.  I never felt stronger afterwards.  Yes, I was angry, but I knew I had to change how I managed the situation and my heart.  I was not going to allow the enemy to take me out in that way.

You see folks, the enemy fears us.  He sends his demons into our lives on a regular basis.  We have to be strong enough to recognize this, to bring the Cross of Jesus Christ between you and whatever is attacking you, and be diligent in guarding your heart from attack.  Spiritual Warfare is very real and is a part of life every day life whether we choose to accept it or not.  It is there.  The enemy fears the heart of anyone walking with God, so will try to attack it, sometimes viciously.  How you respond is your choice.  As I heard Eldredge say before, we get to the life of Jesus through 1,000 small choices.  Those choices make a difference on how we respond to the enemies attacks and if we choose to let it take us.  Jesus always stood firm on who He is as the Son of God.  Through Jesus we are now adopted into the Kingdom and can choose to stand firm on who we are in Christ.  We do not have to give in.  Be stronger and the enemy will fear you that much more.

“The devil is not terribly frightened of our human efforts and credentials. But he knows his kingdom will be damaged when we begin to lift up our hearts to God.” – Jim Cymbala

We Were Never Meant To Fight Alone

Leave a reply

Life is a constant battlefield that continually tries to make us slip up.  Everywhere we turn, there is a new battle to be fought with an enemy that tries every single day to take us out.  Do you recognize this?  Do you see the battle that is before us?  It’s very real.  Don’t believe me?  Just look at all the pain, suffering, and sorrow that is going on this world.  Look at your life.  I can guarantee you that every single one of us has had to deal with struggles of all types.  Some seem so small, while we more readily recognize the major things that come along.  Either way, we are in constant battle.  There’s no use denying it.  It’s real.  God reveals it in His Word through his 66 book love letter that shows everything God does to restore the hearts of man to Himself.

In Waking the Dead, John Eldredge shared that, “Any movement toward freedom and life, any movement toward God or others, will be opposed. Marriage, friendship, beauty, rest—the thief wants it all.”  From A.W. Tozer, Eldredge added, “So, it becomes the devil’s business to keep the Christian’s spirit imprisoned. He knows that the believing and justified Christian has been raised up out of the grave of his sins and trespasses. From that point on, Satan works that much harder to keep us bound and gagged, actually imprisoned in our own grave clothes. He knows that if we continue in this kind of bondage. . . we are not much better off than when we were spiritually dead.”

This war and daily battle is real and the closer you draw to God in your faith, the harder the enemy will push at you to try to take you out.  William Gurnall added that, “It is the image of God reflected in you that so enrages hell; it is this at which the demons hurl their mightiest weapons.”

With this battle that is going on, even when I recognized it, I used to try to deal with it alone.  Living life as a lone ranger, I never shared my struggles with people, except maybe my wife.  But even with the ability to share with her, that wasn’t enough.  I found that I needed more.  I needed to build real, solid, Christ-filled connections with others that also recognized this battle and with whom I could do life and reach out too for prayer and added weaponry in the arsenal of God.  We are not meant to fight through our battles alone.  Yes there are things that require complete solitude and one-on-one connection and intimacy with God.  God made us for intimacy and closeness with Him, not to just wander the world aimlessly.  We also need others to do life with.  For men, we need other men that we can connect with and live out the masculine journey of our lives with.  Women need the same connection with other women for the feminine journey.  I’m so grateful that God opened my heart to this reality.

This year, God has allowed me to make so real connections with other men.  Not just surface level friendships, but real, Christ driven connections.  You want to talk about a game changer.  I’ve written about the awesome guys I connected with at Wild At Heart.  That was just the beginning.  Getting to continue those friendships, is something I look forward to.  Now with that, I can already see the enemy trying to infiltrate and pull us away.  It becomes easier and easier with time to go back to what you were used to and if we are not careful, the enemy will set up shop in those agreements that we just have too much going on, or we’re busy this month, how about next month.  This includes me.  I’ve been guilty here too.

I had lunch today with a gentleman that ran across this blog through Ransomed Heart ministries Allies Network.  It was great to make this connection and prayerfully we’ll get to hang again and be able to do life walking in this ministry and message that we both believe in.  That being said, it was a huge reminder for of just how important it is to keep those connections.  We need those friendships.  Proverbs 4:23, God tells us to guard our hearts above all else.  This will determine the course of our life.  Having those friendships and real masculine connections enables me to better guard my masculine heart and keep the enemy from taking me out.  I can’t do it all alone.

Don’t deny the battle that we face.  It is very real and if we are not careful, the enemy is there to take us out in an instant.  Don’t try to go through the battlefield alone, either.  Recognize that we are made for intimacy with God and with each other.  We need people in our lives to walk in the faith.  I liken it to games like Call of Duty where you can earn your way to be stronger and withstand more.  Connecting with and doing life with people gives you added strength to the armor that God has given us, should we accept it.  I’m not saying just make friends with everyone because then the armor can get weaker the more you stretch it out.  You have to keep it tight.  Even Jesus had His 12 boys and then His inner circle from there of Peter, John and James who got to witness the transfiguration.

You need that round table of men, or women for you ladies.  I may be a broken record in this, but I cannot not talk about it over and over, because I feel it is such a central part of our faith and being able to stand strong and resist the devil.  It can’t all be done alone.

Why Are You Scared To Be Different?

1 Reply

There is so much pressure in this world today to get along.  To follow along with what everyone else thinks.  To believe as they do.  We have become a society filled with robots who have lost who they are and try live a life that’s under the radar and as long as they can get along, then all is well.  There is so much fear to be different.  So much fear to stand up and be alive.  I’ve been reflecting on this the past few days.  I was reflecting on my own life and how I lived a life that just wanted to get along.  To live secure in the world I knew and tried to be good husband and dad while working to make a success out of myself.

God revealed something to me though.  I was walking down an ice covered road in the mountains of Colorado and He showed me that I have spent way too much time staying on the wide open path that the world had laid out before me.  I was spending too much time on the simple road with my eyes closed to God and blinded by a world that made it okay minimize my faith.  He had been spending the past few years tugging on my heart, but I did not listen fully.  I knew I needed to change, but I was scared.  Scared of the worlds response and what that would mean for my family and me.

I realize this year what I was being called to do and I had to realize that I could no longer live a life of fear of what others would think.  I am now working on transforming my entire life including eventually leaving a career I have spent 15 years building to counsel and disciple for the Kingdom.  I realized that I could no longer ignore the calling of God.  When He calls, you have to go.  It is a calling that has become way too strong.

With that said, making this change has had its challenges.  Try telling people your making a change because God called you and they look at you like you have lobsters crawling out of your ears.  There are many that are just as pumped as I am, but there are instances of those that just don’t get it.  Often times, especially if it’s people closer you can easily fall back.  The enemy tried many times to get me to stop this change.  I have spent many days calling to God bring the Cross of Jesus over my life to take on this battle.  It’s spiritual warfare at its finest and the enemy will use even those close to you to try to stop you.

This world and the enemy will continually try to assault our identity and who we are in the Lord.  Look at Jesus.  The greatest assault against Him was on his identity from His time in the wilderness being tempted by the devil, to his battles with the religious elite.  A constant assault.  Coming into faith with Christ and being called as God’s sons, we now face an assault on our identity in this world and from Satan as well.   We have to fear to not live in fear and not fear to be different than what those in this world expect of you.

So I ask, what fears do you have?  Are you scared to be different?  If so, why?  Do you feel the calling and the urging of God on your heart, but not sure what to do with it?  I tell you this, its not easy to move away from the norms of life.  It can be very difficult and painful. You have to learn to stop being defense and let Christ be your advocate in life.  Surrender to Him and learn to live a life where your motives are driven by your faith in Him.  Don’t make agreements with the enemy that you can’t live out your story in Christ.  Those agreement include telling yourself that you can’t change or that you just need to be happy where you are even if you feel in your heart that God is calling you out.  Don’t let him deceive you.  That’s his game.

Don’t be scared to be different.  Don’t be afraid to stand on faith against all else to live for God’s full glory.

“Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees, And looks to God alone; Laughs at impossibilities, And cries it shall be done.” –  Charles Wesley

Through It All, My Eyes Stay Fixed

Leave a reply

I have lived through many challenges over the course of my life.  Many of them are from my own decisions and others through circumstances and struggles that come through the result of others.  It’s a mix bag as it is for all of us.  Many of these challenges resulted in my own wounds and sins, some that festered for years and years, although I became good at hiding behind my false self.  Jesus did something in me though.  He brought me to the end of myself.  He brought me to the end of my self-reliance and self-righteousness.  I realized that no matter what I struggle with and what may come in the future, I can stay present in the presence of Jesus Christ and in his holiness and righteousness.  I can now thankfully say that I am dead to myself, to sin, to my flesh, and to the enemy.

Now with that said, we know very well there will be continued strife in this life.  Continued trouble.  Continued bouts with evil, with the flesh, and this world.  There’s a realization I’ve learned and now feel it whenever these things encounter me again, I can stay remained fixed on Jesus and bring all His works over my life.  His life, death, resurrection, and ascension.  His life is the example we have of how to live a life fully fixed on God and for His glory and His glory alone.  His death on the cross is the atonement for all of our sin as He willingly shed His blood for us to bring us forgiveness for our wins.  His resurrection brings us to a new life as Jesus conquered death being raised to a new life and now we are alive to God through Him. His ascension to the Father’s right hand gave Jesus full authority over the heavens and earth and Satan has been cast down so we now can live in the authority of Jesus Christ.

Think about all of those elements.  It is simply amazing and powerful.  Because of all His works, we can now live free from the struggles of this world.  By this I mean, we can now live a life that is fixed on Jesus above all and we can bring Him and all His work over our lives.  So through all the struggles of this world, we can keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and we can live free.  He is the one and only answer for all that we face in this life.  As the song says, in Christ alone, my hope is found.

Augustine stated that, “Nothing whatever pertaining to godliness and real holiness can be accomplished without Grace.”  This is powerful.  We are alive through God’s undeserved Grace.  Paul said in Titus 2:11, “For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people.” It has been revealed through Jesus and all His works.  Without Jesus, we are nothing in this life.  What would the point of anything if we did not have faith of the hope of the grace and love that is anchored in Christ alone.  So many people try to figure out there life and their circumstances on their own and are lost to the hope of in Jesus Christ.  It can’t be done.  Maybe temporary, but in the end, without being fixed on Jesus you will eventually fall right back.

Keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus through everything we encounter now is the only hope I have left in this life and let me tell you; it’s all I need.  Having a God that is willing to walk with me through all of my pains and struggles of this fallen life gives me so much joy and hope.  I know the inheritance that awaits in Jesus and I pray I can cross into eternity be able to hear “well done faithful servant.”  So thankful to have been called into service for the Kingdom and with my heart and eyes on Jesus I am ready to take it on.

I know what it is like to not live my life with eyes on Jesus.  It’s empty.  I have lived there in this life and I never want to go back there again.  Jesus has brought me to life and I can live my life through Him now with the armor and strength to take on the evil of this world and whatever the enemy will try to through my way.

So look to Jesus in your life and through all that you struggle with.  When you learn to let go of yourself and live for Him, it is a game changer.  Choose to be a game changer.  Choose to be different than whatever anyone in this world tells you.  He is all that matters.  All eyes on Jesus.

“Live as though Christ died yesterday, rose from the grave today, and is coming back tomorrow.”  – Theodore Epp

A Serious Heart Problem

Leave a reply

Turn on the television and news at any given moment and what do we see.  Nothing but sorrow, pain, violence, aggravation, vanity, self-reliance and self-centeredness, and more.  There is so much despair that lurks every single day.  The news outlets thrive on that stuff.  They seek out these stories because they think it’s news and then add fuel to the fire to make the situations worse and worse.  We have a serious problem in our society today.  The problem is that so many jump into the volatile situations, some in the name of christianity , but their motives seem to be anything but driven by faith.  I’m looking from all sides here.  It all points to one thing, spiritual warfare.  All of these problems we face are a direct result of the prince of this world, Satan and his armies trying to keep us fighting within ourselves.

The problem here lies in the heart.  We have a serious heart problem.  We have become a society that is so far removed from God’s heart and what has the enemy done, he has taken advantage and setup shop to start chipping away at our own hearts.  Yes, the decisions we make are under our own free will, but way to often we choose from the wrong motives, we choose the side of the enemy, even when we don’t realize it. Imagine a life where we would not have to deal with these trials and sorrows.  Imagine a life where we did not have to contend with having to choose.

Unfortunately that life does not exist in this world.  As Jesus told us, in this life, we will have trials and sorrows, but we can take heart because He overcame this world (John 16:33). Now, what does this really mean, He overcame.  First, we all know that Jesus conquered sin and death through His death and resurrection and was given all authority through His ascension to the Father’s right hand.  What else does it mean, overcame?  Jesus was free just as we are to choose.  He faced a number of trials and temptations as well and more suffering than any of us can imagine.  Jesus overcame through it all because He was able to choose with full faith in the Father no matter what anyone in this world thought.  From eating with the tax collectors and corrupt individuals, to defying the religious Sabbath, to allowing the woman to wipe her tears on His feet with her hair, and so much more.  Jesus’s heart was free.

Our problem today is that despite the freedom that is now ours because of Jesus and through God’s grace, we still worry and choose with motives that are mixed-up.  We choose to to get caught up in so much of the struggles of this world, rather than living by faith and truly living for the Kingdom.  Sometimes we start following those that come in the name of the faith, so they say, but are really wolves in sheeps clothing ready to take us out at any moment.

John Calvin said, “The human heart has so many crannies where vanity hides, so many holes where falsehood lurks, is so decked out with deceiving hypocrisy, that it often dupes itself.”  This is part of our problem.  We still come into this world fallen.  Our heart is covered by so much of the fallen nature of man that we can’t often see past it.  Even when we turn to faith, it is so easy for our heart to get twisted because the enemy is always there lurking and looking to take our heart out again and pull us away from Jesus.

We have to armor our hearts every single day.  Though we are made new by faith in Christ, we can still so easily be taken out.  The enemy will always try to.  We have a freedom to choose though.  We can choose whether we let our hearts fall for the pain and despair of this life or continue living out for the Kingdom.  This does not mean always standing by and doing nothing.  We have to stand and fight for the kingdom.  Don’t let people hijack our faith with false teaching and keeping us in despair or even preaching their prosperity gospel.  Don’t stand by while people use already volatile situations for their own advantage and self-driven passions.

We have to put on the Armor of God every single day (Ephesians 6:10-13).  The belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the gospel, helmet of salvation, shield of faith, and sword of the spirit.  We need this to guard our hearts and to stand-up for the battles we will continue to face everyday.  Choose to live unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ and live a life in Truth not full of religious and worldly desires.  Our hearts are delicate.  They are constantly under attack.  Choose to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might every single day so that when the enemy comes, you are ready and can choose with motives fully built on faith.  This is not easy for any of.  Our own nature compels us not choose by faith.  The enemy is always prowling for someone to devour.  That can be any of us we are not careful.  Guard your hearts.