A Journey Back To God

   

      Were you raised in church? I was. Did you learn "all about God?" I did. Most may believe this is great, and that I had an amazing jump start on someone who has no knowledge of God or Christ's sacrifice for us. I would beg to differ. This may offend some, but I'm going to say it anyway - there are bad churches. There, someone said it. There are churches that do not teach the Gospel as it is laid out in Scripture.  There are churches that do not teach against sin in order to create a place where everyone is welcome.  There are churches that, simply put, do not know who God is at all. I was raised in such a church. Did the church have good people, who loved one another? Yes. Did I benefit from what I learned in this church? Yes. Before this comes off the wrong way, I'm not saying that my being raised in church was not helpful, or "good."  My point is that my understanding and knowledge of who I am in Christ and who God is to me was skewed and misled, and is in some ways hindering me from growing in my relationship with God.

     The reason I mention this is because I had an interesting experience recently. I have been speaking with a friend for some time now. I have been sharing the Gospel, as well as many thoughts on situations, the Bible, and life in general. This person was not raised in church, as I was.  As of late, I have been reading Victory Over the Darkness by Neil Anderson.  In the first chapter, the author confronts you with an exercise. He asks, "Who are you?" Most would answer, initially, with their name. But that is your name. Who are you? Then they may say their occupation, but that is what they do. Who are you?  They may even respond with "I'm Baptist" (or fill in whatever you like). But that is their denomination. Who are you? At this point, I'm frustrated. Who am I? Finally, the author explains the simple answer that never crossed my mind - You are a child of God. That's it. Done. He goes on further to expose this as an exercise to show us how much we rely on things of this world to define us. Really, truthfully, we are defined by God.  Now here is where my point comes in: my friend answered the third "Who are you?" with "Oh you mean the basics of who I am. I am a child of God." Whoa... First, this person ruined the exercise :)  But what's more is that they completely threw me for a loop. How did they grasp it so quickly, when I was so focused on other things?  You could say different personalities, different spiritual understandings, etc..., but I think it is deeper.  I am coming from a point of extremity. I am coming from a place where God is structured, understood, and defined by my preset beliefs and notions from my childhood teachings.  My friend isn't. My friend is starting from scratch, starting completely new.  This person has no preconceived notions of God, nor any prior claimed understanding. It is so hard to me to throw my teachings of the past away, and let God be God. 

     So I have started a journey. I have to journey past all of the extremities in order to get back to the middle and really know who I am in Christ and to have a real and intimate relationship with Him. I have to scrap everything I have learned and start over. I personally believe this is an introspective moment we all should have. Do you believe you have God "figured out?"  Do you think you know how He works, and what He can and can't do? It definitely takes faith to reopen your mind to allow God to be free. To put God in a box and define Him, limits the unlimited. How can God be all powerful in our lives if we are constantly trying to define Him, understand Him and His ways, and put Him in a manageable box? This is a definite journey. I have to one by one destroy my notions of who God is in reference to this world, and grow in an intimate relationship, through faith, so that I may not define and limit Him, but define who I am in Him.  I do this so that I may be a vessel in which He can do great works through me, works beyond that which I could ever imagine. Let us stop trying to define God, and let Him define us.

God Bless

Driving Force For Victory

    So I've started something new, and it has changed my life.  I have started driving with the power of God. I know this sounds strange, but let me explain. There is a constant battle going on in all of our minds over our thoughts.  The enemy is trying to control us by us allowing control of our minds through our thoughts.  Our battle plan? Captivity. Take bad thoughts captive. Sounds relatively easy, right? Well, here's the kicker. You must not only take the thought captive, but also replace it with God's TRUTH.  Let me give you an example, by explaining my practice in this awesome battle plan.
 
When I drive, I get mad. I have a bad case of ROAD RAGE.

 This is my main time when bad thoughts are most prominent.  Someone cuts me off, and I am all of the sudden imagining myself throwing knives (which I don't keep in my car.....I promise....) out of my window at their tires.  Wow. Before I even know it, I am not only a master knife thrower, I'm also intentionally hurting someone, even if only in my mind. How did that even happen? I'll tell you how - my mind is a battlefield, and the battle is for my thoughts.  So this is my plan: I take the thought captive, out loud identify it as a lie from the enemy, and replace it with God's truth. So I literally say out loud, "This is a lie from the enemy, I have no right, nor any reason to hurt this person in any way." Then I replace it with God's truth, "Ephesians 4:26, 'In your anger, do not sin.' Ephesians 4:32 'Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.' In the name of Jesus Christ, I claim victory over this thought."  It is so freeing! How amazing it is that the enemy does not control my thoughts! He does not control my mood! He does not control ME! I am free in Christ, and He is free to fight for me! Because, I'll admit, I get so much practice doing this while driving....I have begun to integrate this battle plan into my daily life.  My thoughts are of God - of LOVE, and what a blessing it is to be free.

God Bless

Adding God to My Calendar

   I write this with a million things running through my mind - "What do I need to pick up on the way home today? What do I need to accomplish at work today? Where did I leave that paper that I need? What bills are due soon?".....etc...  It's SO hard to stop. What happens if I do? In my mind, my whole world falls apart. That's what. I have to be honest. That's how I feel sometimes. We all like to say how much we trust God, and how much we are working on trusting Him more every single day (which I'm not saying isn't true); however, we all have to admit that there are times when we get too busy, too focused on our wants, too wrapped up in what we begin to think is OUR lives. This is the great fallacy of our minds. By our very acceptance of Jesus as our Savior, we relinquish control of our lives to God. We agree in that moment, and all the moments thereafter, that God will be our guiding lighthouse into the shore, our driving force behind our actions, and our whole lives. But we're human. Is that an excuse? No. It's fact. Like the fixed time of prayer or David (Psalm 55:16-17), the set prayer times of Daniel (Daniel 6:10), or Peter and John and the Early Christians (Acts 3:1) we also need OUR time of prayer. But it's like we need God to break us to our knees, or we need someone to shake us and tell us that our soul will shrivel up and die without this life giving, relationship building, most powerful time with our Father in heaven. Peter Kreeft said, "Praying is more important than eating because your soul is more important than your body." When we focus on the things of this world and what we think is our own lives, we push out God's voice, and strain our relationship with Him.  I am saddened today, because I realize I have done this. I haven't written a post for this blog since last year. I'm not saying that having a blog is necessary for a relationship with God, but this blog has provoked more study and research of God's word, and given me more clarity and release of thought than anything else in my life ever has.  My prayer time increases and my study time increases when I am searching for answers throughout my daily life, and when I journal them in my notebook I keep for prayer and thoughts as well as transferring them here, for all to see.  This transparency is what I feel led to do, and it builds on my relationship with my Creator.
     I think of it as one of the old school communication devices, a string and two cans.  When the string is stretched tight, the vibrations are carried across it between the person at one end to the person at the other, and communication is possible.  Well God has held his can in the same place the whole time, yet the line is slack. Who moved? Me. My communication with God has suffered because I let the link get slack. The only think that prevents me from praying is more me.  It's my own inflated sense of self-importance, the elevation of my work, of my agenda, that keeps me from prayer and communication with God.  You know what Scripture calls that? Idol worship. I don't pray enough because I'm practicing idol worship. Romans 1:25 says, "They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen." That "creature" became me, myself, and I.  The extent of prayer in one's life is a direct function of whether something else has been set up as more important than God.  In this action, we operate separate from God. Not because He has left us, but because we have left Him.  We consider it "too much to go up to Jerusalem" (1Kings 12:28-30).  Instead we create our own "golden calves" and worship them until we realize how far we are from God.  What is saddest of all is that we then wonder why...   The easiest way to find time for God is to weave Him into every facet of your life. Consider His counsel in every decision, no matter how small. Have a constant conversation with Him every day (1 Thessalonians 5:17).  Make your prayer time His time, not yours. When all else fails, add God to your calendar. 

God Bless.

Great. How?

     "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." - Hebrews 11:1

   That is an amazing explanation of faith. It tells us not only what faith is, but also how it should be considered.  A lot of us will have no problem admitting that we are lacking in the faith department. We have a hard time entrusting our most prideful parts of our lives to Him. Though, sometimes, we do have moments of unbridled faith and love. These moments usually come in dark times in our lives when we believe we need God's help the most. Other times, these moments occur when we get answers to our purpose and talents in this life. Once we realize God's promise, and we make that jump to have faith in that end, it is easy to believe that it will happen. We have no problem seeing the end result. For example, you realize you have talents in medicine and pray for guidance. You receive a blessing letting you know that medicine is where you should do the work of God and spread His word. You are on your way to becoming a doctor. We have no problem believing that the end result will occur, and it is important that when we realize God's direction and guidance in our lives, that we keep our mind focus on His will. Our problem occurs after this faith in the end result occurs. We tend to ask God "how?" Now this, in and of itself, is not the problem.  Trusting God with every facet of your life and asking His guidance in all you do is a good thing, and is a vital part of walking with God. Our problem becomes our impatience. We want to rush the process. There is a saying that "Faith in God includes faith in His timing." This perfectly relates to our inability to follow God's process to His will for our lives. We want to take shortcuts, or we want to be more than He has asked us to be. This is where pride, and self-glorification can really get us into trouble, and possibly put us in danger of the enemy taking God's plan for our lives and turning it into a negative, if we let him.  We also are tempted to ask Him for or believe things are promised that are above and beyond the end result. Harry Emerson Fosdick said, "God is not a cosmic bellboy for whom we can press a button to get things done." This is, unfortunately, the trap we fall into when we let our minds wander to our desires, instead of His plan.  Hebrews 11:8 says, "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went."  Abraham had no idea where he was going or what to do, but he still walked, and followed God's plan for his life. This faith, not only in the end result, but in every step of the process along the way is what is required. No explanation is required, no further instructions, no need for over-analyzing every little detail, just faith in His promises and surrender to His will.

The Blame Game

    We all do it. It is so easy. "Its their fault." Ah, the infamous "they." "They" do a lot of things, apparently. Whether "they" have a name, or they are a government group, city council, school, etc...  We love to blame others. Anything bad that happens in our lives, anything that goes wrong, the fault is never our own. This is, unfortunately, something that is incredibly easy to do, and often times the people we blame don't even know they are being blamed.  We even, arrogantly, blame God. Instead of taking responsibility for our sin and disobedience, we blame God.
    There is someone that we blame more often than anyone else. Someone that gets the glory for things that do not go our way. Someone that is easiest to blame, and lets us relinquish all responsibility for our actions and sin. The enemy. I have heard Christians blame the enemy for everything from a flat tire to their family pet dying. This is not to downplay the very real spiritual warfare taking place every single minute of every single day.  There is an enemy, and he does come to lie, kill, and destroy. One way he does this is to obtain glory from us. By blaming the enemy, and constantly talking about how mad we are for what he is doing in our lives, we are giving him the glory. We are fueling the fire of his delusional chance at victory. This not only gives the enemy glory, it allows us to rid ourselves of any perceived responsibility for our own sin.  
    So how do we fight this urge? By giving the glory to God in all things. The enemy only has the power that you and I give him. If we are focusing on giving God glory instead of blaming others for anything and everything in our lives, then we take that power away from the enemy. 1 Peter 5:8-9 says, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you  know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings."  Resist the devil when you are discouraged.  Don't give up on God, He has never and will never give up on you. Stand firm in the faith. Look beyond your circumstances and know that Jesus obtained your victory over all trials when He gave His life for you.  The enemy has no power because he has already been defeated.  Take comfort in that you are not alone in this. Know "that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings." Jesus promised in Matthew 28:20, "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." He is the one who has the solutions to your problems, so there is no need to blame anyone else.  Focus on giving God glory in all things. In trials He teaches us and produces perseverance (James 1:2-4), and through His Son He produced victory for us. Trust in Him.

God Bless

Apologetics Almost Always Annoys

      Have you ever had an epiphany?  You know, to suddenly realize something and to see it clearly? This has happened to me recently about the subject of apologetics.  First, for those of you who are not familiar, apologetics is the branch of theology that is concerned with the defense of Christian doctrines. In other words, apologetics is the practice of answering questions that challenge our faith.  In this manner, it is how we answer questions about our faith to non-believers, differing faiths, etc…  There are multiple scriptures to back up the practice of apologetics, for example 1 Peter 3:15, “but in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”  I am not going to bash apologetics, I realize it is necessary and good; however, its use is not always necessary, and definitely not always good.  I love talking about scripture, the gospel, and God as much as anyone, but sitting around debating all day really doesn’t get anything done, does it?  Too many Christians use apologetics as a way to save the lost, or consider it spreading the gospel.  Unfortunately, this is not what is happening.  Some of you may not have had parents who used this phrase, but mine did: “A child should speak when spoken to.”  This is how apologetics should be used.  You are a child of God, and when you want to affirm and give someone the reason you have hope in Christ, be sure you have been spoken to first. Give an answer when there is a question.  The further I dive into apologetics when talking to a non-believer, the less I see it matter.  I am in no way saying not to share your faith, by all means share the gospel of Christ, but don’t consider it your life’s purpose to prove it. My main form of apologetics is my life. I want others, non-believers and believers alike, to see my life and know that there is joy, light, and purpose in all that I do.  Too many times, intelligent Christians will lean on apologetics as sharing the gospel instead of simply caring for someone.  How many chances have you missed to honestly listen and care about someone because you felt the need to justify your faith, even though it was never in question.  You have to ask yourself, are they really challenging my faith? 

God Bless

By The People, For God

Focus is often held on the role of a pastor, the role of the elders, and the role of the church, but very little focus is pointed toward the role of the congregation.  A community of believers, like any family, will have problems, but it is how these problems are handled that really matter.  Also, how the congregation operates together is vitally important to the growth of each individual as well as fulfilling the great commission. 

First, the congregation must be focused on the whole community of believers, not focused on the pastor.  Sometimes the pastor receives too much praise when things go well, and too much blame when things go poorly.  The pastor’s role is important, but he should be protected from every good or ill will in the congregation.  In other words, talk about the church and its mission as a whole body of Christ, rather than the pastor’s.  This can be seen in 1 Corinthians 12 best when unity and diversity in the body.

Second, the congregation should be truthful with their pastor and elders, as well as offer grace.  If there is an issue within the church or anything the church is involved in, it is the congregation’s responsibility to speak up to the pastor, staff, or elders concerning the matter.  No one will know there is a problem if there is not anyone who will speak up.  This also needs to be followed with grace.  If there is a problem, that is not a reason to spread the issue around the church, nor to let anger get out of control when voicing concerns.  We are all under the grace of God, every single person. 

Third, the leaders are not meant to do all the work. “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-13).  The congregation has just as much responsibility for furthering the body of Christ and accomplishing the great commission as anyone else.  This not only includes acts of service, but also even lifting the pastor, staff, and elders through prayer.  This is one of the most vital responsibilities of the congregation.  Pray for the church as well.

Finally, this is a sore subject among many congregations: conflict.  When there is conflict within a congregation, it can cause major rifts and ultimately damage many members.  One of the main things that can happen is that conflict can give the enemy a foothold to enter into the situation and turn many away from God.  Most believe that the pastor, elders, and staff have the responsibility of resolving conflict within the congregation.  This is, however, not the case.  The first responsibility falls on the congregation itself.  We are brothers and sisters in Christ and we have a deep spiritual connection to each other.  Our relationships are one of the main examples of how our relationship with God is doing.  There are multiple verses stating specific things we must do within the congregation for conflict resolution.  Matthew 18 is very clear on this issue, “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.  But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.'  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church…”  The first part of that verse expressly points out the responsibility of the congregation: handle it among yourselves.  Too many times this is forgotten and the pastor or others are involved before any attempt is made to resolve the issue with those actually involved.  This also leads to backbiting, which can spread like a disease across the church and give the enemy a tool to use to lead them away from God. 

  The congregation has a heavy load to carry within the church.  The body of Christ requires every member to be present and focused on God.  No member is dispensable.  Each member needs to understand how valuable he or she is as an individual, both in the eyes of Jesus who is the head of the church, and also to the rest of the body.  Those congregations and pastors who can sustain one another will be blessed because they are deeply rooted in the life of God.

God Bless