Living Out Your Story

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I’m very excited about seeing a film that comes out for one time showing on May 19th.  This a film called “A Story Worth Living” which follows a motorcycle adventure through the back country of Colorado with John Eldredge and his three sons, Luke, Sam, and Blaine, counselor and author, Dr. Dan Allender, and producer Jon Dale.  These six men gathered together gear and motorcycles to set off on an adventure last summer that they had dreamed about, but had never done before.  I remember seeing their posts about it and the emails looking for sponsors and equipment for the trip.  I was definitely excited to learn about and it’s pretty cool that they are putting it out on film.  You can learn more about it at astoryfilm.com.  The trailer is also at the end of this post.

The anticipation of this film has had me really thinking of my story.  In the trailer, John Eldredge opens by saying, “The human heart is made for an epic story…and when we give up looking for that story, we give up living.”  Those words alone were enough to make me think.  God has created each one of us to live out our own unique story in a way that glorifies Him.  The problem that so many of us face is that this life is so full of demands, so full of chaos that we give up on that story.  We give up seeking what really drives us, seeking what God created us for, give up living out the original assignment He implanted in each and every one of us.

For years, I didn’t think there was anything too special about my own story.  I married young…okay. We had 3 children by the time we were 23…fine.  Otherwise, I was just a working husband and father trying my best to prove doubters wrong and make it by providing for my family and building a successful career, no matter where the career went.  I lived a life of routine and never bothered to really push the envelope any, looking for some new adventure.  I was content and didn’t know any better.  Little did I know, that I was also slowly dying inside.  Love my wife and children always, but I never knew what it meant to truly live out of the story that God placed me it and seek Him through real living.  I had not relationship with God whatsoever. He, however, shook me though and shook me good.

the-sacred-romance“The human heart is made for an epic story…”  What do you think this epic story is?  For each one of us it is different.  God has placed a story in our own lives that all fit into His larger epic story.  That is the real story we live in.  In The Sacred Romance, John Eldredge and Brent Curtis wrote, “We call the final week of our Savior’s life his Passion Week. Look at the depth of his desire, the fire in his soul. Consumed with passion, he clears the temple of the charlatans who have turned his Father’s house into a swap meet (Matt. 21:12).”  Jesus lived from desire.  Desire to seek out and do the Father’s will for his life.  That’s the desire placed in each of us and it takes us on different paths and in different directions.
41jzj2b0yi0l-_sx331_bo1204203200_As Eldredge said, however, “When we give up looking for that story, we give up living.” In his book Desire, Eldredge also writes, “There is a secret set within each of our hearts.  It is the desire for life as it was meant to be.”  For many people, the concept of desire seems dangerous and selfish.  They associate it with many of the false desires that are placed in our heart through our false self and our sin nature.  That’s not the desire and story I am talking about.

Living from real God driven desire and living out the story He placed in us is dangerous.  It’s rebellious and goes against everything that this world says you should do.  It does not follow the script of the latest trends or what the big celebrities are doing.  Real desire and living out our real story involves walking in dangerous and close proximity to Jesus.  It means a life of adventure and real living that spends each day seeking to be restored in Christ and seeking to walk closer with Him.

Living out my story and seeking the real desires that God placed on my heart, caused a complete shift in my entire life.  It took me on a wild and radical trip out west where I truly met the Father and was never the same.  It’s putting me back into the college system to seek out true God style teaching so that I am now equipped to counsel and minister to people in a way that brings out real God style transformation in them through Christ.  It is taking me on a new adventure to drive back west next month for another deep encounter with God.   It has truly become a story worth living that is now unscripted and follows where God leads me.

My life has truly become a story worth living.  It’s not without its pains as there are days when I feel like just shutting down and feel overwhelmed.  But unlike before, I know I am right where the Lord has been leading me all along, I was just running away to Tarshish like Jonah trying to hide from God.  When I gave it all to Him though…completely surrendering every part of my life, I learned what real living was, finally.  It was only about Him from here on out.  That, my friends, is truly a story worth living, when you live with a desire to seek Him and and walk with Him every day.  That’s where the abundant life is to be found; in real relationship with the Lord.

“The glory of God is a man fully alive, and the life of a man consists in beholding God” – Chuck Swindoll

Taking Ownership

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There’s been a thought that has been on my mind quite a bit these last days.  That’s the idea of personal responsibility.  This is something that seems to be lacking so much in this new entitlement culture that has been created today.  Nothing seems to be of our own doing.  The same can be said for our struggles, sins, and wounds.  Yes, we have wounds in our lives that can have a drastic effect on lives.  Yes, we live in a world that is steadfastly set against our faith and are fighting an enemy in Satan that, as Jesus says, wants to steal and kill and destroy our hearts and pull us further away from God each and every day.

With all of the things that can come against us in this life, it’s so easy to forget our responsibility in it all and that we have a choice in how we choose to respond to struggle.  There is a way to respond and although it may not always be easy to do so, sometimes the most difficult decisions and responses are the ones most needed.  The key is choosing to take ownership of the problems you’ve faced and bad decisions you’ve made in order to move beyond them in freedom.  Not with band-aid solutions, but with real mind and heart renewal.

7b3d3a4d27-f9d2-449c-81fd-4a49f805e6fb7dimg400Dr. Larry Crabb writes in his book, ‘The Marriage Builder,’ “I am unalterably opposed to any line of thinking that undermines the concept of personal responsibility, and I find myself in general agreement with those who insist people are accountable for choosing godly responses to life’s situations.”  It’s amazing how true I have found this to become.  Many people are stuck in the the feeling of ‘woe is me’ and do not try to discover ways to deal with the their sins and wounds in a responsible and godly way.

thingswelearn-01-2I remember being out at Wild at Heart and I was in deep prayer just dealing with my wounds and sins.  I had a couple of guys join me to pray over me and the one thing that really stuck to me, going beyond just allowing Jesus into my wounds was the prayer and encouragement to forgive myself for allowing those things to hold me captive for so long.  I had to also take ownership of the decisions I made that were done in a way that ran from God rather than going to where He wanted me to go.  The Lord was calling for a reinterpretation of everything to understand that this was not just on others, it was on me as well.  Actually most of it was, because, although I did not know better, I did not choose to respond in a godly way before.

Crabb goes on to further write that, “Because our human nature is stained in every part by sin, the work of sanctification is no simple matter of ‘don’t do it your way, do it God’s way’…Merely changing what we do will not change who we are. The cure for selfishness and fear that control so much of what we do cannot be reduced to shallow solutions…We need to understand the wrong goals we have set, honestly face how we feel, and deal with our sinful and painful emotions in a way that reflects our confidence in God’s unconditional acceptance.”

Dealing with our emotions in a a way that reflects our confidence in God’s unconditional acceptance.  This such a key thing.  If we choose to sulk and choose to not move beyond our past sins an struggles, no matter how much we say we believe, it is showing that we do not have confidence in God’s unconditional acceptance.  As my pastor says, I’m thankful to have a God that gives second, third, fifth, and tenth chances.  We can spend so much of our God’s running from God and not trusting in Him and His grace.  We can spend years of our lives blaming everybody else for our struggles and not doing anything to move beyond them.

Let me tell you something…and this comes from real life, personal experience. Taking real ownership of my sins, wounds, and bad decisions and then turning all that to Jesus in full repentance, allowing His full restoration of my heart and mind each day, has given me so much clarity to see that I have a real choice in how I respond to my own junk and everything else in this life.  I can either sulk and have a poor me attitude, or I can choose to have a godly response that does not let any of it define me.  My identity in Christ now, not in my former self and the same can be said for everyone, if you choose to turn to Him in real faith.

The bottom line is to renew your heart and mind.  You have a role to play in altering where your story goes.  You can easily choose the path that blames your past and the rest of the world, but you can also choose to truly allow Christ to set you free from that.  Is it always easy, NO.  You will fight it all the time, but when your thoughts are renewed truly in Christ, you will find it so much easier to not let that junk hold you captive, but rather respond in a godly manner, repent fully, and move forward in real freedom.  As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I was child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I become a man, I did away with childish things.”  When we learn to truly renew our minds and the way we respond to struggles, we do away with the habits of the old self that are in spiritual adolescents and move forward with greater maturity.

Why Do We Pose?

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Let’s face it, we live in a society and world full of posers.  There is not a single one of us, man or woman that is beyond this.  No matter how subtle it may be, we all pose or have posed in some way in our lives, and I don’t care who you are, you will likely do it again at some point in the future.  None of us are beyond it.  The poser has its roots in mankind from the very beginning as we all know.  Following the Fall in Genesis 3, what did Adam and Eve do?  They hid.  They hid themselves from God.  It has plagued us from the very beginning.

The question from it all is why do we continue to do this?  What is our motivation to hide and pose?  Why is it so hard to just live authentically and no matter what, let our junk hang out there for people to see.  John Eldredge wrote in Wild at Heart, that the deepest fear of of every man is “to be exposed, to be found out, to be discovered as an imposter, and not really a man.”  In their book Captivating, John and Stasi Eldredge write that “Every woman knows now that she is not what she was meant to be. And she fears that soon it will be known…”

We have such a great fear of being found out that we hide behind so many things in life.  That the world will condemn us if we allow people see the issues we struggle with, the sins and addiction we are consumed with, and the wounds and weaknesses that we have come to accept and live with.  Then we fear that if we are found out that we will destroy the very fabric of everything we hold dear in our lives, including our families.

Authenticity-01cI have come to an inescapable conclusion though.  When we are in Christ centered relationships with our spouses, our families, and friends there is no need to hide.  Everyone who has grown to truly learn about living authentically and the authenticity that Jesus showed us all, knows that we have all jacked it up and posed in some way and will love you and walk with you through all of that.

I look at my wife Amber.  I was afraid of her finding me out for the poser I had grown to become and hated to see in the mirror everyday.  When it was all exposed and laid out though, she loved me through it all.  I realized, also that because of God’s radical love and undeserved redeeming grace, that He also loved me through my faults.  He knew where I was screwing up and continued to pursue me.  I remember drawing out this timeline of my life with all of the highs and lows while I was on campus at Liberty University.  The Holy Spirit revealed to me through that, the Lord’s unending pursuit and that fact that He has not given up on any of us.

We have to learn to live authentically.  To shed the fig leaf and let ourselves stand exposed and not fear the condemnation of what people in this life will say.  Know that we have all have and will screw up.  There’s no need to hide.  Deal with it directly.  Pray on it, confess it, and allow people around you to pray with you and for you and walk with you through it.  Amber and I are so blessed to have the church family that we do.  People that we have grown to love dearly and know that if and when we struggle, there are people there that will walk with us through it, just as Amber and I stand by each other no matter what we face.

Brené Brown shared that “Authenticity is the true measure of courage.”  How true this is. Look at the way Jesus walked and lived.  He lived authentically and was not afraid to be exposed.  He did not hide and instead confronted evil directly.  How important it is for each us to learn that we too can live that way.  We won’t do it perfectly, but damn it if we can’t try are best each day.  It takes effort and it takes courage to not hide behind the fig leaf any longer and rather walk in freedom of authenticity .  We are each free to live this way, but we have to choose do so.  It starts with allowing Christ to come into the brokenness and hidden places of our hearts that have we have kept away from others.  I’ve seen and experienced myself what it means to finally shed the poser, the false self, and just let Christ in.  Allow Him to come into those places, expose them, as much as it hurts, and then the freedom that comes with that healing and restoration.

TheFather-011We are not all the way there way.  It will be a life time of prayer and daily restoration and sanctification for each of us.  We have not yet become who we were meant to be, but we can continue strive for and pursue that with each passing day.  It starts with the moment of real conviction by the Holy Spirit and confession, and then the process of healing and restoration can begin.  You no longer have to live in fear of being exposed.  Who cares what someone else may think of how you live or who you are.  Your identity is not found in that, but only in who you are, restored in Christ and as God’s image bearer.  The Father is pursuing you and wants to show you who really are and who you were meant to be.  Open your heart.  All Him to come in and expose the hidden places of the heart and the freedom you will find is greater than anything else you’d ever experience in life.  Trust me.

“Here they are, Lord Jesus, my hidden sins. I bring them out of the secret chamber of my heart. I take them out of the darkness and expose them to Your light. Lord, You have promised You will execute Your word upon the earth, thoroughly and quickly. Oh God, thoroughly cleanse my heart; purify me quickly!” – Francis Frangipane

Rebel Against The World…Not God

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Rebellion.  That word takes on so many different meanings in our lives.  I always remember growing up and even now that the rebels of this world are those that didn’t hang with the crowd.  Maybe they were bikers, got tattoos or piercings, road with the rough crowds.  These are just some broad examples, but you get the point.  When we typically think of rebellion we think of people that are around wilder elements and don’t live like the way people think they should.

Another kind of rebellion that we are so good at doing as a fallen humanity is rebelling against God.  We have really perfected this art in this world as we find it so easy to choose our own pleasure and seek to figure things out on our own rather than trusting in God and following where He is leading us.  Read the book of Jonah.  This book shows Jonah’s rebellion from God and trying to flee to Tarshish rather than going to Nineveh as God tells Him.  As my pastor spelled out however, this book also shows God’s unending grace and radical love in His pursuit of Jonah and seeing the people of Nineveh repent and turn to God.  You here his teaching at this link https://vimeo.com/161467082

Yet, there is another rebellion I really want to talk about.  This is the kind of rebel that Jesus was in His time on earth.  Jesus grew up in a time that was filled with laws and rules for the people of Israel.  The religious leaders of the day had the people jumping to hoop after hoop to follow their impossible to follow rules.  Jesus, however was not bound by that.  He lived with what John Eldredge referred to as a scandalous freedom.  As Lecrae says, Jesus was a rebel, a renegade outlaw, and a sanctified trouble maker.  Yet, he never sinned, living life by a different set of rules.

The type of rebellion that Jesus lived is the type of rebellion that we are meant to live.  A rebellion against this world, not against God.  Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is.”  Do not be conformed to this world.  That’s real rebellion.  Following the Father’s will for our lives.  Living a life of spiritual discipline where you walk with God daily, seek Him out, and be sanctified daily through Christ.

This all sounds so simple in theory and many of us talk of our faith and trying to live it out, but that is the key isn’t it.  Trying to live it out.  There are so many pressures in this life to live for our own pleasure and desires.  We turn to so many things that end up controlling our lives and hold us in bondage instead of giving us freedom.  Freedom

C.S. Lewis stated, “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing”  Real freedom is found through Christ alone and in seeking out the heart of God every day.  Be the kind of rebel that Jesus was.  Don’t let this world define who you are.  Your real identity is found in the person of Jesus Christ alone.

I love the ending of the Rebel Intro by Lecrae where it states:

You’re just a conformist, if you’re drunk and naked and driving around on a loud motorcycle smoking cigarettes and breaking commandments
And getting pregnant out of wedlock
Everyone’s done that, it’s so tiring
If you really want to be a rebel, read your Bible, because no one is doing that
That’s rebellion
That’s the only rebellion left

Read your Bible, because that’s the only rebellion left.  That’s so true.  This world has pulled us further and further from the heart of God and everyday there is a stronger pull. You don’t have to follow what everyone else is doing.  Don’t minimize the Word of God and who we are in Christ.  Rather get to know Him more and follow Him more.

Trust me it will be difficult.  Just yesterday, I had to stand strong and say no something related to my kids and sports that we have been a part of for years.  We have always been told that was the way to go, but realized that it was running our lives and we had to change our priorities.  That simple little no may not have seemed like much, but it was a powerful statement for my life and my family.

My challenge to you all is to look over your life.  Look at where your priorities and commitments are and then gauge if those are things that draw you closer to or further from the heart of God and His will for your life.  Sometimes, it requires tough decisions that others may not understand and that may seem wrong to you, but the freedom that will come from truly standing against conformity and following the will of God is so great.

A Healthy Obsession

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Have you ever obsessed about something in your life?  I think it’s safe to say that in one way or another we all have.  A definition of obsession is shown as “an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind.”  There can any number of things in life that we can become to get obsessed about.  Many times that obsession can be very unhealthy if it preoccupies your mind and life so greatly and can have negative consequences for you and those around you.  I’ve seen it in kids sports, the work place, and all around.  You name it, it’s there.

There’s one particular kind of obsession that I will definitely say a healthy obsession.  One that once it occurs you can’t help but be obsessed.  That obsession comes with encountering God in such a way that you can’t help but to be changed and continue to want and desire more of that encounter.  I began a deeper dive into the Gospel of John this week.  Right out of the gate in chapter 1, we see the first disciples who began to follow Jesus.  Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael all encounter Jesus and once they realize who he is as the Son of God, they follow.  They were in and followed Jesus.

I look to Paul following his encounter on the road to Damascus.  Paul was filled with such zeal for Jewish law and was looking to crush this new movement of Christianity.  He encounters Jesus, who then declares that Saul, now Paul, will take the Good News to the Gentiles.  Paul is in.  His eyes our open, and his encounter with God opens him up in a way that despite who he was, despite the hardships he endured, Paul filled the rest of his life following Jesus and fulfilling the purpose Jesus set before him.

There are many of us that have encountered God in many different ways in our life.  Different places, different situations.  What I can say, because I have had my own encounter is that once this occurs, things are never the same.  It becomes an obsession.  You want more.  My encounter with God in the mountains of Colorado was nothing like I could have ever expected.  I immediately became obsessed.  I wanted more of God.  I wanted to encounter Him more and follow Him like never before.

Like I said, we all encounter God in various ways.  I’m not saying you have to be up in the mountains or something on those lines.  I will say that truly getting to encounter God will often come in those moments when you are able to shut out and disconnect from the rest of the world, even in those quite moments you may have in your own prayer time and Bible study.  Either way, when you’ve truly had those moments, you’re forever changed and you can’t help but be obsessed about it.  Repeating the obsession definition, which is “an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind.”  That’s essentially what it becomes when you’ve encountered God and He’s transformed and restored you.

Before this happened, God used to be an after thought or I would think about Him in ways that would guilt me in my actions or even question my own destiny.  My pastor has shared that there are 4 key questions of life that we wrestle with.  Questions of origin, meaning, morality, and destiny.  I used to have questions in all of these areas and when I would think about them in different contexts, it would be a thought and then move on.  Nothing ever captured me.  The veil was still pulled over.  The scales were still over my eyes.

When that veil and those scales were removed, it became clear.  The answers to those questions became clearer.  I knew my purpose and now try my best to live life in away that I seek more of God out every day.  I’m still learning, still growing, and still discovering more each day.  I don’t always get it right and there are days when I feel like I’m so far gone from where I need to be, but the obsession of trying to draw closer to God and bring in more of Him now consumes my life in a way never thought possible.  He’s more than an afterthought.  He’s on my heart and thoughts when the day begins and all the way till it ends.

If there is anything worth obsessing over in this life.  God would be it.  He is the one thing I would say that is worth obsessing about.  If you don’t have Him, what else matters?

A New Adventure In The Works

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Two months from now I will be hitting the road on a new adventure as I drive across the country for the first time in route to Bear Trap Ranch just outside Colorado Springs.  I’m so excited for this journey as I was accepted and have the opportunity to attend the Become Good Soil Intensive event with Ransomed Heart Ministries.  I am so humbled and honored that the Lord has afforded me this opportunity.  As I have written about extensively over the last year, I attended my first Ransomed Heart event last year at the Wild at Heart Boot Camp.  That was 4 days packed with tremendous spiritual growth, unplugged from the matrix and getting to have some good sound fellowship with other godly men and time alone with God like I had not experienced before.  I surrendered my life on that journey to Jesus, as I quit tiptoeing in the shallow end and dove into the deep end.maxresdefault

This time around, I am looking forward to even more spiritual growth.  Whereas Wild at Heart had over 400 other men there, this Intensive is a more intimate setting with only 48 men accepted through a lengthy application process.  I gained so much at Wild at Heart, I can only imagine what the Lord will have in store for me on this adventure.

One of the biggest things I have learned on my walk over the last year is the importance of walking through life with other men in the faith.  I have especially learned the importance of walking with men who have journeyed through life longer and garnered a great amount of wisdom and experience, like Timothy walking with Paul.  I have made that a priority for my life to do just that with who I have surrounded myself with at my round table.  At this event, I will get a chance to do this as well, completely unplugged from the matrix of this world.  As the event information states, it is in the company of wise, older men…those out in front already.

mostimportant-01Any chance I get to gain something new in my walk with God, I will take advantage of.  Something that I have learned to be so valuable also is that we all, men and women, need opportunities to escape the stresses of life.  Unplugged from life.  I believe this is important, not just with event like this, but to find time to get away , at least once a year.  No phones, no work, no distractions.  Your soul needs this.  As I have shared time and again, why do you think Jesus always escaped to the wilderness.  He knew he needed to get away from the chaos in order to walk more intimately with the Father.

Look, I have suffered and lived long enough to know that I don’t have all the answers and never will in this life.  We need the wisdom of others and need to be able do disconnect to allow ourselves to connect with the Father on a deeper level.  It can be so easy to be lost in a sea of chaos out of control, but in the process, you can lose who you are.  Don’t let that happen to your life.  Find a way to unplug and also lean into others you can glean godly wisdom from.

I am very much looking forward to this adventure.  Last time I flew, but this time, I decided to load up my F-150 and make it a road trip.  I look forward to the solitude on the road as well as I prepare for the event. I’ve never driven that long on my own, and I am so excited to have this opportunity and to have a wife that is so supportive of this huge growth opportunity.  It will definitely be an adventure and I will certainly share about it more as I prepare and of course after the event.  It’s going to be an amazing adventure and I look forward to what God has in store for me this time around.

Freedom We Didn’t Deserve

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I think heavily this week, as we draw closer to Easter on the overall power and meaning that this week brings.  Christmas is a wonderful day and I love to celebrate the birth of Christ and the season, but that day is meaningless without Good Friday and definitely without Easter.  I look at this weekend with so much joy with what we have been given, because of this man, Jesus.  The utter pain and torture he experienced is unimaginable.  He willingly went forward to follow the Father’s will.  He knew the purpose that was laid out before Him and went through all of this…FOR US!empty-tomb

Galatians 5:1, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free.”  Because He willingly shed His blood and laid down His life and because He conquered death after a battle ensued in hell, Jesus bought our freedom.  He was the ransom paid to give us our undeserved freedom, but a freedom that was meant for us since before creation.  1 Timothy 2:6 tells us that Jesus “gave himself as a ransom for all”  That key word there is all.  This was not just for one segment of people.  This was for everyone on the face of the earth who hear the Good News and turn to follow Christ.  It is made available to everyone.

525724I ponder this freedom quite often.  I have a sticker on the back of my truck with Galatians 5:1 referenced.  It is a constant reminder that I see in my mirror as I’m driving.  What does this freedom really mean to us?  God intended us to be live in freedom from the very beginning, but we still face a problem where many Christians still find themselves living in bondage and not experiencing the freedom to truly live as they were meant to live.  As John Eldredge shared in Free to Live: The Utter Relief of Holiness, “The way of holiness was never meant to be a labyrinth of complexity and eventual despair.”  

We have been set free from the bondage of sin and we no longer have to live under the old laws of religion that kept the Jews and still keeps many religions in complete bondage.  True freedom lies in the fact that we can be restored and seek to live in the righteousness and holiness we were created for…Ephesians 4:24, “Put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”

As a human race, we have fallen so far from grace.  We have rebelled greatly over our existence against God.  Sin infiltrated us so deeply that we have become a vile creation.  Look at what we have today.  It’s on our tv, on social media, we see it on the news with people killed every day all over the globe.  We have fallen a long way.  Yet despite all of that.  Despite the distance we created between ourselves and the Father, He still pursues us.  How awesome is that?  We are pursued, even though we don’t deserve the grace He has offered us through Jesus.

Morgan Snyder of Become Good Soil and Ransomed Heart shares something great about Jesus:

“But Jesus is different. He is not ruled by the false self, not informed by habitual reactions and pre-programmed responses (like us), crafted with sophistication over decades to disengage from real relationship, in order to self-protect and avoid shame.

He is free. Free to move in  the service of love. He lives in union with His Father. Ever accessing the resources of Heaven that flow freely into Him. Ever aware of what His Father wants to bring through Him in His day as a man walking among us, and making a particular life available to us.”

Jesus is FREE.  Jesus lived the life that we were all mean to live.  In complete union with the Father.  He did not conform to the ways of this world nor to the jacked-up rules of religion.  This is the freedom we have now.  To be able to live out lives walking in union with the Father through Christ.  Not be ruled by our false self.  Not to be ruled by sin and to be conformed to this world and its twisted ways.  freedom-in-christ

I’m grateful for everyday I get to pursue this freedom and live in it.  It’s not always easy.  We spend day after day being tempted to go in one direction or another.  To pursue things of this world that will completely take us out and kill our soul.  We don’t have to live that way.  When you realize the freedom that you truly have in Christ and what that really means, it’s amazing.  As KB says in his song ‘Zone Out,’ “Once you’ve truly seen the Lord, you’re obsessed with what you’ve seen.”  It’s life changing to find that freedom, to know what it is to be sanctified daily seeking holiness and righteousness.  We didn’t deserve that freedom, yet it is offered, because of who we are, but because of who God is and what Christ did for us.  We are free to live and free to love God.

God’s Grace Is Enough

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In my study of 2 Corinthians, I was reading the first part of chapter 12 yesterday.  As I was reading and pondering this message, I realized that God’s timing in this was so awesome in this message and it is so relevant to everyday life.  I recall writing about this chapter some time ago regarding Paul’s discussion of being given a thorn in the flesh, and while he asked for it to be removed, he is reminded that it is there to keep him from becoming proud and exalting himself and Jesus reminds him that “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

This teaching is such a humbling reminder about life.  That thorn in the flesh can be anything in life that can come up and take the wind out of your sails.  I’ll use a sports comparison.  I’ve seen players that have had things going so easy and then become very comfortable.  They figure they have secured their place and all of a sudden they lose their place, whether it’s a starting role or something.  When something like this happens, how the player responds can make a world of difference.

You see, when we have these moments where all of sudden it seems like things that we’ve worked for are taken from us, you may be surprised to learn that through that, God is at work.  You see, His grace is all you need.  I have learned to recognize that He is using moments like this, like a athlete losing his starting role, as a way to humble him and remind him to lean to God through all the difficulties.  It is also a reminder that in this life, no matter what, be it sports, the business world, or anything, we have to work for everything.  Things are not just handed to us and we have earn our way.

The same holds true for our faith.  We are not guaranteed Heaven.  We are not guaranteed to be able to inherit the Kingdom that is made available.  It comes with work.  It comes with surrendering your life to Christ and then working day after day to be restored each day and sanctified daily.  There are some who believe that once you have professed your faith that’s it, you’re good to go.  I used to feel that way to some degree.  How wrong I was.

God’s grace is enough for all of us.  These challenges and trials we face, these thorns in the flesh are a constant reminder, if we are listening, to turn to Christ and call for His grace to fill us every day.  He is in control.

There is a saying that get’s passed around that I have heard time and again that says something like “God will never give you more than you can handle.”  There is so much wrong with this statement.  You see, along with the thorn in the flesh, Paul also adds that he is give a messenger from Satan to torment him.  The simple fact is that without the grace of God, we can’t handle these difficulties ourselves.  We can’t inherit the Kingdom without God’s grace.  We can’t make it through challenges in life and truly put on our new selves without God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit.  All of this comes through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

I’ve had many times in my life that have taught me this lesson.  I even had a challenge this week that came about that caused me to filled a lot of doubt and questions regarding that situation.  Reading these verses and then sitting in prayer contemplating them really opened up my eyes and reminded me that no matter what, I need to turn to God’s grace and realize that it is all I need.  His timing was perfect in this and I am ever grateful for what He opens my heart to see and hear.

Tunnel Vision

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The last 8 weeks have to have been the most stressful part of my learning that I’ve experienced to this point.  I was balancing two classes with my counseling program and Liberty University, which I have done in previous semesters, but something about this just was so challenging to get through.  The learning was so rich though.  There was so much value in the knowledge gained and things that will be very valuable I begin to draw nearer to real-life counseling work.  You ever have those times when you feel like you don’t know whether you are coming or going?  That’s what it felt like at times and last week, being the final week of the sub-term, I was on scramble trying to get it all done and close out the classes right.

In the midst of all of that craziness, I had to keep my mind refocused.  It can be so easy when things just get so crazy and busy, to even forget why you’re going through all of that.  There have been a couple of days where I’m asking myself what I’m doing.  Before, when things got like this, it would be so easy to be taken out.  Nowadays, my whole mindset has changed gears and I know what I’m in this for.  What am I a doing at 37 going through school, again, for what will be my 3rd degree?  It’s simple, I’m now doing the Lord’s work and to get through it all, I have to keep tunnel vision.

I listen to guys like KB and Lacrae when I workout every morning.  There’s a song by KB called “Zone Out” that really says it all, and when I get bogged down in craziness, this begins to often play in my head.  It’s like the Lord is resetting me and continually reminding me what I’m in this for.  The part of the song that I hear in my head often goes like this:

‘Cause I’ve got tunnel vision, yeah I’m focused on the light (he’s with me)
Can’t see a thang ‘cause I’m focused on the Christ (come with me)
You can try to kill me but you can’t hurt me
You can bring whoever you want, want
You’ll never break me, won’t penetrate
Once I get off in my zone, zone yeah

That’s what it’s all about.  Keeping tunnel vision with the heart and mind always focused on Christ and the walk with Him, each and every day.  When I get overwhelmed, go back to that.  It brings me back every time.

When the Lord puts a calling on your heart, you simply have to follow.  It’s not always going to be easy.  You may have one day where you are just fired up and ready to roll along and then the next day, or even that same day, things may begin to overtake you and you don’t know if your coming or going (Got my hand up).  Keeping the heart and mind focused on where the Lord is leading through all of the chaos is so important.

I’m thankful where He’s continued to lead me and that He’s allowed me to share my own journey along the way.  The walk with God continues for a lifetime until He calls us home.  Ups and downs will happen, chaos will ensue, but I can see how He grows us up in the process.  Just keep that tunnel vision.

Fighting On Three Fronts

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How often do you think about the spiritual warfare that we face in our lives each day?  When you think spiritual warfare, how do you picture it?  Do you think about angels and demons battling it out and Satan in the mix trying jack things up?  The subject of warfare is on my mind often.  I’ve really come to grasp the reality of this through my own life experiences where I’ve been able to recognize the reality of it and through others around me.

I was with Amber on Sunday in our meeting and study with our church small group.  We are doing a study of Ephesians and talk of warfare came up.  I began to talk in terms of the spiritual realm and the warfare that goes on in that aspect.  I referred to Daniel 10 when Daniel had prayed and began fasting for 3 weeks.  A angel finally comes and tells Daniel that God heard him the very day he prayed, but it took him 3 weeks to because the prince of the Persian was keeping him back and he had to call on Michael, one of the chief princes in Heaven’s armies to help him.  It’s a reminder that just as this warfare was going on before, as we in Scripture, just as Jesus had to resist Satan in the wilderness, warfare still goes on today in many ways.

I thought about this more later I really began to realize just how much warfare we face and where it all comes from.  I began to think that, in reality, we are faced with, everyday, fighting a war on three fronts.  It’s a battle for every part of our being that we face.  One front is clear and that is the enemy, Satan and his armies.  We are faced with him everyday or those fallen with him.  We are warned repeatedly about it.  As John 10:10 shows, Jesus stated that “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”  Peter tells believers to be on alert because our “adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).  This is a given and we know this.  If Satan himself is not coming after us to take us out, his armies are in some fashion.

As a part of the assault we face, there are two other fronts we have to battle in that the enemy uses.  The next is against this world and those around us.  Because we are a fallen race, we are faced with daily battles with people around us.  There is so much in this world that is designed, much of it by the enemy, but it is designed to draw us away from things of God.  To draw us away from Jesus and the grace offered through Him.  This world can take you out in such a big way.  I’ve seen it for years and even fell victim to it.  To find yourself in a way that you begin to do things that others expect of you.  This could be choosing a path in college and a career.  Allowing the problems of others to effect you in some way.  Simply seeing so much despair in the world and losing those we love in ways that we don’t understand causing us to question life and our faith in many ways.

The third front is within ourselves.  The battle with the false-self.  This is something we don’t think about enough, but all to often we are faced with ourselves.  The decisions we make day to day.  Choosing to fall to sin and temptation.  Choosing to live life behind a fig leaf and not coming from hiding to face the false-self and renounce it.  There is a glory in each one of us, that God created in each of us.  It has been veiled since the fall and we are faced each day with whether to let that glory shine through or to hide.  We are restored in Christ, should we choose to follow Him and just as Paul said, we should be “renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Ephesians 4:23-24).

This is a daily battle within ourselves to seek Christ’s restoration everyday, putting on the whole armor of God to fight each battle.  Spoiler alert!!! Christ has won the war, but until his return and the coming of the Kingdom, we continue to face these battles on all sides everyday.  I know it can sound all mystical and strange to some to think of spiritual warfare, but it is very real and it comes at us from every angle.

978-0-7852-8829-9Don’t neglect this important part of our reality.  I know I have written about it many times, but only because it is on my heart a lot and it is so real, yet many refuse to believe it or are just completely oblivious to it all.  Remember, you are created in God’s image and the closer you draw to Him, the harder the battles will become.  William Gurnall stated, “It is the image of God reflected in you that so enrages hell; it is this at which the demons hurl their mightiest weapons.”  They will come at you head-on, they will attack through those around you, or come at you from within your false-self.  As John Eldredge wrote in Waking the Dead, “The is the heart of our Enemy.  He is determined to hinder and harm and ruin God’s image bearers.”

The war is real, the ongoing battle is real.  The enemy will do everything he can to take us out.  To steal and kill and destroy us. What will you do to stand against the enemy from within you and within this world?  Don’t deny it exists, recognize it, and stand firm in the faith and in the strength of the Lord’s might.