“For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”
Romans 5:10
(This photo was taken in June of 2013 in Badlands National Park in South Dakota. The shadow was produced by our son standing with his arms opened wide)
It takes courage to examine our lives and admit our wrongs. It takes a close and personal relationship with God to feel comfortable opening up past guilt, shame and sadness. Start today…invite or re-invite Jesus into your heart during this season of Lent, confess those things that hurt and ask for His healing grace and mercy. Leave worry behind…He loves you and is waiting to hear from you.
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
1 John 1:8-9
(This photo was taken in the fall of 2014 on the Northern coast of Maui)
He Is Risen!…and so we are forgiven.
Hallelujah!
“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”
Psalm 51:10-12
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.
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.
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.
In my opinion in our society and our world today…to surrender, by definition is to yield to the power of another, however, to give up is to quit. Depending on your context one is a transition and the other carries a negative connotation or a defeated and deflated feeling. When we listen to the news on TV or read about events online it is easy to feel defeated and deflated by how people in this world choose to treat each other.
Don’t give up…..we live in a fallen world and it is very easy at times to believe that all is lost. The Good News is…that is not true. We practice surrender and don’t give up more often than we realize.
For example, you are sitting at your computer doing the things you love (like reading blogs) and something happens…the computer stops responding and then starts popping up boxes and then the “blue screen”. What happened? You begin to “troubleshoot” with your vast PC knowledge…you are spending hours trying everything to recover what has been lost…a working computer. Alas, you have exhausted your abilities and still nothing. So what do you do? Do you give up? Never use that computer again? No. You surrender to others who have worked on and repaired computers for living, they often work for companies that create and develop new computer technology.
Now back to our fallen world…there we are living our lives doing the things we love when out of nowhere the world seems to stop responding to us and events keep popping up that trouble us and then we lay down in defeat looking up at the “blue SKY”……wow isn’t this a beautiful day!
Don’t give up on this world. Surrender to the Creator…he knows what is troubling you. The best part about faith is it comes with a guide book…the bible. On this blog I have a Favorite Bible Verses page that I will change from time to time. The guide book that has been provided us tells us not to give up but trust in God. Here are two verses I look to:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 3:5-6
“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
So take all your problems, all your concerns and lift them up and surrender them to God. He knows you better than you know him and he loves you unconditionally no matter what.
Find your guide book and open it.
Over the years, so many that have served in the military have paid the ultimate price in this world. To lay down your life so that others can prosper. As we live this day let us not forget the gift that they and that Jesus has given us all. As Paul wrote in Galatians 5:13-15…
“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: Love your neighbor as yourself. If you keep biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”
May God bless you and your family and friends this day and may we forgive those we have been “biting and devouring” in our own lives. Peace to you all.
Take Your Faith With You 