Romans: Submission to God

September 13, 2012 in Character, Discipleship, God's Will with 0 Comments

Romans 8:7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

 When we live for our own desires, we won’t let anything get in the way of what we want when we want it.  That includes God.  It’s impossible to choose worldly pleasure as a way of life and also submit to God.

The truth is, if life is lived for self, then God is an enemy because He calls us to lose ourselves for His sake.  We can’t hold on to everything we desire and still seek to please Him.  Let’s visit that thought again with a new emphasis.  We CAN’T hold onto the selfish desires of our heart and still follow God.  It’s not possible!

Yet, so many people try to do this.  So many Christians who have truly been saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ still try to live according to their own wants and perceived needs.  The very thought of putting aside those desires to seek out what God wants is offensive.  Do you see how this makes one hostile toward God?  When you think God is trying to take your stuff away, you fight Him.  That’s not the way of the Christ follower.

Submission to God means seeking first what He wants.  The good news is, He knows better than we do what’s good for us anyway.  The things we hold onto are nothing compared to what He has for us if we obey and let Him lead.  If you’re holding on, give this a try:  let go and ask what God wants for you.

Romans: Flesh is Death

September 11, 2012 in Character, Discipleship, Sanctification with 0 Comments

Romans 8:6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

To be caught up in worldly things is to be ineffective as a follower of Jesus Christ.  We can’t serve two masters, though many have tried.  The simple truth is that our allegiances can’t be split between the flesh and the Spirit.  To live life as a Christian, we have to walk with the Spirit.

If anyone knew about worldly pleasures, it was Paul’s audience in Rome.  A church of relatively new believers (Christianity hadn’t been around long!), they were essentially in the capitol of the world.  Rome had so many things to offer to distract the Christians from their calling as disciples.  They had to choose whether they wanted to live like the Romans (When in Rome…) or life the lives God had in mind for them.

We all have that choice to make.  Just because we have been saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ doesn’t mean we live effective lives.  We have to choose each day to listen to God’s voice as He directs us.  We have to choose to read His Word so we know more about His nature and His will.  We have to take the time to pray so that we can hear from Him and speak to Him.  We have to have intentional relationships with others and we have to put aside some of our own desires for the sake of reaching people.  All of these choices require us to deny the other things calling out to us.

Change, Nobody Likes It, Everybody Needs It

September 7, 2012 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

God is in the business of changing people.

Mark 2:1-5 When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. 2 Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While he was preaching God’s word to them, 3 four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. 4 They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. 5 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”

Everybody should have friends like this man, some very determined men decide that they are going to take their friend to Jesus so that he can be healed from his paralysis, they have a great idea that will change the mans life forever.

Too bad that life gets in the way when we are making plans. We make our plans but a lot of the time God has a different idea about what is going to happen. What they want to do for their friend will not be as easy as they think it will be. They are going to have to make some changes but they are not the only ones.

Change your attitude

Think about the man that has been paralyzed, I have to wonder if he is feeling sorry for himself because of his difficult situation, maybe he is living in fear, or pity. He might be too proud and unwilling to ask for help. We don’t know what his attitude was but it needed to be one of humility and submission.

Is there an area in your life that has you paralyzed? Will you reach out for help?

Change your method

These men were awesome friends that couldn’t be stopped. They were on a mission, they had a plan, but when they got to the house where Jesus was at they realized that they had to move on to plan b. They would have to be open to using a different method to get the results that they had wanted their friend to experience.

Who do you know that needs to get to Jesus? What will you do to get around the road blocks?

Change your plans

The guy that owns this house is probably feeling pretty good that Jesus came into his home, that is until he saw how many people were going to mob the place, now he has to ask himself if the invite was worth it. First he has the mob stomping around his house and now there are people tearing up the roof. He probably thought that asking Jesus over wasn’t going to be a big ordeal but now he has a lot of time and money invested in this.

Have you ever been inconvenienced because God wanted you to invest in someone that has a need? Was it worth your time and money to help?

Change your focus

How about this crowd of people, I wonder how they felt about this man that skipped to the front of the line to get his miracle, they could easily be upset with him if they don’t get their turn. They could be selfish and shout out to Jesus that it wasn’t fair. They needed a miracle and they could have gotten jealous that this guy was healed if they returned home in the same condition that they were in before they went to see Jesus.

Do you need to take your eyes off of your own situation and think of others? Do you think that God has treated somebody else better than he treated you?

God is in the business of changing people from the moment that we give into him and agree that we need a Savior until the day that we die. Nobody likes change but sometimes it is exactly what we need to bring us closer to God and his glorious plan for our lives.

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Romans: Live According to the Spirit

September 6, 2012 in Character, Discipleship, God's Will, Holy Spirit, Sanctification with 0 Comments

Romans 8:5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

Is your mind set on things of the Spirit?  It’s pretty easy in today’s culture so saturated with entertainment and technology to fail to think about the right things.  Without even realizing it, we sometimes ignore God’s voice.

We live in a time when there is literally no excuse to ever be bored.  If you don’t like what you’re watching on TV, you likely have 500 other channels to choose from.  If that isn’t working for you, there are thousands of websites, many that claim to be “social” to keep you  occupied.  Magazines, smart phone apps and games, online gaming, the list is endless.  If we’re not careful we can be consumed by the things of the world.

But as Christians we’re not called to be consumed by this world.  We’re called to be set apart from it.  In the world but not of it, if you will.  The only way to truly be effective for God’s purposes is to set aside the many pleasures this world has to offer for the sake of doing what we’re called to do.  That doesn’t mean we never have fun or never set aside time for pure entertainment.  It just means we have a different worldview from which we operate.  We set our mind on the things of God and when we do that, the other stuff out there pales in comparison.

Looking Back

September 5, 2012 in Character, Healing, Help with 0 Comments


Every now and then I sit back at night and I stare out the window with a cup of tea in hand, and I wonder about the direction my life has gone in. It’s not so much that I have regrets, though, if I had the time again, I know there would have been some things that I would have changed. It’s that, in those moments, I just think about the ways it might have been different had a decision been one of the other choices I could have made.

Who would have I become? How would have it changed the person I am? Would it have changed him at all? Would I still have been the same or reached the same place? If I had, would my life have been any easier for getting there? If not, would I have been happy with the person I had become?

Sometimes, to be perfectly honest, I’m not always content with the places my life has taken me or the places I have wound up. In those moments it’s easy for me to slip into the “What If’s” of a different time and decisions. After all, life is made up of all of those little choices that we make along the way. Sometimes they’re so small that we don’t even recognize them as being as big as they are as they set us on a course we little expected, profoundly changing the direction of our lives.

It could be that it’s an important process for us to come to, to make peace with ourselves and the decisions that we have made and the road our life has gone down, especially when it hasn’t been all that we had hoped or thought that it would be. Yet it is also one that we have to be careful of lest we allow ourselves to fall into the trap of regret.

You see, our lives, at times, can take unexpected twists and turns. It can take us down a course and a path that we little expected for it to take us on. Perhaps it’s far from where we had ever thought we would be. The truth is, that happens. Yet, sitting back and wondering to ourselves how our lives might or could have been different does us little good in the grand scheme of the human experience.

For as much as the past may have had its effect on us and who we have become, it is not nearly as important as looking to the future and deciding what we want to make of it. (Philippians 3:13-14)

You see, life isn’t about living in previous things. Yes, perhaps we have made mistakes in them, but, in the end, about the only thing we can really do about it is put them behind us, and learn from them, knowing that even they had a purpose for us to draw upon. (Hebrews 12:10-11) Though God doesn’t want us to make mistakes, it’s not like His plan and His design for our lives can only operate if we are free of them. Loving, understanding, and knowing, even as He sets into motion the plans He does have for us, (Jeremiah 1:5) He does so taking into account the human element so that our future is one of hope and faith in that hope, (Jeremiah 29:11) even if we don’t necessarily understand at the time.

Sometimes then, it is just about how we let the decisions we have made pass through us as we let them pass by us, knowing that though they may have been hard, and perhaps they have taken a toll on us, God didn’t need us to make all the right ones from the start to help us reach the inevitable end that we need to arrive at. Our faith, our trust it has to lie in more than just the choices we make, knowing that while we take an active part in our future, for however far we may have deviated from the road we perhaps should have been on, we can be taken back to the path we need to go down.

Here, if there are changes to be made, it isn’t a question of how could of my life been different. It’s a matter of how can I make my life different. It is about looking at the gifts, the talents, the blessings and the hope that have been given to you by your Creator and using them, learning to become the person you want to be rather than perpetually looking back to the person you might have been. It’s about knowing that life is a journey, and one that does take unexpected turns, but also one that we are always growing, evolving in, one that, as we put our faith in a higher purpose and a higher meaning, heals us from the wounds of the past to start fresh with the future.

Be who you are, but do it with a firm eye on who you need to be. Remember God cannot reveal what is in front of you if you are perpetually looking behind you. He has more planned for you, it is just a matter of taking hold of it and moving forward, reminding yourself that the reason behind everything is revealed in time in love towards the person you were, are and can be. Lay your burdens at the feet of your Savior, Christ Jesus, and move forward with the love and the hope that God has intended for you and your life.

When you see the path as that journey you travel towards a place of hope, know that it is never going to be perfect, but it is going to give you the peace in who you have become that you have been searching for.

Come Before God And Stay Awhile

August 31, 2012 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

Can you be quiet?

Psalm 62:5-8 Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.

6 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. 7 My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.

8 O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge.

Usually when you go to see somebody it is because you have a purpose for the visit, some kind of agenda that you want to accomplish, as soon as we see them we start in on our list. It is too easy to approach God with the same mentality, we step into his presence and start in on what we have to say and when we are finished we go on our way, we never think that maybe God wants more out of our relationship.

To allow yourself to be in God’s presence without talking is to acknowledge that God is in control and that he is our hope. If we can come into his presence and just be quiet and refrain from talking  about yourself or about anything else that is cluttering up your mind is then we have proven that we are relying on him for everything.

God is looking out for our complete well being, our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being are in his hands. He is our fortress, a place of rest and refuge, there isn’t any good reason to put my confidence anywhere else, whether it be self confidence, confidence in somebody else or idolatry, nothing else can compare to God’s goodness and providential care.

I need to remember that he is a fortress, he is my salvation, my victory and honor comes from him and nowhere else. I need to approach him quietly and listen to his voice instead of making him always listen to my ramblings about my cares.

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When Faith is a Mystery

August 29, 2012 in Character, discernment, God's Will with 0 Comments

Faith can be a mystery to us as we struggle with the deeper questions and the more daunting challenges that we can face. It’s not so much the question of its existence. After all, most who abide in it understand that “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1) Rather, it’s a question of the why and how, finding ourselves wondering what possible good could come out of this even as we try to hold fast to the hope that we need.

Sometimes we don’t easily or quickly find the answers we need. Sometimes it feels as if we push a little too hard, trying to get to where we want to be, to where we feel like we need to be. We battle with these ideas and these thoughts that we just can’t seem to escape telling us something needs to be different, trying so hard to convince ourselves that these things too shall pass, but not entirely sure when or even if they ever really will.

It’s in these times that we struggle, not necessarily with the existence of God, but in what grand scheme, what grand design He has for us. We just don’t necessarily know. We cling to the promises that He has made, the promise that He will never fail us or forsake us (Joshua 1:5) or that if we need answers that He will give them to us. (James 1:5) We pray with that sincere heart, searching for the purpose and the meaning we are in such desperate need of and it seems like it is far removed from our lives.

What we have to remember is that God, He never promised us that the road we are going to go down was going to be an easy one, nor does He promise us easy answers or quick fixes. Sometimes we are told that our Heavenly Father, He just wants us to be happy. The truth is He does, there is little question of that. The redeeming sacrifice of His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, is the perfect example of that. Yet, He wants us to be happy for the right reasons and the right times, knowing that He has a time for all things. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) This is the way that He ensures that we are as He wills, never letting anything touch us that is more than we can handle. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Though the answers and the reasons may not be clearly apparent at first, this is why Christ, our blessed and good Shepherd, is there for us. He is there not just as the great and wondrous deliverance for our sins, but also to take upon Himself the yoke of our burdens, giving us the rest, hope and peace that we so need during the trials that we must face during this existence. (Matthew 11:28-29)

God’s path, and His design may not be the simplest or the easiest. It may, at times, even go beyond our ability to understand or comprehend as we travel it. That’s okay. Not all things are meant to be revealed right then or there, regardless of the challenges it may create. Sometimes, by knowing at that very moment it would even create a greater challenge to the spirit and to the soul that we just find ourselves unable to wrap our heads around, because not only did we not need to know right then, we just aren’t capable of knowing right then and there. Sometimes we need time to travel down that path to give us what we need to grow, to be, to find ourselves before the answers make any sort of sense to us.

Sometimes we need to let go of the how and the why and let ourselves be just transcend it. We need not to think of faith as a mystery but as a journey through the deeper places within ourselves, knowing that the trials we face and the adversities that are there are nothing more than markers on a road towards a greater end for our lives. We grow when we learn to let go, and we learn that though the moments may be hard, all of them weave together to create a greater picture that we are meant to see with time and space.

Let these moments pass through you, but don’t let their lessons pass by you as you search for meaning in them. In the end they will tell you of a grander, greater vision that God, in His infinite love has for you. You just have to let it.

God Cares For His People

August 24, 2012 in Character with 0 Comments

God is the ultimate family man.

1 Kings 17:8-16  Then the LORD said to Elijah, 9  “Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you.”

10  So he went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the village, he saw a widow gathering sticks, and he asked her, “Would you please bring me a little water in a cup?” 11  As she was going to get it, he called to her, “Bring me a bite of bread, too.”

12  But she said, “I swear by the LORD your God that I don’t have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die.”

13  But Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid! Go ahead and do just what you’ve said, but make a little bread for me first. Then use what’s left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son. 14  For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the LORD sends rain and the crops grow again!”

15  So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her son continued to eat for many days. 16  There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers, just as the LORD had promised through Elijah.

Every time that God punished the nation of Israel there was always a prophet to announce to the people and make it clear that the harsh times that were coming wasn’t just a coincidence but that it was a result of their sin and turning away from God.

God’s punishment for the sins of the nation of Israel didn’t exclude the prophets that were sent to announce the coming judgment, they also had to live through the hard times, but God took care of the men that took a stand for him and were willing to live for him.

Elijah told his countrymen that there would not be any rain which would in turn create a famine and even though Elijah had to live through the condition that he prophesied about he was sustained by God’s care. At first God provided a brook for Elijah to drink from and he sent the ravens to deliver meat for his prophet, but then after the brook ran out of water God chose a different way to provide for Elijah.

There were plenty of widows in Israel, women whose husbands had been killed in battle but God didn’t send Elijah to live with them but instead he was sent to a Gentile widow. Who knows, maybe this Gentile widow was a God fearing woman and was far more faithful than any of the widows of Israel. She certainly had some measure of faith since she was willing to prepare food and water for Elijah prior to feeding herself or her son. She believed in the promise of God and showed it by giving him his part first and then taking her portion from what was left.

Over and over again in scripture we see the Lord use the weak in this world as we see him give them the opportunity to do his work instead of the strong.

God’s people will have to suffer in this world when the country that they live in strays away from him. As America drifts away from God his people may have to suffer and may be persecuted but he will sustain his people and give them a bright future.

In desperate times we need to have the faith that God will sustain us.

Thank you for your love and goodness that provides for and sustains your people. I pray that our country will return to you and declare that you are the one and only God.

Romans: Fulfillment of the Law

August 23, 2012 in Discipleship, Fellowship, Love, Mission, Obedience with 0 Comments

Romans 8:4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

As Christians, it’s no longer our duty to live up to the Law.  The commands given to those under the old covenant are no longer our marching orders.  What then; do we throw away all of the commands as if they don’t matter?  No, we fulfill the Law by obeying our new command.

Jesus did not tell those under the new covenant to try and keep up the old.  Instead He gave a new command: to love.  (Romans 13:8-10)

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.  For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

It’s really as simple as that.  You want to obey God? Love.  You want to please Him? Love.  You want to do what’s right? Love.  Freedom from the Law is freedom to walk in love, and in doing so to fulfill the Law.

Marking Success and Failure

August 22, 2012 in Character, God's Will with 0 Comments

How do we mark our lives? How do we note the successes of it? How do we mark the triumphs that come with it?

Last week we talked about the feelings of failure that we can have. We talked about those gnawing senses that something just isn’t right. It was a question of when you look around and you can’t help but feel yourself overwhelmed and even a bit overshadowed as this sense that something just isn’t as it should be comes to dominate over you, leaving you with this lingering feeling that you aren’t as you should be.

It’s a difficult challenge that we can face, one that can wreak a special sort of havoc on us. Yet sometimes it’s not a matter of how we understand success or failure. It’s a matter of how we understand life.

You see, for as much as we want it to be sometimes, life isn’t something that’s just black and white. Situations, circumstances, they don’t make it that simplistic. Yes, perhaps we want it to be. It would, in most cases, make everything a lot easier for us. There wouldn’t be the conflicts and the struggles that cause the deeper questions to arise within us. We would know who we are, what we were meant for. No one and nothing could take that from us, because we would see the path’s that are in front of us just so much clearer.

It’s why we need to understand that though God has plans for our lives, plans that He has set out since the moment of our conception, since the time of our birth, (Jeremiah 1:5) it’s never quite as simple or easy as we may like it to be. This isn’t because God is somehow confusing. Our Heavenly Father is anything but, making Himself apparent in all things if we choose to look and to see it. (Isaiah 40:21) The problem is we don’t necessarily live in a world that’s that cut and dry, in a world that is solely guided by His hand and His influence.

Perhaps this is why we are called His workmanship, created anew in Christ for the works that He has intended for us. (Ephesians 2:10) Note the fact that isn’t that it doesn’t tell us that we are completed. No, it tells us that we are a worked by the hand of the Master Craftsman Himself, molded and form, shaped for the things that He has intended for us and for our lives.

What needs to be remembered is that though God’s design for our lives is towards the divine, He sets out His plan for our life with a deep knowledge of this world and our nature. He understands that to the person who everything is given, nothing is really valued, and to those who are never challenged, nothing is ever enough. It isn’t a matter of testing us, it is a matter of teaching us all that we need to know, never giving us more than we can handle (1 Corinthians 10:13) while showing us the path, showing us the road and the journey that we need to be on.

God uses this, whether it is our failure or our success, to guide us. They don’t define us, not even our greatest success or most tremendous of failures. They are intended to be nothing more than the deeper lessons that we can learn as we are directed towards the people we need to be. Even as one failure grips us, a success is waiting around the corner, and just as one success satisfies this need in us, chances are there are more failures still waiting for our lives. It’s because our Heavenly Father, He knows us. He knows that there are certain things we are only going to examine, that we are only going to question, and to actively seek the answers for, the answers He is waiting to give us (James 1:5) in these situations. Sometimes we need to be humbled to find where we need to be, while other times He elevates us because these triumphs are meant to show us a view that we need to have.

In all of this the question the Disciple needs to ask themselves is why? Why has this happened? It’s not a question to be taken lightly, or out of a sense of pity or arrogance. It’s a question that is meant to lead them towards the sense that they are supposed to make out of it, so they can find what God is trying to show them for their lives.

Once you see your successes and your failures as nothing more than markers on the road of life you can set about really living your life, moving through the journey that it’s intended to be to become the person that you need to. Each one step, it tells you, teaches you a little something about yourself as it shows you not who you are but directs you, in love, hope, faith and compassion, towards the person you need to be.

As we understand that we understand what is intended for us better than we ever did before dwelling on nothing more than the challenges, and the successes and failures of our lives.

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