Romans 14:21-23

At this time of the year, be considerate for those that may struggle with a pleasure that for them may cost them everything.

A person may come to the conclusion that their Christian freedom gives them a right to make a reasonable choice of consuming alcohol, a simple pleasure to them, without the danger of consequences. For others, that choice can be a fatal thing. While in their presence, are we to limit our self, not for our own sake, but for the sake of the one that could fall?

Emotions of the moment

Mark 10:17-22


The young aristocrat, in the moment of overflowing emotions, came running and fell at the feet of Jesus, desiring to know what he must do to inherit eternal life. Replying that he had obeyed the laws and had never harmed anyone, but Jesus looked at him and loved him and said “Go and sell everything and follow Me.” The young rich man walked away grieved, because he had many possessions.

How many times have I run to Jesus filled with the emotions of the moment, only to walk away when the moment has passed? Have I fallen at His feet, desiring His touch, His counsel, only to limit Him as to where He may touch or lead?

I believe that Jesus was saying to the young ruler, “It’s not about what you have done, but what have you done for others?” If we keep all the laws, yet do not love one another then we have failed at the very essence of what it means to follow Christ.

Jesus looked at him and loved him. I believe it was a look of grief. Jesus saw the man deliberately choose not to be what he had within him to be. W.B. wrote, Jesus looks at us with the appeal of love and with the challenge to live the Christian life. God grant that He may never have to look at us with sorrow because we have refused to be what we might have been.

In the Waiting

I wish that God spoke to me like He spoke to Moses, “mouth to mouth”. I desire to be certain that I have heard His voice. Sometimes we hear only to see things not fulfilled in our timing. Like Abraham, who was promised that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars, looked upon the night sky and had to wonder, “Did I not hear, was I wrong?” because he remained fatherless. A.S. Peake wrote, “The courage to abandon work on which one’s heart is set and accept inaction as the will of God is of the rarest and highest kind and can be created and sustained only by the clearest spiritual vision.”

As we wait, the time can be best spent strengthening our relationship with God by hearing, from the reading of His word and through prayer to bring into focus our spiritual vision.” Lord, give us that rarest and highest form of faith, to believe when our eyes, for the moment cannot see.

ROCK and SAND

In Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus teaches about the foundation built upon the rock and not the sand. Only a life built on foundations that are firm can withstand the storms. I believe we should listen and do, to strengthen our foundation.


The power in learning is not the words that are said in public or what is mentally heard by reading, but in the listening. We learn, when we take ownership of what we are hearing, when it becomes personal. A relationship with Christ cannot be what others have told you, but what have you experienced for yourself. Jesus said, “Who does the world say that I am? But most important “Who do you say I am?”

We listen and then we do. Knowledge only has value when it is translated into action. William Barclay wrote, “Knowledge must become action; theory must become practice; theology must become life. What good is Christian knowledge if we do not love, forgive, or try to conform to the likeness, in character, of our Lord.

The storms are not eliminated, but in the listening and the doing, we can learn to withstand. We will bend but we will not break. Even as I say these words about bending and not breaking, Lord, I believe, but help me with my unbelief that I could break.

The Gift

A gift given to the disciples in Mark 3: 14-15, was to preach, heal, and cast out demons. In Mark 9:25-29 they were unable to do so. When asked why they could not heal a boy, Jesus responded that prayer was needed.

If you have been given a gift, you must maintain a close contact with God or it may wither and die. If the gift is used only for you, then the virtue will soon go out of it.

PRIDE

One of the deadliest behaviors that I encounter daily is the behavior of pride, the kind of pride that says “I can do this in my own power.”  

I believe in an unseen spiritual world of good and evil. I do not profess to know how the battle is waged.  In the Old and New Testament this unseen world of evil is defined as inferior to God but superior to man. If I operate solely in my power and fail to ask God to intervene, then I go to battle with the war already lost.

TODAY

This is the beginning of a new day. What I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever. Lord I pray that I do not regret the price I paid for today.

TODAY

There are two days in every week about which we should not worry, two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.


One of these days is Yesterday with its mistakes and cares, its fault and blunders, its aches and pain. Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control. All the money in the world cannot bring back Yesterday. We cannot undo a single act we performed; we cannot erase a single word we said. Yesterday is gone.

The other day we should not worry about is Tomorrow with its possible adversaries, its burdens, its large promise and poor performance. Tomorrow is beyond our immediate control. Tomorrow’s sun will rise. either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds….but it will rise. Until it does, we have no stake in Tomorrow, for it is yet unborn.

This leaves only one day….Today. Anyone can fight the battles of just one Day; it is only when you and I add the burdens of Yesterday and Tomorrow that we break down. It is not the experience of Today that drives us mad…it is remorse or bitterness for something which happened Yesterday and the dread of what Tomorrow may bring.

…..Author Unknown

UNCOMFORTABLE

Doing something different, change, is changing the mind and then to move forward with actions. Some have attempted to change a habit but never the heart and then wonder why things are remaining the same. If we change, it is bound to hurt, because it acknowledges that our right has been wrong. It is bound to be uncomfortable, because it means a complete reversal of life. That is why change is difficult, because most people wish to avoid discomfort even in the midst of deadly choices.

Thomas Merton Prayer (Paraphrased )

Lord,

We may have no idea, where we are going. We may not see clearly the road ahead. We cannot know for certain where it will end, nor do we know ourselves enough to be certain that we are following Your will and not our own, but we believe that our desire to follow You, does please You. In that desire, we know that You will lead us on the journey of Your making. Though we may not see it clearly, we will trust You always, even in those times that we feel lost. We will not fear, for You are always with us and will never leave us to face our perils alone.

The assurance of right

“It is good to have the assurance that you are right, but that is no reason why you should have the conviction that everyone else is wrong.”

It is so easy to write, so easy to say, but at times so difficult to live.

Divided

It is so disheartening to see how divided we are as Christians. We should never have to feel uncomfortable about expressing our understanding of God with a fellow believer. Have we forgotten “that we know in part?” It is difficult to talk with a non-believer about God accepting them when His children don’t even accept one another.

Three Steps

There were forms of early Christianity which spoke as if the body did not matter, but we are both body and soul. The task of Christianity is to redeem the whole person and not just a part of them. I have, at times, been so focused on becoming spiritual while I was emotionally broken. I was at the mercy of my emotional tides, and like the waves of a storm I would rise and fall with the shifting of the wind. I would allow God to work on cleaning me up but never allowed Him access as to why I was dirty. My spiritual journey has been two steps forward and one step back. My progress has always been determined by which footprint I chose to stand in. I need, we need to help ourselves, and others experience the freedom to acknowledge all three steps.

Heart, Soul and Mind

I believe, because I have seen with my own eyes, that it is impossible to be spiritually whole if we are emotionally broken.

MERCY

We approached God as  tax collectors and received mercy. The question we need to ask is after receiving God’s mercy, did we become a Pharisee with the confident of our own righteousness? Did we receive mercy only to keep it to our self or do we extend mercy to others? 
                                                                LUKE 18:9-13 (NIV)

9To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'

13"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

Are you victimized by your past?

John Ishee wrote in his book, From Here to Maturity that “In examining the past, a person has two alternatives. First, they can use the past as an alibi for remaining as they are or they can learn from the past instead of being victimized by it.”

Rearranged Quote "C.S. Lewis

If I am always looking down on people, I cannot know God. For if I am always looking down, then I will never see what is above me.

Edward Gibbon’s observation

“Toward the end of the Roman Empire, all religions were regarded by the people as equally true, by the philosophers as equally false, and by the politicians as equally useful.”

Paraphrasing J. Oswald Sanders

To read is to have fellowship with great minds. If it is true that we are known by the company we keep, it is no less true that our character is reflected in the books we read, for they are the outward expression of our inner hungers and aspirations.

Here is one that unfortunately, is very close to home.

For the diligent, the week has seven days; for the procrastinator, seven tomorrows.

Legalism

In recovery circles, the language used to escape their bondage is “finding the God of their understanding.”  It never occurred to me until recently, that misunderstanding God could take one chain off only to be replaced by another.

Barclay Quote

No one can avoid living with themselves; and when their inward self is an accusing self, life becomes intolerable.

                                       William Barclay

THe Hallway

I do believe that when a door is closed, another will open; however, while we wait, the wandering in the hallway can be painful. Lord grant us the patience to wait.

There is a story that a rabbi told his people, that if they studied the Torah, it would place scripture on their hearts. Someone asked,” Why on our hearts and not in them?” The rabbi answered,” Only God can put scripture inside, but reading the sacred text can place it on your heart, and when your heart breaks, the holy words will fall inside.”


I can’t speak for you, but for many that I know, including myself, I came to God in my brokenness, and it was then, that His words became more than letters on a page.

Seeds

Those that give advice, teach, or counsel, must remember, that we are but planters of the seed in another’s garden. It is out of personal desire for growth that cultivates the seed.

The task ahead

The Task Ahead Of You, Is Never As Great As the Power Behind you.

The Mocker

Proverbs 14:6

The mocker seeks wisdom and finds none, but knowledge comes easily to the discerning.

If we define knowledge as information gained through sight, sound or touch. Then information, if applied, becomes wisdom, which is the skill to use that knowledge.

The mocker is someone who shows contempt, not for wisdom, but the process to gain wisdom. He or She does not want to invest the time to gain understanding. They want what they want and they want it now. Before we judge the mocker, and we can recall many, we may need to ask ourselves, “Do we desire to be at 12 when we have become unwilling to pass through 1-11?”

A Question on the belief of heaven?

Do you believe that Jesus died? Do you believe that He lives? Then after death, why not you?

Compassion

Compassion avoids snap judgments-right or wrong, good or bad. Compassion is a virtue of being able to think or feel the distress of others and having the desire to help. Genuine compassion is the thoughts and feelings that we have been there too.

I must admit that I struggle with genuine compassion when I hear of the horrible choices that some have made in their addiction. I sometimes become angry with the consequences to loved ones because of their behavior. I recently read where a father, during a winter storm, stopped by a tavern to grab a beer for the road, leaving his daughter in the truck with the engine running. It was 3 in the afternoon. At 11 that evening he came out to the truck, the engine had died and he had to rush his daughter to the hospital where they amputated some of her toes and one finger.

I thought to myself, COMPASSSION, I want to place him in the freezing temperatures for a taste of what he had given. Genuine compassion is for me to admit that I have been there too, NEVER had I placed my daughters in such a situation. Forgiveness was not possible for me to feel towards this man. Everything I teach and everything I have read indicates that I must find a way. I remember a few years ago my daughter and I were talking. I ran a gymnastics school and spend a great deal of my time with other children and in that exchange I made my daughter feel as though the giving of my time to them was more important than the time given to her. I robbed my daughter of time with her father that I cannot give back. I did not hurt her with amputated toes and fingers but I hurt her just the same. How can I find forgiveness for myself and the father that stopped by the tavern, by remember the words of Jesus, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” In closing, it will not make any difference in what has been done, but to my daughter I need to say, “They had my time but you have always had my heart.”

How would you answer?

Am I dependent on the praise or approval of others? Do my failures defeat or challenge me? Do I use people or cultivate them? Do I criticize or encourage?

A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove…but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.

Forest E. Witcraft 

Is it Safe?

I have heard it said many times in Treatment, that for those that are hurting, the Church is the last place they turn to for help. Whether it is self-imposed shame or shame imposed by others, the Church needs to do a better job of accepting the wounded and before we quickly condemn the Church, remember we are the Church. Do we quickly judge others for their actions? Have we placed our self so high on the mountain that we deny that the valleys exist? Have we denied our own valleys for fear of what others might say or do? Is your Church a place of safety for those struggling? Is it safe for you? Is it safe for your Pastor? If not, then what can we do to change, so that we, the Church, will be the first place people look to for comfort and answers because the only comfort is in the arms of a loving God and the fellowship of His people.

Paraphrasing Brennan Manning

We must never allow books, institutions, or leaders to be our primary experience of Jesus Christ. We need to experience Him personally. If not, then we become unpersuasive, even to ourselves. We become travel agents handing out brochures to places we have never been.

A dot falls to the ground

There is a wonderful book written by Max Lucado called “You are Special.” The story is about a young boy who lives in a town where people receive stars of approval and the opposite of stars are dots. Everyone in town is walking around with stars and dots attached to them. The young boy, no matter how much he tried could not receive a star from anyone. His body was filled with dots. In the end of the book, he visited the man who made him and learned that his maker loves him and that the stars and dots mean nothing. As he leaves the maker’s home, one small dot falls off his body onto the ground.


It seems at times that we spend a lifetime seeking the stars but in fact it sets us up for the dots. I would like someday to say the stars don’t matter, but just for today, a dot falls to the ground.

Today

I had an encounter today with someone who was intoxicated. Even though I tried to help and spoke softly, I could not break the barrier of the liquid courage. No matter how hard I tried, everything was an act of aggression to her. I was surprised that I became so angry inside. I remember, asking God to help me see her as He sees her. The flesh and blood and not this thing she had become under the influence. She never knew I harbored such thoughts, but I was never able to see her as God sees her. Do we look at situations like these as failures? I think not. I think that God is pleased, when we try.

Quote: Thornton Wilder

“Without your wounds where would your power be?"

My first thought was that I had found a purpose for my life in helping others through my wounds, by the lessons that I had learned and continue to learn. With deeper reflection, I would not have known God. I am ashamed to admit that I only reached up because I had exhausted every other avenue. I am, where I am today because of all that has happened in my life, both good and bad. To go back and change one thing would change everything, and that, I am not willing to do.

      

Nouwen Quote

Whenever you feel that a little praying can’t do any harm, you will find that it can’t do much good either

Henri Nouwen

Thomas Merton

The Spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived.

Quote by "William Barclay"

In the beginning, the crowds came, but they came because they wanted something out of Jesus. They did not come because they loved Him. God is not someone to be used in the day of misfortune; He is someone to be loved and remembered every day of our lives

From Chapter 9 "Mind Games"

So the decision to turn my will over to His care begins by desiring to replace my thoughts with His thoughts. The war of our affliction began in the mind and now the outer shell reflects the way we think. Change requires going to the source and like the undesirable vine in our garden if we only clip the leaves the vine will appear dead but the root will produce the leaves again when the time is right. We must uncover the root to destroy the vine. It is my prayer that we find the root of our undesirable vine.

We have the power to make the decision to change but we do not possess the ability on our own to make that change.

Genesis 4: 7 (NIV)
7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." 

In Genesis 4:7 I believe that God is saying to me, you must master your sin by calling on Me and I will deliver you. I am knocking at your door but you must make the choice to let Me in. The ability to open the door is on your side.

A private thought made public

At times I find it difficult to share what I have found. The old self, with its old behavior, reminds me of my thoughts when someone tried to tell me about God. How do I keep from sounding so heavenly that I am no earthly good? I still have so many unanswered questions but I am choosing to believe in spite of the miracles. Some would call me foolish. Then foolish I shall be.

God as an afterthought

When God becomes an afterthought, the last one I look to for help, the last one that I turn to for rescue, and the last one I seek to comfort me in the storms. I have swapped a diamond of great wealth for fragments of glass.

Quote (Henri Nouwen)

Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of our spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved."

Truth

A woman commented to me that she had given the power to her abuser to continue to shape her life even after the family member was dead. The abuser was someone who should have cared and protected her. Her value was based on the opinions of the adults in her world never imagining that they could be dysfunctional. She was abused both physically and mentally but the mental stayed with her long after her abuser had died. She began to believe the lie that she had no value. In her adult life she had lived so long with the abuser’s message that it became truth to her.

Jesus spoke repeatedly the words “I tell you the truth,” and on one occasion he said “the Truth will set you free.” I believe God lives in us and that His Spirit, which has been called the counselor and comforter, can deliver us from the lies we believe. During that uncomfortable battle within us between what is real and what is an illusion, it is our responsibility to ask for the wisdom to overcome the lies of the deceiver. I believe we can start the healing process by asking and believing that God can expose the lies we believe and asking for Him to guide us in His truth and His ways.

Hard to imagine

C. H. Dobb wrote, “Prayer is about redirecting our desires according to the mind of God.” My prayer life and my relationship with God that I am striving for, is said best by a philosopher named Epictetus, “Have courage to look up to God and say, deal with me as you will from now on. I am yours. I flinch from nothing as long as you think that it is good. Lead me where you will; put on me what clothing you will. Would you have me hold office or refuse it, stay or flee, be rich or poor? For all this I will defend you before men.”


His will not ours. Easy words to say but difficult when we have scars that are the result from a lifetime of suffering that we have asked God to remove and yet they remain. I am learning how to live with those scars by acknowledging them to God and asking for His strength to see me through. I have prayed for healing and there are times my prayers seems to fall silent. It’s hard to imagine that a thorn in my flesh sometimes is to be endured.

Quote (Unknown)

The measure of a man or a woman is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy.

Quotes...Richard Rohr

"You will never know the fullness of God until you bring Him your emptiness."

What is 1 Cor 13:11 saying to you?

1 Cor 13:11 (NIV)

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.


When I was a child I developed defenses that would protect me and the mistake I made was bringing that protection into the adult world and expecting it to work. As a child I found that isolation equals safety. If I did not stand out then I could not be hurt. I was taught that I had no worth so to protect myself I never took a risk. I always strived for average for that was obtainable but feared moving beyond that comfort zone because if I tried and failed then it would only confirm those voices of unworthiness and I was trying desperately to hold on to what little worth I had left. I never gave myself permission to fail and did not understand that kind of thinking produced the very thing that I feared which was failure. My defense mechanism had become my enemy and worst of all I could blame others for my life and until I began to take personal responsibility things were destined to remain the same.

Proverbs 15:33 (NIV)

33 The fear of the LORD teaches a man wisdom,and humility comes before honor.

Fear (Respect, reverence, and piety (Respect = high regard) (Reverence = high regard felt or shown) (Piety = the state of devotion to worship)
Teaches (Discipline = training that corrects, molds or perfects moral character)
Wisdom (Skill = the ability to discern (insight) with or without the experience.)
Humility (Meekness = enduring injury with patience’s and without resentments)
Honor (one’s who worth brings respect)

I was once confronted by a client that said, "Why should I believe in a God that asked me to fear Him?" She was making the same mistake that I was guilt of at times. She was defining the word based on her understanding. There is a great site for checking the Greek and Hebrew defintion of words, it is the Blueletterbible.com

A conversion with God using Isaiah 42:16 (NKJV)

Lord I have eyes but I cannot see.
I will bring the blind by a way they did not know;
Lord I have no knowledge of what I do next.
I will lead them in paths they have not known.
Lord all I see is darkness with no hope for the light.
I will make darkness light before them,
How can I recover from being so broken?
I will make crooked places straight.
Lord, help me, stay with me.
These things I will do for them, and not forsake them.