Summer Is Upon Us!

Well...Officially...Summer is not set to begin (according to the calendar) until Father's Day Weekend. Just don't tell that to the kids and teachers who are getting out of school.

Due to an upcoming Mission Trip to Peru, Family Vacation, and the all around craziness of a summer schedule, I will not be posting any new blogs for the next couple of months. I hope to return to you in August. Feel free to check back in and read through the archives.

I hope that each of you enjoys a wonderful summer with your family. I trust you will experience the goodness of the Lord as well.

Enjoy!!!

Thankfulness as a Lifestyle

One of the most (if not the most) repeated verse in all of Scripture is "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His love endures forever." This expression of praise that we read in the psalms is more than just a catchy phrase. It is a way of life.

Considering thankfulness as a lifestyle, I immediately think of Philippians 4:6-7 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Sounds simple enough. But to the one who has learned what it means to live in thanksgiving, these verses prove to be powerful. Thanksgiving is not a tag to place at the end of your requests. It is more than a means of demonstrating that you have faith. It is a lifestyle that allows the very peace of God to envelope you. A reminder that He is always with you.

I often hear people speak of thanksgiving as a means of worship. It is my belief that thanksgiving is worship. It is an attentiveness to the goodness of God. It is an awareness of His love which endures forever. It is the assurance of His presence. Being thankful is a mindset that never needs to be broken. It keeps us focused, humble, and fully persuaded of His goodness. Thankfulness is a great surveyor of life. It puts things in perspective.

Thankfulness has its benefits. It's amazing to me that many people don't know the research that has been given to a life of gratitude. Here are some things to think about:
Grateful people are Happier
Grateful people are Less Stressed
Grateful people are More Social
Grateful people are More Purposeful
Grateful people Sleep Better
Grateful people have Fewer Health Complaints
Grateful people tend to have Increased Financial Well Being
And Grateful People are More Altruistic (Selfless).
The physical benefits alone make a life of thanksgiving more appealing. However, there is a spiritual side to all of this.

Thankfulness as a Lifestyle means...

#1 - You Don't Have to Be Anxious
If you don't have to be anxious then it means you can be bold, brave, calm, collected, composed, confident, cool, courageous, happy, quiet, unafraid, unconcerned, and unworried. These words are all antonyms of the word anxious. Which means you get to operate in the opposite.

#2 - You Can Converse With the Father Freely
No Pretense
No Attitude
No Discontent
When we are anxious or always considering lack, we find it difficult to pray. Rather than bringing everything before the Lord, we can find ourselves living in a spiritual temper tantrum. Shutting the Father out of our conversation. Isolating ourselves to sulk in our regrets. Thankfulness gives us a better perspective. It allows us to see His goodness fully. Therefore, there is no reason to hold back in our conversation with Him.

#3 - You Can Walk In His Presence Continually
The peace of God which surpasses all understanding is nothing less than His presence. He is Jehovah-Shalom. The Lord Our Peace. Thankfulness aids in the assurance of His presence and the protection of our heart and mind. Think with the psalmist once again: "Enter His gates with thanksgiving..." This was an old covenant way of thinking about worship. With His presence within you, the gate is always open. Thanksgiving allows you to be sensitive to His presence and mindful of His activity. What greater peace is there than to know that you are walking with Him.

Thankfulness is organic medicine for physical, mental, and spiritual health. It keeps us from staring off into the void of the great unknown and brings our attention back to the many blessings He has provided. Give thanks to the Lord. He is good. His love endures forever. There may be a lot of things we are unsure of in this life, but what we do know should bring incredible peace. There are questions that we have yet to answer, but we know Him. And He is enough.

Take time every day to be thankful. Your heart, mind, and body will be grateful. Enjoy the journey!

Grace for Living & Grace for Being

There are days that I'm intentionally working out who I am (my identity), and then there are days where I simply rest in the knowledge of it.
His grace is sufficient for both.

During the "shaping" years of my faith, I was surrounded with people who did a lot. They went to a lot of meetings, performed a lot of service, listened to a lot of sermons, and the list goes on and on. They were busy growing in their faith, busy trying to display their faith to the world, and busy trying to prove their love for God. Unfortunately, what I gathered from all of the busyness was insecurity. The thought was always being presented that we were not doing enough. I wasn't doing enough. And, in essence, I wasn't enough.

This is very different from the life of grace. It's quite the opposite of living loved. Rather than finding a place of comfort in my faith, it seemed as though the faith was pushing me to do more. To be more. All of the appeals to come to Christ told me that He loved me for who I was. After accepting Jesus, it seemed like I was presented with a whole other scenario. I'm not saying that this mentality is what people meant for me to live in, I'm just stating the facts about how I felt. It also left me with the question: "If I was enough to be able to come to faith in Him, why am I not enough to walk with Him?"

Think about the favorite hymn of the Billy Graham Crusades. Maybe it was the invitational hymn at your church.
"Just as I am without one plea
But that thy blood was shed for me
And that thou bidst me to come
To thee, O Lamb of God, I come
I come..."
Did this hymn not convey to us the unsearchable riches of His love? Was it not portrayed to us that Jesus would accept us no matter what? Why all of a sudden am I not good enough?
I never really had an answer for those questions. It just seemed to me that I was being led by a lot of insecure people. People who really didn't know their identity. People who were not assured of the Father's love for them.

Change is inevitable. How can one come to faith in Christ and be the same person? I get that. It makes perfect sense. But the fact that we try to take someone through a complete makeover misses the point of His grace in our lives. It seems to me that we do a lot of shaping people into our image rather than allowing them to live out being made in His.

It took me years to discover who I was in Christ. For the longest time I only knew myself as one who was forgiven. I believed I was loved but that didn't take hold in the identity area. Maybe it's because I believed I was loved, but there was still a lot of stuff that God didn't like about me. Ever felt that way? Maybe God will love me more if I did this? Maybe He would love me more if I could stop doing that? What if this type of thinking is actually born out of a religious mindset rather than the heart of God?

My identity in Christ (and yours) is spoken to us in the Scriptures. We can read in the Bible about being the beloved of God, the righteousness of God in Christ, and more than conquerors. We can read about His infinite love for us, His peace that passes all understanding, and His grace that is sufficient. But until we allow these things to shape our identity - WHO WE ARE - then we will never experience them fully.

When I began to live out of my identity (rather than trying to make it happen), life changed. Really changed. I found myself experiencing His unconditional love. I felt the peace that passes all understanding. So much so that it was weird (lol). I finally came to a place in my faith where I realized that I didn't need to strive for His attention or His blessings. I just lived. I remained aware of who I was in Him and let the rest take care of itself. Did you know that was possible?

As I said earlier: There are days that I'm intentionally working out who I am. What that means is that I'm learning how to live out of my identity. Working it out doesn't mean that I am creating the identity. I'm just letting it come to the front. I'm leaving my misguided notions about myself and trusting that He knows me better than I know myself. Then there are days when I just rest in the knowledge of it. In other words, I'm not putting anything into action. I'm just being.

Some of us need to know that His grace is sufficient for both.

Enjoy the journey!!!

More to Ponder

Yesterday I said that "the declarations of judgement against America (or any nation for that matter) due to a small minority of the population is not only unbiblical, it is Anti-Christ." Of course I'm referring to the diatribes of many preachers against homosexuality. Just recently a friend of mine visited a church in our area where the pastor seemed to bring up the issue on a continual basis. Every Sunday that he visited this particular fellowship, the pastor simply became fixated upon the subject. Unfortunately, so many others do the same.

Before I go any further into this discussion, I want to say that I do not embrace every lifestyle. While I know, and love, people who have chosen to live in homosexuality, I do not believe it is the life they were meant to live. For me, this belief simply comes from the way in which I understand our creation. Male and female. A partner who is equal but opposite. It's not so much a discussion about morality vs immorality, but a discussion about our design. I want to put that out there because some may think that I am affirming homosexuality. I am not. What I'm trying to say in this blog (much like yesterday) is that this group of people is a small minority of our population. If God were going to judge us according to lifestyles, doesn't He have much more to choose from than just our sexuality?

Some of the research that I have seen concerning American Adults who identify themselves as gay or lesbian puts the numbers below 2%. 2%! To hear some people talk about this "epidemic" in America, you would have thought that number to be much higher. That puts this number lower than the percentage of people who get divorced, lower than the number of deaths by homicide, lower than the percentage of abortions, etc. If God were so ready to judge America, it seems to me that He has much more to work with in these other areas.

"Well...the Bible says that it is an abomination unto God." So are all the things that we want to label as sin, and some of the things we don't want to label.
Dishonest scales
Lying
Cheating
A Proud Look
...
Do I need to go on?
Our fixation as believers upon this one thing reminds me of Jesus' teaching. We are so quick to point out the splinter is the eye of someone else while we disregard the beam in our own. We are so quick to judge the homosexual than the heterosexual who has multiple partners. Why this one thing? Why this one issue? Some will say it is because it tears at the fabric of family. So does lying, cheating, and divorce. But we rarely hear people rail upon these things as signs of God's judgement.

What you find when you look into the word "abomination" is that it's not necessarily something that is just detestable to God. It can also talks about practices that are against the culture, the tradition, and the societal norms. Could this be the reason for our fixation? Could it be that we have become so used to lying, cheating, a proud look, and idolatry that we pay less attention to them? What about those who are dishonest in their dealings? I mean...we make jokes about car dealers. As if that is okay. How did you feel the last time someone got more money out of you than they should have? You were angry I'm sure. But were you ready to call down the fire of God?

I also feel that it is important to understand that a lot of this waiting around for impending doom and a falling of judgement comes from a misunderstanding of the prophetic writings of the New Testament. Times where the Bible translators should have used the word "age" instead of "world." Other times when they should have used "land" instead of "earth." Of course, these minor details could have saved us all a lot of confusion. With that being said, the reality is that we have the tools to correct these mistakes in our eschatology and in our understanding of other matters.

Why don't we just stop judging less than 2% of the population and begin to love them?
I realize that this would put the Westboro Baptist Church crowd out of work, but for the rest of us it shouldn't be that difficult.
These are real people that we are talking about. Real people with real needs. Real people with real problems. What are we going to do about it? I realize that much of what I'm saying sounds like sympathy towards a particular part of our population, and maybe in some ways it is. But we have found a way to reach out to those who have had an abortion. We have discovered ways to minister to those who have divorced, remarried, etc. We have tools to reach out to those stuck in addiction. How are we going to be ministers of reconciliation to this small minority of our population?

The Good News is Good News for all people. The color of their skin, their economic status, their nationality, and event their sexual preference does not negate the Good News. I actually believe this is what Paul is trying to convey in his letter to the Romans. How could they judge certain people as "sinful" when they were all "sinful." In the same way they had all "fallen short of the glory of God", they were all "justified freely by His grace."

We lose nothing when we love people. A lesson we all need to learn. Including me.
We lose a lot by talking about the sky falling (over and over again). Like our credibility.

Think About It

What if God isn't as interested in judgement as some believe?
What if the Father made a decision in the Son to deal with us differently than what we deserve?
What if we were meant for mercy, for grace, and for love?
Would it change the way you think?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to discover that the Bible continually reveals that GOD is different than we have imagined. In Jesus, we discover just how wrong we were. So often GOD is basically seen through the lens of so many other "deities." The anger, the thirst for blood and sacrifice, and the indifference towards humanity is found in pagan religions. The Father that Jesus reveals is amazingly different. He is the One who allows it to rain upon the just and unjust. The One who has chosen to deal with us according to His love, not according to our issues.

I say all of that because I detest all of the proclamations of doom that come out of churches. The declarations of judgement against America (or any nation for that matter) due to a small minority of the population is not only unbiblical, it is Anti-Christ. Even Abraham interceded for Sodom. He pleaded for the 50, 45, 40, 30, 20, even the 10 (more likely narrowing it down to family who lived in the land). The point being that even if there were only 10 righteous in the land, it is worth preserving. Many modern day "prophets" are operating in the spirit of Jonah rather than Abraham. They would rather see a display of God's "fiery wrath" than His benevolence. They seem to be so upset over the fact that the Father has set His love upon us.

The blog post for today will not be long, but I do hope that it stirs us to think differently. Why is America more deserving of judgement than any other nation (or vice versa)? On the other hand, why would we be more deserving of His blessing? When we talk about the Abba of Jesus we are not talking about a nationalistic deity. We discover in Him the Father of us all. We also discover in Jesus, not only the Creator of life, but the One who sustains it. The media in America often allows us to see all that is wrong in our world. But to think that things are so much worse now than in some golden era of righteousness is absurd. The reality is that many of the ills of the world have been around for centuries. The difference is that with 24 hour news coverage we know about it now. We cannot hide from these things. However, we can make a difference.

There isn't a need to pronounce judgement. What there is, is a need to declare our reconciliation through Jesus Christ. Paul did not say that the Apostles were ministers of condemnation but reconciliation. The Good News that in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself. A done deal. Something finished. All judgment against sin dealt with in Jesus. It's our joy to share this message with the world and say, "Since you have been reconciled, be reconciled."

As a nation, we are imperfect. Including those of us within the church. We should be a testimony to the fact that MERCY triumphs over judgement. The embodiment of the One who HAS NOT dealt with us according to our sins or our offenses. This does not mean I have to embrace every lifestyle choice. However, it does mean that I embrace the Father's heart for all people.

I'm not looking for a great judgement to come against the Earth.
I'm looking for the Kingdom of God to manifest on Earth.
That should be our focus, the joy of our faith, and the endeavor of every believer.
God is not fatalistic. He has chosen to partner with us to see this come to pass.
Enjoy the journey!