Faith

Reflect, Restore, Renew

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The following is taken from my Devotional bible and was written by a man named Bob Benson.  I share it because it is an excellent summary regarding the presence of God in our lives.  Also, because Bob Benson who was one of the Christian world’s leading publishing executives and the author of six books, he succumbed to cancer in March of…..1986.  Yet here I am in August of 2013 and his words still provide a blessing to me this day…maybe they will to you to.  Well done Bob Benson…Well done.

When life caves in, you do not need reasons, you need comfort.  You do not need some answers; you need someone.  And Jesus does not come to us with an explanation; he comes to us with his presence.

We are always seeking the reason.  We want to know why.  Like Job, we finally want God to tell us just what is going on….

But God does not reveal his plan, he reveals himself.  He comes to us as warmth when we are cold, fellowship when we are alone, strength when we are weak, peace when we are troubled, courage when we are afraid, songs when we are sad, and bread when we are hungry.

He is with us on our journeys.  He is there when we are home.  He sits with us at our table.  He knows about funerals and weddings and commencements and hospitals and jails and unemployment and labor and laughter and rest and tears.  He knows because he is with us.  He comes to us again and again.

                                                                                                –          Bob Benson

Peace to you today.

Patience and Persistence

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Sometimes we all wish God worked like a drive-thru…quick, cheap and efficient?  We could just pull in and get whatever we needed whenever we needed it.  Those thoughts come directly from the world we live in.  Everything in this world seems focused on the quick, convenient, fast and easy…we want more we want more.

My toughest moments in my faith journey…times when I have felt a letdown or disappointment have occurred because I lacked Patience and Persistence.

Patience – defined as “bearing pain or trials without complaint”; “showing self-control”

Persistence – defined as “to go on resolutely or stubbornly in spite of difficulties”

These are two qualities that are not promoted in our world yet when we focus on them we usually are closer to living God’s plan for our life rather than our own plan.  I have always been a better husband, father, son, brother or friend when I practice patience and persistence.

In my spiritual life I define Patience as waiting for the Lord.  He is always there and he always working his plan in your life even when you think nothing is happening.  Every interaction with another person is an opportunity and a blessing.  When we are patient we can smile and make eye contact with the grocery store or convenience store clerk.  When passing by someone we know we can say “Hi” with a smile instead of “Hey, How you doing?” as we speed past not waiting for a response because we didn’t really want to know how they were doing at that moment.  When we are patient as a friend we really listen to what our friend is saying and not thinking about what we are going to say next in conversation.  When we are patient we will be willing to sacrifice some of our own wants and needs to help others.

Persistence can be defined as never giving up of God.  Things will not go the way you want or just the way you planned but maybe you ran ahead of God and it wasn’t time for you to get that job or start that adventure.  Maybe he knows you have some more trials coming ahead.  It is not punishment, that is not how God works.  He has a plan for how he wants you to use the gifts he gave you and he knows the events you are going to encounter in life.  Your job is to learn from trials and pray about them and listen for God to respond.  For example, if you need the courage to ask someone for forgiveness or you need to forgive someone for something…pray about it daily and be watchful for that opportunity to be forgiven or to forgive…it will come.  Just be persistent about your prayer.

In closing, one of my favorite Bible verses speaks to these qualities it is this:

“I am confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord”

                                                                                                                     Psalm 27:13-14

Peace.

Look At the People God Uses

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While I was thinking about starting to write this blog, I often thought, “What could I have to offer?” or “Why would God want me to speak about him to others?”  This kind of thinking is exactly what the Evil in the world wants us to believe.  Then I read about people in the Bible or I read what authors like Max Lucado, Charles Swindoll or Rick Warren and Billy Graham have to say about the people God uses and I begin to realize this is exactly what God wants me to do.

As we learn about faith and God’s love for each and every person in the world through life experiences and through the experiences others have written about, it turns out we all have something to offer the world.  We all have our own life.  We all have had an experience or heard about someone’s experience that was horrific and then it became extraordinary.  It all depends on your perspective.

From the Bible we have the stories of…

Noah

Abraham

Moses

David

Joseph

Plus many more….

All of these people had suffered through some tragedy of sin and had extraordinary things occur afterward because of God’s love and God’s grace.  Through some of my own life experiences that I have mentioned in earlier posts I have learned to ask, “What does God want me to learn?” or “How does God want me to use this experience to help others?”  Rather than asking “Why is God doing this to me?”

God doesn’t “do” sinful things to us…the human race has created and brought about sin all by ourselves.  It was our choice.  God knew we aren’t strong enough to overcome sin so he did the one thing he could…he sent us his Son.  The human race killed him…so God resurrected him to save us all.

So if you are wondering “What do I have to offer anyone?” try asking God and be patient for his answer….he created you, he knows the gifts he gave you.  You could start by reflecting on events in your life and this time when you think about them ask yourself, “What did God want me to learn from that experience?”  Remember he is about love, grace, mercy and forgiveness.

Peace.

We All Have A Choice

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We All Have A Choice

Which way to go?  What is the right path?  What if this or that happens?  Maybe I should wait to decide?  Life is full of choices each and every day.  From many experiences in my life I am beginning to learn to ask different questions like…What is God up to in my life?  or  How does God want to use me today?

I usually run into trouble when I start thinking too much about a decision on my own and I have been a slow learner when it comes to “consult God first and leave it in his hands”.  What I have found is life decisions seem to be easier when I look to God first and ask for wisdom and guidance regarding a situation rather than try to process every “If then” and “What if” I can think of on my own.

I can’t stop thinking about what the apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:10 “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, than I am strong”.

To me that says when I rely on God first, when I surrender to his will and not my own, that is when I can be at my best in this world.

In life it all comes down to this….we all have a choice on how we are going to live our lives…are we going to consult the Creator?  The one who made us, who loves us no matter what?  Or are we going to continue to stumble along the path of the fallen world and live writhing in sin without regard for what God intended for us?  (Been there done that)

We all have been given the same thing…..life and some amount of time to live it…what we choose to do with it is up to us.

May God’s peace be with you.

Living In The Present

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Living in the Present.  What does that mean?  I think it begins with making sure you are “present” in whatever you are doing.

To me, being “present” means focused attention.  The world is filled with distractions and when we choose to allow those distractions to take our attention away from everything else by trying to change the past or worrying too much about the future we end up missing what is right in front of us…..the beauty of creation, a child smiling and laughing or a child who needs help, a friend who encourages us or a stranger who we should pray for.  We should stop replaying what happened yesterday or what might occur tomorrow in our minds and live today to the fullest.

So how do we get there?

Answer….The Word of God.

I have struggled for many years concerned about what I should have said in a previous conversation or worrying about how I would handle things in a future interaction.  I would beat myself up for not doing something or worry constantly about what was to come…..as if I really was the one in control of such things. 

Then during a difficult time in our life financially, about 3-4 years ago, I was really down about the way things were going and when I thought they were just about to drop off a cliff completely…we were saved by the Grace of God.  My wife and I had completed all the paperwork to file for bankruptcy and left it with a lawyer…..we thought this was our only option…we thought we might lose our home we really didn’t know how things would turn out…meanwhile I had been looking for work.  One promising position was progressing well and they needed to complete the background check……if that report showed a bankruptcy I would not get the job….a few days had passed since we left the attorney’s office.  I figured I would call the lawyer to see if by chance he had not yet filed the papers, I figured there was no chance….and then God stepped in…..I called and asked “have you filed our papers with the court?”, he responded… “No not yet”……..oh my goodness, I couldn’t believe it.  I immediately put a stop to the process and I got the job and we have been working our way to the best financial position we have ever been in.  After that phone call and seeing the grace of God in our life, I decided I needed to start dedicating some time every morning to devotions and the Bible…..my reasoning, if I have time to read the newspaper I better have time to spend with God every day.

This was something I needed to commit to priority wise so I bought a Billy Graham devotional book and put it with my devotional bible I received from my parents 16 years prior and I began reading and praying for a few minutes every day I could.  This time has become something I look forward to each day…it sets my mind and thoughts up with an encouraging perspective, mindful of how God wants us to think and act and the more I stay focused on that the more peace and contentment I find in life.

For me, the hardest part and the biggest obstacle in becoming a man of faith has been ME!  Once I confess to God that I am only human, I am a sinner and I trust him because as it says in the gospel of John 3:16….For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  After reading so many different parts of the Bible about God’s grace, God’s love and God’s mercy I am so thankful for all that he has done for me that I have to do my best to live for Him.

Peace.

Mission Trip Day 8 – The Challenge Is To Take It With You

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This is our last night together.  Our group has bonded very well this week.  We have laughed together, sang songs of worship, served the homeless in shelters and out on the street directly.  We have cried together, shared stories of our encounters with people in need.  We have been silly together and have genuinely been shown kindness from several people along the way.

When you make a commitment to step away from your daily grind and focus only on where you are and what you can do to help others it gives you an opportunity to learn so much about yourself and what gifts God has given to you.  This Mission trip experience is unique and wonderful and the best way to honor what we have done together is to make the next commitment to use what we have learned in our home community.

This is one of the biggest challenges of faith and one of the many reasons I started this blog in the first place.

The youth in our church are so amazing.  They are so much better than me and my friends were at that age.  They are kind, generous, enthusiastic and totally filled with the Holy Spirit.  I am so impressed with their ability to step up to challenges of faith.  I hope we all take this time together and truly change the way we live our lives when we return.  It is too easy to slip back into our old habits and fill our schedules with busy time and forget we need to leave time for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives.

Heavenly Father, I pray that you lift up this week we have had together as a reminder to us that we need to continue what you have shown us.  I ask that you give us the courage to make a change in how we live our lives.  Lord, thank you for the blessings you have placed in us and around us, please guide us to the next challenge of our faith and strengthen us to do your will…I pray all of this in Jesus name, Amen.

Mission Trip Day 7 – Meet A Need

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If you read about or see people working in ministry in some way and wonder “what can I do?”…there are several different types of organizations all over the world that work to help others.  Every city has multiple organizations that work towards helping the hungry or homeless or those with addictions or tutoring for students, etc.  The key to figuring out what to do is ask God to help you identify or guide you to the gifts/talents he has blessed you with.

We can never forget that God created each and everyone of us with certian gifts and if we are paying attention we can learn what those gifts are and use them to help others in some way.  Even if you have never done anything before or you think “well I don’t have anything to offer.” It is just not true because God did provide you gifts to use in this world that will help others and the only way to know exactly what those are is to try new things and see how they fit who you are.

So go ahead…think about the things you enjoying doing and look for an organization that needs volunteers in that speciality.

The most important lessoned I have learned this week is this…..I have been blessed by God and all he needs me to do is go out and try to Meet A Need in our world based on the gifts he gave me!

How great is our God?!

Mission Trip Day 6 – ‘I’ Can Only Help One But ‘We’ Can Help Many

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As we have continued serving this week we have been exploring several themes and bible verses related to our work.  Today I find myself thinking about Luke 10 verse 2 in my original MT post that states…

“He told them, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

When an individual works to help another that is good and both the giver and the receiver feel good about things.  When more than one person gets involved in helping others the increase in value is exponential.   The world can be a difficult place and many people have to get involved in serving others in order for long term or sustainable change to occur.  This is not to say that one to one ministry is not good it is good and often needed but in order to move from charity which is good and helpful for the short term to justice which is investing in long term change many “workers” are needed.

I know we have made a difference in the lives of many people both directly and indirectly and I hope and pray that we can bring this momentum back to our home city and find a way to invest in long term help for people in our community…after all that is exactly what our Heavenly Father has asked us to do.

Peace.
  

Mission Trip Day 5 – Open The Eyes of Our Hearts Lord

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We all spend so much time in our daily life worrying about this and that or scurrying here and there.  All the while the single greatest command God gave is “Love one another”…..I spent time tonight experiencing an Immersion into the city with three incredible youth from our church.  The assignment…we were given $8 and a mass transit pass total for the four of us to eat and get around a specific neighborhood.  We were to find dinner somehow some way and as we walked through the neighborhood we were encouraged to talk with people to learn about the city.  Tonight we didn’t necessarily “follow” the path suggested for us and because of that the holy spirit was able to guide us and lead us to a woman I will call Mary.

We encountered Mary sitting on a camp chair on the sidewalk in the middle of an affluent neighborhood…..we stopped and talked to her about the city and how things have changed in her life.   She told us she has been homeless since the war ended, which war we don’t know.  She explained how she had been beaten by people in order to steal her things and her food.  She told us about her friends in the neighborhood and she even told us what areas of the city to avoid for our safety!  Imagine a woman who has been living on the streets and suffering worried about our safety.  We should all consider being so generous.  The youth had decided that we should find some food and share our meal with Mary.  Again, we had $8 to buy our meal.  The only place we found was a drug store and for a total of $6.91 we bought a package of buns, a packet of deli turkey meat, a 2-liter bottle of ginger ale (Mary’s request) and a large bag of chips.  We returned to Mary.  The four of us each had a bun with some turkey on it and everything else, including more buns and turkey we gave to Mary.  We asked her if she would pray with us and she agreed and provided the names of others we should include in our prayer.   Eventually we needed to be returning from our assignment so we said goodbye to Mary and began the journey back.

Through our entire time with Mary the one thing I can’t get out of my mind is the reactions and facial expressions of the hundreds of people passing by while we spent our time chatting and eating with Mary.  So many of them looked so surprised or shocked and how sad is that…..it makes me realize we all need to do a better job of opening the eyes of our hearts to the people in our world that need our help, myself included.  We can’t help them all but our little group spent a wonderful evening talking and sharing a meal with a woman that the world around her has no idea even exists.  Help us Lord, help us see the Mary’s of our broken world.

Peace.

Leaving For a Mission Trip Today

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I am heading out with a few other adults and 20 or so senior high youth from our church today to go and serve others in need.  We are hitting the road driving to a city much larger than our own but it could be any city, including our own, that has people in need.  Our bible verses surrounding us for this trip come from Luke 10:1-12…

“After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.  He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.  Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals and do not greet anyone on the road.  When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house’.  If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you.  Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages.  Do not move around from house to house.  When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you.  Heal the sick that are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’  But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you.  Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.  I tell you it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.”

I have come to understand that the only way we can grow in our spiritual life is to try new things and challenge ourselves regarding faith.  There was a time in my life that a mission trip was the last thing on my mind and yet that probably means God was the last thing on my mind as well.  I am glad that times have changed…

I pray for our group on the trip that we can all grow in faith and grow closer to God and that all people we encounter will see the love of God through our actions.

I will post as often as I can as we go to share my thoughts and reflections…Peace to you.