Tag Archives: 4 Streams

Abundant Life That’s Worth Fighting For

Leave a reply

In John 10:10, Jesus tells us two substantial pieces for why He came and the war we are in.  He says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  This is pretty substantial when you look at the two together.  Jesus is talking about the life that is offered to us through Him.  Life to the full.  Life that is fully alive.  Life that is made to glorify God.  At the same time, there is a thief, the enemy, the devil, that comes to steal and kill and destroy.  Jesus is well aware of the war that is waged with evil.  He is well aware that when He came, He had infiltrated into enemy territory and that the war was going to get intense.

You see, in this life we are in constant battles.  Day after day, they can be big, they can be small.  We are dealing with a world that fills us with temptation and sufferings.  I don’t care who are, we all have to deal with this.  This temptation and suffering comes as a result of an enemy who is looking to steal, kill, and destroy the life that is offered through Jesus.  I’m not talking prosperity Gospel either.  I’m talking about a life that has fully repented of all your sin and junk in your life.  Fully renounced it and left it at the feet of the cross with Jesus.  A life that is seeking everyday, the counsel and healing that is offered through Christ.  Jesus not only came to offer forgiveness for sin, but to heal our broken hearts, Isaiah 61:1.  He came to heal us and set us free from this world and from sin and death.  Then a life that looks to seek and walk with God everyday.  Seek his counsel and learn to have those daily conversations with God for guidance through our lives and then follow wherever He leads.

It’s a classic battle between good and evil.  The enemy wants to take our lives and Jesus brings us life.  When we recognize this and learn the Truth of this world and of Jesus, we really learn to understand what life abundantly means and that this is a life worth fighting for.  We have to wage it everyday.  Spiritual warfare is very real.  Whether you accept it or not.  There’s a lot more going on in God’s larger and epic story than we could ever imagine.

When we learn to walk with God and lift Him up daily in our lives.  Put Him first before anything, then we can put the enemy on his heals.  John Cymbala said, “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.” You see, the victory already came in Christ.  Satan knows his days are numbered.  So what He is going to do is prowl around this world and look to take with him anyone he can.  He is coming to destroy our lives.  To him we are powerless without God in our hearts, so he continues to come after us.  We have to guard our hearts and our lives from anything that tries to bring us away from God.  His full goal is to get us to separate from God so that we lose our lives.

Folks, it’s a battle worth fighting.  Having life abundantly through Jesus Christ is so worth fighting for.  The feeling of having Him as a daily part of my life is amazing.  Now, that does not mean the battle is over.  As I’ve said time and again.  The closer you draw to God, the harder the enemy will try to pull you back from God.  Being on guard and seeking God to armor us every day, helps to deal with this.  A life in Christ is worth fighting for.

Feeling Overwhelmed

Leave a reply

One week in.  It’s been quite a ride already as I get used to being back in school and learning the ropes of the classes and figuring out the best way to balance everything to ensure I don’t neglect family and work, but also to maximize the learning experience.  I’ve been down this road before, but it certainly takes getting used to once you’ve been established in routines.  It’s disruptive to the norm.  Many people are scared of disruption and what it does to their organization and routines.  I used to hate disruption.  I was a man of routine and like the way things role.  Now I welcome the disruption.  It gives me opportunity to reassess priorities and take stock of where I am and where I am going.  It gives me an opportunity to talk to God and see what he’s up to in my life.

As I ended the first week of classes yesterday and finalized the first week’s assignments, I found myself almost stressed.  I got a little frustrated with a quiz I working on even though this was the first week, I felt a little bit overwhelmed for a bit.  After the quiz, I picked up one of my books and started reading a bit more to recap some of the week. This is the book, “Competent Christian Counseling” by Dr. Tim Clinton (no relation) and Dr. George Ohlschlager.  A great introductory book into the field of Christian Counseling.  The first page I turned to was amazing as with the frustration that I just felt, these were the first words I read.  “The information is overwhelming; the challenge is daunting. However, when you come to believe that God is able – that He will shape and guide you and will walk with you through your growth and development as a Christian counselor – you will learn to relax.”  I tell you what, seeing those words in front of me right at that point exactly what I needed.    I knew God was telling me to just relax son.  As He has told me before, just trust in Him.  I know He is able.  I know He will guide me and walk with me.  I know it will seem overwhelming at times throughout the process. There’s a great deal involved with becoming a professional counselor.  It’s a process that necessary and if I put my trust in God, He will lead me through it all.

I have thought about those words many times since yesterday.  With all of my schooling, I’ve never thought in that sense.  I’ve never thought to allow God to guide and Father me through the process of where I was going.  I was very self-reliant and self-driven in the goals I was laying out before me.  It’s a very different feeling when I step out of myself, having shed the old man in me and let God take all of that.  Leave my fears and anxieties nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ and let the restoration that Christ has given me shine through knowing that I can go wherever God leads and be willing to take that risk and follow.

I read daily reading bits from Ransomed Heart Ministries that come across tablet through their app.  Their daily excerpts from one of their many books.  In another twist of how God was talking to me yesterday, that days bit came from the book “Fathered by God.”  This book was almost the next step up from Wild at Heart.  A very good read if you haven’t picked it up.  The title was “We Need a Guide.”  As part of our initiation in the masculine journey for men, “we need a process, a journey, an epic story of many experience woven together, building upon one another in a progression. We need initiation. And, we need a guide.”  A guide is exactly what God is on our journey.  This true for the masculine for me and the feminine journey for women.  We all need a guide on our journey and God wants to be that guide if we will let Him.  He is laying out the path for us to initiate us bring us into closer connection with Him.  We have to be willing to let go, not let the things in our small story keep us down.  Understand the larger epic story of God and let Him lead us through it.  Trust in Him.

This is where we need to be on our journey.  Walk with God and let Him come into our lives and lead us.  God is able and our faith Him means that through Him we are able to do whatever He says we can.  We just have to get out of our own way.  Don’t let the world or the enemy tell us we can’t either.  Trust in Him where nothing is impossible.

Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you. – Psalm 37:5

The Myth of MultiTasking

Leave a reply

Multitasking.  Seems to be the norm of the day today doesn’t it?  I hear all the time of people talking about what a great multitasker they are.  Have heard it in job interviews or when in settings such as classes where someone is sharing their strengths and weaknesses.  Many will say, “I am a great multitasker.”  I touched on this some last week, but feel it’s very important to hammer home the point.  Many of you will panic when your read this, but it true. Multitasking is a myth.  The problem we have today is that we have so much going on, so many distractions that we feel we have to always tackle multiple things at once.  When we are in conversations or meetings, how often do we look at our phone for something or jump on our laptop?  I’m definitely guilty of this.  How often do we work on multiple tasks at once and then at the same time deal with email, answer phone calls, or talk with people we may see?  I see it whenever I am in the office where conversations are being carried out and the phones are in the hand scrolling through email or something.

Again, multitasking is a myth.  Now why do I say this?  It seems so anti-productive to say such a thing.  I know there will some of you that think this is BS and think you can multitask through anything.  But stop and think about this?  If you are trying to focus on your attention on different things simultaneously, how can you be fully present in any of it.  You can’t.  You absolutely cannot.  I think of conversations I have had with my wife.  Over the last 18 years, I could not even begin to tell you how many times she stops to ask, ‘what did I just say?’  I have often found myself distracted by either the TV, my computer or phone, or something else and I was not fully present in the conversation.  In that sense, it can kill the connection with that person, namely my wife.  For us guys, we find it easy to throw out the excuse of being a guy.  The problem here is that also part of being a man and talking to our wives is being present and hearing them. Being engaged in what they say.  Pursue that.  We are too busy these days and we miss so much in those conversations and it can really hurt a relationship.

Look at Jesus.  He was a mans man, not a hippie picking lilies with his friends.  When He conversed with people in his ministry and in his personal relationship, we see that He is fully engaged.  He is present in those moments with those people.  When the disciples would try to blow somebody off, He stepped right in and engaged. He was present to the people He came to save.  He is present with all of us and wants to engage with all of us.  If we are too busy trying to multitask, we can’t even be present to foster and grow our relationship with Jesus Christ.  Try it.  I have been where I am trying to jump into Scripture, prayer, and writing in my journal and then get distracted by conversation, my phone, or other noise.  It can’t happen.  You can’t be locked into the Lord and converse with Him and walk with Him when you are trying to do other things also. You have to be present just as He wants to be present for us.

I was listening to a Ransomed Heart audio recording called “The Spirit of the Age.”  In it John Eldredge touches on this.  He talks about about the issues we today of always having to go,go,go.  Our lives are so busy and we feel we have to tackle so many things at one time order to get anything done.  Then when we have a moment with nothing on, we panic an feel like we have to do something.  Not having something to do seems to make us vulnerable and unable to hide.  We get lost and hide in our business and multitasking. I definitely have these days too.  My life is all go with work, now school again, and then my family.  When we find a day of no activity, we rejoice in it and try to relax and take advantage.  Before long however, I feel like I need to do something.  Feel like I am wasting the day if I am not doing ‘something.’

We have to slow down.  We have to learn to connect in our lives.  Be present in the things we do and interactions we are having.  Be present in our time with the Lord.  Be present in our conversations with our spouses and our children.  Be present in our work and whatever we are working on.  You can’t be present, however, if you are trying to do it all at once.  You can make time.  You can slow your life down.  Learn to live and get away from the demands of go, go, go.  Imagine the freedom that will bring.  I know at first many will panic at this, but it’s possible.

Remember, multitasking is a myth.  In your work, it will lead to poorer production.  It will lead to less engagement in anything.  Don’t be a multitasker.  Break the trend of this myth.  Live free from the demands of the world and what it puts on you.  Come Alive!

The Dangers of Compromise

Leave a reply

Compromise.  A word that is used so much in our society today.  A word that has been used by many for centuries when it comes to reaching deals of any kind.  Whether it’s concessions from war, treaties, and any of a number of other things.  Now a days it is something that has been so accepted.  We see it in politics, churches, communities, and everywhere else.  It’s accepted because it is seen as a way to get things done.  I’m here to tell you something very important and a belief that I have held for years.  Compromise is rooted in evil.  Compromise forces you to push aside core beliefs no matter what in order to reach a solution whether it’s right or not.  Ayn Rand stated the following in ‘Capitalism, The Unknown Ideal,’ “The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.”

Today we see compromises being made in the church.  Congregations and denominations are making concessions and compromising core Biblical teachings and principles for the sake of post-modern ways of thinking, whether right or not.  They seek to minimize the Word of God, because they want to be seen as tolerant and inclusive.  They forget the simple fact that the call of the Word is love God and love your neighbor as yourself.  In that respect we also have the responsibility in the faith to help people in their sin.  As the Jesus said, “Go and sin no more” once you come to faith in Him.  Now none of us will ever be able to not sin.  I surely am not that perfect.  It’s a part of our nature.  But if we love ourselves to call out our sin within us and repent and confess, then we must help lead others to do the same and stay locked in habitual sin.

That’s just one example here.  I’m speaking straight from the heart here.  It’s been on my mind for a while as I here about compromise everyday.  It’s so widely accepted, but the real dangers of it are never full realized.  If you compromise beliefs, if you capitulate, you allow evil to take root.  You allow the enemy to get a handle and twist and manipulate how he wants to. Compromise is dangerous on any front.  Yes, it may bring about short term ‘solutions,’ but at what cost yourself and to others in the long run.  If you allow faith principles to be compromised.  If you allow God’s Word to be minimized for the sake of post-modern thinking then you have allowed the enemy to gain access and build a stronghold.  If you stand on faith and stand on firm belief in the Word of God without compromise, that leads to victory.  Victory doesn’t come with compromise  Jesus would have never conquered sin and death if he gave in to compromise at any time.  No…He had faith in the Father and followed where He lead no matter the results.  He knew it would lead to His death, but He new the cost for victory and now He reigns in life.  Compromise is evil.

The do not compromise with evil, and they walk only in his paths. Psalm 119:3

Today Is The Day!

3 Replies

I have been counting down to this day for the last few months.  Hard to believe it’s already here, but I can’t tell you how excited I am to be starting my work to on my Masters in Professional Counseling.  It’s a journey into the unknown that I never thought I would have the courage to do.  I knew, however, that once I was fully surrendered to the Lord, and knew where He was calling me, there was absolutely no way I was going to turn away not do it.  It’s a wild feeling.  I am excited about the possibilities, yet at the same time, as I write this, I am literally shaking on the inside as the nerves about the unknown set in.

It’s all a risk.  I could be perfectly content spending the next 25 years finishing my career in the corporate world.  I could just enjoy the salary and benefits of that world and live out there.  I could spend my life under the radar and just cruise along going with the flow.  But now that I am all in, there is no way I can do that now.  God has been calling me in my writing for the last several years.  I just didn’t listen enough until now.  So now, I am making a leap of complete faith and Trusting to where my God is leading me.

It’s all about trust and faith.  God told me something back in January and has told me this a few times since then when I have questioned what I’m doing.  He has said to trust Him and to just let go.  That’s what I have to do now.  I have to trust fully in the Lord.  I have to let go of my own self-reliance and self-centered ways and allow Him to work in my life.  Trust is the key to it all.  Do we trust in the works of God and the finished works of Jesus Christ?  Do we believe in His unfailing love and unending pursuit of our hearts and our lives?  Do we trust in Him with our lives?

I used to often doubt myself.  I would just go along thinking that it was easier to just get along with the world and not rock the boat.  To hide all my junk, all my sin, all my wounds, and the emptiness in my life to just let the world dictate my decisions.  When I would get a little courage to step forward, something would pull me back or I would doubt myself again and life would return to what it was.  I would sometimes here the enemy putting in my heart that those were just silly ideas.  That I needed to just get along.  Live a secure life with steady and secure income and all that.  Don’t rock the boat.  Don’t venture off the smooth path.  What was it old school preachers used to say, the smooth and wide, gold filled path of the devil.  Never understood that until recently.

I look to Scripture also when thinking about trusting in the Lord.  Romans 10:11 says, “Anyone who trusts in Him will never be disgraced.”  That gives me great confidence in knowing that if I just my full trust in where He is leading, that I can’t go wrong.  How can any of us go wrong if we are trusting Him.  It doesn’t mean the way will always be easy, because it won’t.  There will be difficulties.  There will be times where we are pushed to our limits and I know I will be in this too.  But disgrace will never fall if I trust in Him.

Look to the Psalms too.  David said in Psalm 31:14, “I am trusting you, O Lord, saying, You are my God! My future is in your hands.”  I am praying for the same level of trust with my life and that I just let God take control fully and trust my future to His hands.  That’s what we all need to do.  Trust in the Lord with all that we are.  Love Him, Trust Him, and Worship Him.

George McDonald said, “Few delights can equal the presence of one whom we trust utterly.”  That tells me that if there is nothing in the world that can be more satisfying that having God’s presence in my life and trusting Him with my life.  How could I possibly let anything else steer me away from that.  Augustine said, “Trust the past to God’s mercy, the present to God’s love and the future to God’s providence.”  Now that I have dealt with my past junk and surrendered that to the Cross of Jesus Christ, I can let God love me in the present now where I trust in Him and then allow His will to unfold in my life.

It’s going to an exciting journey.  Going to be busy and I know there will be days where I won’t want to write a single thing.  But I will keep updates rolling on my progress as the journey to be a Christian Counselor begins to unfold.  I definite seek prayers in this journey as well.

Be Present Now

Leave a reply

We have a serious problem in our world today that seems to get worse and worse as the years role by.  It’s not just because I’m getting older and can notice it, but because I see it each passing day, week, month, and year.  We are moving too fast and we are getting to pre-occupied with so much that this life is moving by too fast and we are losing valuable time.  I hear this every year and have said it myself.  Wow this year flew by.  Have you ever stopped to wonder why it feels that way?  It’s really quite simple if you stop to think about it.  We are moving too fast and are too occupied with multi-tasking, wallowing in our past, and focused on the future that we miss something very vital.  We miss the present.  We miss the precious time with our spouses, our children, our friends, and above all, our God.  We forget the importance of loving in the present.  Loving now and living now rather than being stuck in our phones, our computers, our television, and the rat race in traffic trying to get that job.  Like Brooks says in Shawshank Rememption, “The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.”  That was back in the 50s.  Fast-forward to now and we move even faster.

This week, my son’s high school baseball team is playing in the 2nd round of the state playoffs.  We had to drive down to south Georgia, about 250 miles south of home to play.  While driving it hit me just looking at the speedometer.  We are easily 75-80+ mph all the time.  When I was kid, 60 was the norm, from what I can remember and it slowly go faster since then. That’s a prime example.  Yes, the cars are better and faster and more advance, but our lives are faster and faster now too.  Way, way too much going on all at once and it can do some serious damage to our lives if it hasn’t already.

Love in the present.  When it comes to our wives, we need to love them in the moment.  Love them now.  Pursue them and allow them to know that we value everything about them.  That we value their love and we value everything they have to say.  You can’t value them and their sayings when you’re pre-occupied by the game or pre-occupied by your phone, your email, social media, or whatever else you have going on.  Love them in the present.

Tell you quick story about a husband.  He loves his wife very much, but at the same time, he often fails to show it when she speaks to him.  He often times listens to her talk, but is either thinking of other things, or just doesn’t full engage to where he truly hears her.  When he has done this, it makes her feel unimportant.  It hurts her heart.  It also makes him look like a complete ass.  This guy is me.  It’s something I struggled with for a long time.  Maybe a guy thing, but not an excuse.  Guys we need to stay present in our the lives of our wives.  When they are sharing, stay in it.  Pursue her.  Let her know that she is valued and all that she has to say is valued and that you love her with every word she speaks.  That’s your wife, your other half.  Your chosen companion that you unite as one to bear the full image of God together.  Love her in the present.  Live your life with her in the present.

Quit living in the past or future.  We all have so much going on in our lives that we find ourselves jumping from one thing to the next and allow life to move by so fast.  We lose focus.  We need to slow down.  Living in the past is paralyzing to our lives and focusing too hard on the the future and what is always to come forces you to lose focus of the now.  Check out the video below.  As this man, Propaganda, learned from his father, we can’t hear past the explosions when we are so pre-occupied with our past or so focused on the future.  It only leads to stepping on land mines that are crippling and can damage our lives now, sometimes permanently.  Live in the present.  Be present today.

We only have one shot with the time we are given.  Time will slip away so fast if we won’t be able to get it back.  Multi-tasking is a myth.  Love the time that God gives us now and stop focusing on what was.  Jesus came to heal us from what was in our brokenness.  Trust in Him and you can “Go and sin no more.”  God is all about our love with Him now.  Yes, the reward is the Kingdom should we choose to accept Christ.  That life, that freedom, that eternity, begins now.  Trying to multi-task and doing a thousand things because you think you just have to keep going and going and going only adds to the pressures and only makes more precious time slip away.

Stay in the present.  Stay focused on the now.  Stay focused on where God has you and is leading you. Follow Him.  Stay focused on loving your wife, or your husband for you ladies out there right now.  Don’t let things in life become so distracting that we just let time fall away.  We only have so much time here in this life.  Choose to come alive.  Not by going and going faster and faster.  But by loving God and loving each other now.  By being present in our lives now.

Wanna Be A Real Rebel?

Leave a reply

We hear so much talk of people rebelling.  Going against the system or against the norm.  Non-conforming.  We see this a lot in our youth and even into adulthood.  Rebelling to us can take on many different forms and looks or it may involve different actions one takes.  One may look at going to college as conforming so they don’t go to college as one example.  Often what I have found is that many forms of rebelling come out of brokenness and/or lead to a life of posing and hiding.  The same can be said for those that don’t do the “rebel things” but put on a fake posing smile about their life to hide their brokenness.

What I have discovered though is that there was one and only one real rebel.  This is the person who is Jesus Christ.  You want to talk about a rebel?  Jesus was the ultimate rebel.  The ultimate outlaw.  Why do I say this?  Simply because he chose to directly challenge the norms of society and religion.  He chose to walk in Truth no matter what it took and didn’t bow or compromise any part of Himself that would take away from His calling from the Father.  Jesus was a rebel by the standards of this world and today would be a rebel by the standards of this world.

Jesus lived by a different set of rules that were not governed by this world and by society.  He was a sanctified trouble-maker in the fact that he lived by this set of rules and never once even with all of the temptation and suffering and ridicule He faced, did he compromise those rules or given in and capitulate.  He stood toe to toe with the Pharisees and religious self-righteous.  He stood toe to toe with Satan.  He broke the rules because of the authority and mission He was given from the Father.

Jesus also did something else that we find it so hard to do in this world.  Simply trust in the Father and surrender to His will.  He knew he was about to be tortured brutally and sent to die.  He knew it was coming.  With all that, He still wanted the Fathers will done.  Jesus was fully human and suffered more than we could possibly imagine in order to set us free.  Jesus loved the Father just as the Father loved Him.  If you just turn to the Gospels and study, you see time after time the rebellion of Jesus Christ on earth.  From challenging rules on hand washing, to healing on the Sabbath, and to clearing the temple with a corded whip He made.  It’s there as plane as day for us to see.

This world has become so jacked up and corrupt and our lives are so full of junk and brokenness.  Whether we rebel in our worldly way or conform, we are filled with it and we simply do what Jesus never did.  We fall away from the Father and compromise our faith through selfish self-reliance or out of fear of the world.

You want to be a real rebel?  A real rebel is one that never compromises their faith and seeks the will of the Father in all they do.  Jesus was that to perfection.  I know none of us can ever be that kind of perfection, but he was what being a man as all about and rebelled by standing on Truth.  This is something we need to try doing ourselves.  Don’t let the world dictate to us and don’t let our brokenness force into hiding and capitulation that this is all that life is about.  Jesus brings healing and restoration to our brokenness.  His rebellion paved the way to our the grace we now live in and the glory that is ours through a life filled with Christ.

Jesus had what John Eldredge referred to in his book Beautiful Outlaw a “scandalous freedom.”  Eldredge states that “the risks Jesus is willing to take with reputation is simply stunning.” Most of us would not be willing to do what he did.  Would not be willing to stand in the way of world religions and traditions to stand on Truth and by the will of God.  Jesus knew His purpose was going to do what was needed to fulfill that purpose.  He was not going to intimated into compromise.  Bottom line is, if you want to do something rebellious for real, stand true to your faith in Jesus and to the Word of God and never, under any circumstances, compromise the Word to satisfy worldly, post-modern, and religious views.

Living Out Romans 1:16

Leave a reply

There is a major problem we have in our society today.  It has to do with our willingness to live out and boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and tell the world the Good News of Christ.  There are many that are out there day after day being bold in proclaiming the Word, but the problem that we have that are far too many of us, and I have been in this camp as well, that don’t live out what we believe and don’t share or talk about the Good News of Jesus with others.  The problem comes because many are too afraid of what people will think or are afraid of being looked down upon, ridiculed, or being trash talked and accused of “shoving their religion down someones throat.”

Since my rebirth, it has been astounding to many, since God opened my eyes to see this phenomenon.  We get so afraid of what others say and therefore, even though we believed, freeze when the chance to share that faith or our testimony comes around.  Like I said, I had this issue for a long time.  I’m still not always the best at going out and just striking up conversations about it, but definitely working on and will defend my faith fiercely if ever challenged.

Saturday night, I was up late with my family watching the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight.  I have been a Manny Pacquiao fan for a few years.  For one years, he is Philipino, which I am half Philipino.  Seeing where he came from and knowing where family has come from makes me a fan.  But something more hit me recently and that was Manny’s born again faith in Jesus Christ.  He is a man that readily admitted all the junk he had in his life, violently repented, and surrendered his life to Jesus.  He lives it out everyday.  I’ve watched many interviews where he talks about this and he makes that such a profound part of life and his driving force.  No matter the outcome he had trying to box a runner, he already won, because his life is now all in for the Lord.

Manny does something with his fame that is so huge.  He lives out Romans 1:16 where Paul states, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”  Manny is not ashamed at all and you can see it in how he speaks, his whole demeanor, and the way he conducts himself now despite his success.  Remains humble and no matter what anyone may say he is bold about his faith and is not ashamed.

This many seem like a nobrainer for many, but the reality is that we are all called to boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This comes down just looking past what others may say.  Not caring about the secular opinions or those pick and choose what they like from the Word to advance their post modern ways of thinking and try to demonize the Truth when it does not agree with their agenda, which we see everyday now in our society.

As 2 Corinthians 5:20 says, “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” We as believers are all called to advance the Good News and God has gifted each of us with unique talents and abilities to be used to proclaim who He is and His love for all of us.

I have been so on fire for God and I can proudly say that I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is something we all need.  Not just to pay lip service to our faith, but to seriously live out our faith and proclaim it to the world.  “You also are the called of Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:6).  The call belongs to us all.  Brothers and sisters, lets stand and be bold.  Don’t be ashamed of who we are as God’s sons and daughters.  Jesus has made us new and lets all burn hotter and brighter with passion for God.

“The world needs to see Christians burning, not with self-righteous fury at the sliding morals in our country, but with passion for God.” – Kevin DeYoung

Ask Why or Fall on God

Leave a reply

As we all know, suffering and heartache are a part of our world.  In our fallen race as humans, we live a world where evil has been allowed in and as a result our daily lives are filled with anguish and trauma.  It’s inevitable in our world until Christ returns.  When something bad does happen, say you are someone you know and love becomes ill, a sudden death comes, a bad accident, someone falls to addition of any kind, and many other things, what is one question that so many of us ask of God?  We ask, why.  Why do these things happen?  Why did he have to die?  It’s a part of what we live with and something we all struggle with.

Do you know something, though?  Asking God why is such a selfish question?  It really is.  It is our attempt to interrogate God like he is the one that caused those things.  No, God didn’t cause my Dad to die.  He didn’t cause that young girl to get raped.  He didn’t cause that dear friend to develop cancer.  He didn’t cause alcohol, drug, or sexual addition.  Satan was gained dominion over this world and therefore chaos happens.  Suffering happens.  We can’t ask God why, because these are things we will never understand.  God didn’t cause those things, but I tell you what, He is still there, and He wants to use those circumstances to bring us back.  Not to understand, but to just trust in Him.

What does that famous Proverb say, Proverb 3:5. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.”  I’ve heard this recited many times over the years, yet still people easily forget about it.  They may trust for a short while, but then it’s right back to life as usual or the life of blaming God for circumstances or suffering.  Again, God didn’t cause it, but He wants to use what did happen to bring us back to Him.

C.S. Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” When we experience suffering God is right there trying to pull us to Him.  Those sufferings can be used glorious ways, if we are willing to get out of His way, stop leaning to ourselves, stop asking why, and just fall on God

Do not lean on your own understanding.  This is a key part of this Proverb.  We have to remember that we will never fully grasp why suffering happens or why anything happens for that matter.  There are so many glorious mysteries of God that are to remain mysteries to our human self.  We just lean to fall on Him.  Paul Claudel said, “Jesus did not come to explain away suffering or remove it. He came to fill it with His Presence.”

Many of you know the story of my Dad and how we lost him suddenly in a car accident over 5 years ago.  It was suffering like I had never experience before.  To have him ripped away so suddenly was traumatic and then the void left was immense.  I wondered why to myself quite often.  Tried to make sense of it all.  Even through time in Scripture and when I began to find my faith again, I still struggled with this.  I was still too caught up in self and not falling to God.

When God finally got me to let go and just lean to Him in this suffering, it was so amazing.  This was about a year and half ago or so about 4 years after his death.  My heart was not fully open, yet God never gave up on me during this time.  Since then, God has continually transformed my life and my family with each day that passes.  Yes, suffering and struggles still come our way and when I sit and think of my Dad’s death, a tear will sometimes fall, but I no longer try to understand for myself and rather fall on God.  Trust Him with it all. God has put this on my heart repeatedly, to just trust Him.  Let go and let God.

With all of this said, I am in no way diminishing the pain and anguish that comes with traumatic situations that come in our lives.  However, it is a part of our life because of the world we live.  The enemy seeks to steal, kill, and destroy us and our hearts and in these tragedies and struggles, that’s what he tries to do.  On the other hand, we have the power and glory of Jesus Christ to lean towards.  We have the armor of God, should we choose to put it on and then when we fully let God and trust in the Lord, we can deal with our sufferings so differently.

 

Sweet Victory That Can’t Be Taken Away

Leave a reply

I’ve been inspired about a word this week that is so very true for our lives, but for many it just is not grasped as important or they don’t really understand the depths of this word.  That word is ‘Victory.’  Victory brings about a great deal of thoughts and even emotions for people.  It’s associated with sports when a team comes out on top to win, particularly a championship like Duke just winning the NCAA Men’s Basketball title last month or the Patriots pulling off a last second Super Bowl win.  It’s also more associated with the battle field and war.  The dictionary defines victory as ‘a success or triumph over an enemy in battle or war.’  For the victorious, there is a great deal of joy.  A great deal of pride.  The triumph can mean so much to the victorious.

I’ve began thinking and meditating on this word recently and the thoughts about another victory.  One that many lose sight of.  Actually a victory that is more significant and everlasting than any battlefield triumph or sports championship here in this world.  That is the victory that we have in the finished works of Jesus Christ.  This is so significant to all of our lives, yet so many fail to really grasp the real victory that we have and the battle that was won through Christ.

We live in a world filled with darkness and chaos all over.  It’s all over the evening news.  Look at what happened in Baltimore this week with the riots that broke out.  Also we saw where more brothers in the faith were martyred by ISIS when they were marched to the cost and killed.  The faith is under attack by post-modern thinking that discounts our faith or diminishes pieces of the Word for their own purposes and demonizes believers for staying true to God’s Word.  It’s running rampant and throughout history our fallen world has been filled with darkness and chaos.

Some 2,000 years ago, however, something significant happened when Jesus was crucified, he was then raised to life, and ascended to the thrown at God’s right hand.  Jesus has won the ultimate victory for us in many ways.  Sin was forever defeated, death was conquered, and Jesus is given authority over heaven and earth.  Jesus’s blood paid the ransom for our lives.  He took everything we deserved having fallen so far from God and now we live under God’s undeserved grace because of the obedience of Jesus.  It’s quite a victory and nothing could ever top just how significant a victory it was and is.

1 Corinthians 15:57 says, “but thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus is victorious.  He has already won the battle and what a sweet victory it is.  What’s even more awesome is that nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing can ever take this victory away.  The only thing that can happen is that we choose to turn away from it, but that’s our own choice in then end.  Jesus said in John 16:33 that we can take courage because He overcame the world.  1 John 5:4 tells us, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.”

I write about this because I feel it’s so significant to our lives.  Day after day we see suffering.  We see people that feel like there is absolutely no hope.  Not just in the news, but in our everyday lives.  They feel lost and don’t know where to turn.  I have seen this very close to home from kids to grown adults losing all hope feeling all alone. People just lose complete sight of the victory because of trauma and wounds they’ve experienced or just feeling like that they have no body.

The enemy sees this hurt and plants a foothold blinding them. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might now see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Now this points to the unbelieving, but the same can be said for the believer when they allow tribulations in their lives to pull them away from Christ.  It boils down to faith. In Matthew 17, Jesus said that faith as small as a mustard seed is strong enough to move mountains.  Nothing is impossible.  For many, because of our fallen nature it’s still so easy to lose heart and fall back away and forget that the victory is won.

I love the hook in Trip Lee’s song, “Sweet Victory” where it says:

I feel thorns where my crown was
I’ll be weak but I’m alive
From the dust until dawn yeah
I’ll survive cause I got
Sweet Victory
Nobody can take it from me
Sweet victory
Cause I got, sweet victory yeah

I feel like this so powerful for all of us to remember.  We may feel weak.  We may have times where we just struggle, we may feel down, but we are alive in Christ.  We have sweet victory that can’t be taken from us, ever.  We win because Christ already won for us.  As Jesus said, we will still have trials and tribulation in our lives.  Until His return that’s the world we live in still.  We can take heart and bring the finished works of Jesus Christ over our lives and bring the Cross of Christ between us and any struggles we face.  We are victorious in Him, forever.  Let’s take great joy in this and know that no matter what we face, Christ overcame to free us and we can overcome through Him.

“God expects you to have the mentality of a conqueror. See yourself as a victor in Christ Jesus, and go about life with a holy swagger!” – Pedro Okoro