Random Reflections: Monday

Jesus has never been anywhere and that place remain the same. Because he was known to mess up people's schedules. He WILL inconvenience you, but we have done almost everything we can to schedule God out.

Nearly every time God comes to my life, he has to ask, "Am I interrupting again?"

God also does not do comfortable. I do not like uncomfortable because it means releasing my control.

Prayer is one of my disappointing deficits, and God is calling me to the next level of prayer.

Spiritual people cry out, "Oh God!" in all situations, but I can often see crisis and say, "Okay! What am I going to do now?" This means I am living way beneath my God-given potential. I need to learn to stand in the midst of God and not make my own answer.

I have to learn to stand in the midst of God, and OBEY. Too many of us are educated beyond our ability to obey. We hear and then we analyze, and think about it. As Americans, that’s just what we do.

When I do not learn to live in this way, my problems become my identity. Maybe I think my problem will never be healed. God did not stretch the man’s withered hand, God said stretch forth your hand (Luke 6:6-11).

We are often haunted from our past, and Satan uses our past to destroy our future.

,

Devastation or Desperation

,

I need to learn how to pray prayers of desperation. We as a country have no idea what it really means to be desperate; to pray desperate prayers. God calls us to desperation as one of only two ways to bring about transformation in this country. The only two ways are when we pray either desperation prayers or devastation prayers. We have already learned devastation prayer during 911. We learned that our country will certainly come together during devastation. When we were attacked, everyone came out to pray together to a God many of them never cared about before. But beyond those people were the Christians who had finally came together in a spirit of prayer, a unified prayer. But if that is the only way we pray in hopes of transformation of a country, I am not sure how much more we can handle devastating attacks on our country.

We have to learn to come to God out of desperation for him. How desperate are we for Jesus? How desperate am I for Jesus? We sing about it all the time, "I'm desperate for you. I'm lost without you." But how true is that?

Now when I say desperate for God, I don't mean desperate for him to help us and make things happen for us. I don't mean desperate for God to fix my back, get me a job, pay my bills, give me a car. I mean how desperate are we for GOD!!! Do we really want to be dependant upon God? Those kind of prayers bring transformation. God I am desperate for you. Not your actions...but desperate for YOU!!! We desire to be closer to your heart as people, as families, as churches, as communities, as cities, as a nation. Are we truly desperate for God? Are we seeking God's face or are actually just seeking God's hand?

We have to learn to pray desperate prayers. Ask God to teach us desperate prayer. We have to learn a LIFESTYLE of desperate prayer. This is not an annual event at the Day of Prayer or around the pole at school. We have to become people of prayer if we are to see our life transformed.

On treasure and heart

I fear I treasure too many of the wrong things in my life. If my treasure were where it should be, it would not seem so painful to think of separating from other less important things in my life. If my treasure were where it should be, I would be far less impatient and anxious about what might happen any given moment.

God, strengthen and teach me to change my heart to treasure what I should and far less of what I need not desire.

Tongue [lost poem]

I do not know when I wrote this...I just found it in some old random scratched notes... --------

My sword is sharp and shiny. It is small and quick. My sword is sharp enough to cut the chains binding my brothers. Swift enough to sweep the feet of enemies.

My sword is a powerful weapon Worthy of worship through grace Flashed properly glorifies my King.

My sword is strong by preparedness Training has made my ability strong Striking foes I am summoned to attack

My sword is only a sword Capable of evil as much as good.

My sword is sharp and shiny It is small and quick Sharp enough to cut through the flesh of friends Swift enough to take a brother by surprise.

My sword is a powerful weapon Capable of destruction through spite Flung rashly kills fellow countrymen.

My sword is strong by preparedness No training leaves me weak Unable to control my powerful sword

My sword is a powerful weapon Used by a weak man But still a dangerously powerful weapon.

(Proverbs 12:6,18)

,

How to love as God loves

,

"Love is the loftiest preference of one person for another, and spiritually Jesus demands that this sovereign preference be for Himself." - Ozzie Chambers

The Bible reveals to me that I must learn to love people. I am not always very good at loving others. God has loved me not at all because I am worthy of it or that I am lovable in any way, but because it is His very nature to love. How can I actually love in a way that is GOD's nature? To love someone as God has loved me!?

God will likely bring people purposely into my life who I do not like much. He will bring people who are not at all easy for me to love.

God: the great patronizer? No, it is His love. That is His kind of love, which I am called to.

My problem is I most often try to force it and make this kind of love happen. I do not think this kind of love is going to happen within me overnight, but I also do not think God is forcing me into it. Yes, he has called me to it. He has demanded it of me, but I do not think he expects it so promptly that he pushes me forcibly into it either.

In fact, 2 Peter 3:9 tells me that "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." I cannot overlook Jesus' ability to wait for me. I cannot forget that Jesus knows I am incapable of loving as He does, and yet he patiently waits as I learn.

But it is that patience which should compel and drive me to be better. It is that patience, which should drive me to love more. I have to go to the hard to love and not only love them more, but love them as Jesus has loved me, which as I have revealed, is PATIENTLY!! There will always be irritating people who are very difficult for me to love, but the call still remains. Love others as Jesus has loved me. Love with patience!

But it all must be nurtured. It is not an overnight change. I must learn to grow that kind of love within me. I have to learn that kind of love as I daily learn to accept that kind of love.

It's just the Grand Canyon

What do we do when God seems distant and hard to see? There are those times when God seems so difficult to know. I find encouragement in Romans 1 verse 20.

“His eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made.”

We are able to see God in the things he has made. If we would take more time to notice these things we would come to see him and know him more clearly.

We would stand at the lip of the Grand Canyon unaffected.  A huge problem is that we have lost all wonder.  Nothing amazes us anymore.  We grow more and more numb to the amazing!  We forget how powerful God really is because none of these things amaze us anymore.

Remember being scared to death of a thunderstorm?  Remember when the Grand Canyon WAS amazing before seeing it in a million pictures?  We lose all the wonder when trees, natural running streams and crashing waves, enormous mountains are no big deal to us.  We see them every day, in pictures or as we walk outside.  But we forget the amazing things we learned in elementary school; about how trees grow, the details about how waves are created.  We forget all those things because we learn it and are no longer amazed.

We do our ability to praise a disservice!  We do God a disservice when we are no longer amazed by these things.  Praise is our amazement expressed!  The problem is that we simply are not amazed!

I must be climbing

There is a flaw for me in the whole “mountain and valley” analogy we so often use for our spiritual journey. We commonly make the mountain top that spot we desire and aspire to, and the valley those times when it’s the most painful and difficult to take on. Then we make the climb the journey in between.

Now let’s think of the literal in hopes of understanding the symbolic a little more. In reality, I have never been in a valley I did not enjoy. Often valleys are complete with rolling grassy hills and a cool breeze. It is not all that unpleasant.

I do love mountain tops. When you are the mountain top there is a powerful sense of accomplishment. The mountain top is refreshing and holds a beauty which is often spectacular.

So there is only one other element left to be grueling, painful, and difficult. The climb up the mountain is the painful part. I love climbing and hiking, but it is usually a grueling task to climb the face of a mountain. Your heart beats to the thinning air and physical exhaustion. You come around every bend and corner wondering if THIS one will be the last. But a hiker, climber and backpacker will continue to trek because they know one thing; they are climbing to get to the top. It is painful but it is worth it knowing your endurance gets you to the top. Your endurance comes with pain, but it all gets you to the top where the beauty, refreshment, and accomplishment await.

Chapter 1 of James starting with verse two reads, “My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.”

The truth is we all face trials and will continue to face more. Something I am learning to do in my prayer time lately is to actively praise God for my trials of all kinds. It has really stretched my faith to watch trials come my way and to not only take them to God (which is a common Christian reaction) but to praise God for those trials.

1 Peter 1:6-7 reads, “In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Christ is revealed.”

This kind of reaction stretches our faith to points many of us have never been before. I am talking about actually praising God…thanking him FOR our painful trials.

Why is this so difficult for us to do? Because we have the mountain and valley analogy all messed up. We have convinced ourselves that the pain is the valley, and like literal valleys we are comfortable there. So we just stay there. We have seen our trials in the wrong light.

We have to remember the valley is not the worst part of the journey. The climb is the worst part of the journey. If I can keep myself from experiencing pain and saying, “I must be stuck in the valley,” and instead turn those moments into praise by saying, “This hurts! I must be on my way up. I must be climbing.” If we can turn our responses to that, we can find it easier to praise and thank God for the pain and trials. Because we climbing!

, ,

Pain and Gods goodness

, ,

True Story: Our professor asked the class a simple question:

"What do you think of when you think of God's goodness?"

Slowly hands went up, and then a flood of hands shot up. It was story after story of hurt, pain, and suffering. Each story reflected how incredibly painful situations came and went, but there was a common thread of retrospect by which each person realized they were stronger having come through it. They each reflected on how they came away from those moments with a stronger understanding of God's goodness.

After about 30 minutes of story, I sat amazed that all these stories of pain faced and gone through were sparked by a question about what we thought of when we thought of God's goodness. We were not asked about pain, evil, hurt, or why bad things happen to good people. We were asked about God's goodness, and it sparked reflections on painful points in life.

I came away wondering if we could understand God's goodness until we have come through things like this.

How incredible is God's goodness!

When you fall

"When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong Because the LORD is the One who holds his hand." Psalm 37:24

I love the reminder today of WHEN we fall, because we certainly will and do. For those who follow Christ, we are promised we will fall, but we will not fall too far as God holds our hand.

My two year old has been walking for a little while, but from time to time she attempts running. She can only go so far at a certain speed before she falls. I will hold her hand often while she walks and runs. She does fall, and WHEN she does, it is never too far. I have a hold of her hand.

In verse 39, the Psalmist writes, "[God] is their strength in time of trouble."

In your life, there WILL be trouble. God does not take trouble away. He is strength IN times of trouble. He will be the hand to hold you in times of trouble. He will not let you fall too far, but fall you will. Find strength only God can be and give to you in those times.

,

The richest least of these

,

I found the least of these in our rich America.  Huh?  How could that be possible?  Where could you have possibly found the least of these here?

Jesus tells the Disciples, “I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat.  I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, naked and you did not clothe me.”  Then they ask Him the same thing I could here at the university.  “God, when did I ever actually see you hungry, thirsty or naked here?”  There are no least of these here, God.  They pay good money to be here.  These people don’t ever go hungry or thirsty, and it is illegal to be naked in public should they even desire to do so.  Where are the least of these among me here?

God would answer me to tell me I am swimming in a sea of people who are hungry, thirsty and naked in their soul.  How am I meeting those needs?  What do the least of these look like in the culture around me?

Are we only hungry for food?  Do we only thirst for liquid?  Do we only need clothing to cover us?  I am sure our hearts would bleed with all sorts of answers to that question.  Of course we hunger and thirst for all sorts of things.  Many of us hunger for purpose.  We thirst for passion.  We are hungry for some sort of understanding.  We are thirsty for someone to recognize us; for someone to affirm us in our pursuits and existence.  We all want to be clothed in someone’s concern for us.  We desire to be covered by some sort of care from anyone.  We are all hungry, thirsty, and naked souls.

More importantly, the least of these surround me on all sides each day.  But Jesus’ question still lacerates my heart today.  “What have I done for the least of these among me?”  Not much!  This kills me not only because it’s a condition on my heart, but because is literally my JOB to do something for the least of these among me.

I fear that I refused to give to them what they needed.  I fear I did not clothe many if any friends in affirmation.  I fear I did not feed many if any friends’ hunger for understanding or purpose.  I fear I did not quench many if any person's thirst for passion or someone else’s active concern for them.

I fear there were too many hungry, thirsty, and naked souls I passed by for an entire year with miniscule interest.  I fear the least of these among me saw me too BUSY for their hopes, fears, concerns, aspirations, dreams, doubts, disappointments, and loneliness.  And its my job, not only as an pastor but as a Christian.  I must love more.

I MUST QUIT SERVING PEOPLE AND START SERVING THE LEAST OF THESE AMONG ME!

CAN I SEE THE LEAST OF THESE IN EACH PERSON I SEE AND MEET?