21,000 Views!

Hey dear reader, I just wanted to take a moment and again say how blown away I am in the total amount of followers and readers who have given at least a cursory glance at this blog and it’s writings.

I began last January, 2013 on this journey, at the behest of The Lord I believe, and I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by His leading!

Wow it hasn’t been a year yet and this humble blog has reached 21,000!!! Praise The Lord! Thanks for reading and please feel free to share this blog with your friends!

November 2, 2013 0

Fidelity & Infidelity in the Christian world.

This is a very sensitive topic, I know.

I don’t know the effects of infidelity (thankfully) first hand, nor am I about to make a broad brush stroke and lump other marital issues such as physical or substance abuse in with unfaithfulness. Let me be clear, my primary purpose in writing on this topic is strictly to confront areas of sinful unfaithfulness within the sacred partnership of marriage within the “Christian Church”.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this ought not be. I do want to be sensitive with extemporaneous issues which might lead to such a betrayal, but in many cases Christians who are facing these types of issues in their marriage really need to consult professional marriage counseling before it gets worse.

If we can learn anything from the story of Hosea and his marriage to Gomer (which was a metaphor for the sacred yet broken Covenant relationship God had with His people) we should learn just how serious a partnership the marriage relationship was and still is today. After all, even the Apostle Paul wrote of the marriage relationship in Ephesians 5:22-33, and the main focal point in those verses center on resembling how Christ’s love is bestowed and poured out upon His bride the Church.

Husbands and wives, when you make that solemn commitment and say “I do” you are committing to that person FOR LIFE! This isn’t some kind of two year cell phone commitment, where, after two years, you can upgrade to a different model. This is why it is so crucial to get to know your “bride-to-be” or “groom-to-be” before you make that life long commitment! How heart wrenching it is to watch two committed Christians split up over some elicit affair or “moment of weakness”. Many psychologists have ascertained that a betrayal like this can be as devastating as a death in the family. (http://www.alfredadler.edu/sites/default/files/Livingston%20MP%202012.pdf)

One of the biggest public stories recently in Hollywood is of the elicit affair Kristen Stewart had with a married man, Rupert Sanders. Though this isn’t specifically a Christian story, the devastation that this had on both parties has ended in divorce and separation. How horrifying it must be to discover the one you have confided in and trusted your heart and life with has betrayed you. http://www.eonline.com/news/475712/liberty-ross-opens-up-about-husband-s-affair-with-kristen-stewart-it-was-really-the-worst

As Christian people, we are a living example of Christ to the world around us. I believe it hurts the heart of our Lord when marriages fall apart and unfaithfulness is at its center. Beware too…don’t ever think that you are not susceptible to such trappings of temptation! Steer clear of these moments of weakness. Don’t place yourself in compromising situations where you may be tempted! Keep your allegiance not only to God but also with your spouse and life-partner! Hebrews 13:4 Says; “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”

Get Help!

If you and your spouse are facing issues in your marriage, don’t be afraid to seek professional help with a Christian marriage counselor! It is a sign of strength and not weakness that you do so. After all, if there is something worth protecting in this life it would have to be your marriage and family? So take the time, seek support and guidance and don’t put it on the back burner because life is “too busy” right now! Be proactive in your marriage and don’t wait for the bags to be packed and the sofa full of pillows and blankets!

Cherish!

Seek fidelity in your marriage, but go way beyond that! Cherish your spouse! Be attentive, supportive, communicative and loving! Be selfless in your attitude towards each other instead of selfish! Spend time with one another and perhaps plan dates away from the kids and the stresses of work! Invest in your relationship and don’t neglect it! If we are to be amazing representatives of Christ-like living in this world it ought to begin with cherishing and preserving our love for our spouses and family first.

Pray!

Make sure you pray for one another, both privately in your own personal devotions as well as together. Prayer is not only our source of communication with God but it unifies and solidifies our intentions as couples. Never stop praying for your relationship, and also pray that Christ’s love would be demonstrated in how you treat each other.

Just an important thought for all of my married brothers and sisters out there today!

I am certainly not a marriage counselor, but I recognize this very real danger in our Church today and feel I must constantly remind myself and you of how easy these temptations can turn into moments of full blown infidelity if we are not diligent and aware of their trappings.

Blessings on you and your spouse today!

November 1, 2013 0

Shalom and Encouragement.

“But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” 1 Timothy 6:11-12

How is your soul today? How are you doing spiritually? These are questions that perhaps we hear asked from time to time and we utter niceties like “I’m doing great!” or “All is well!”…but inside, our hearts are screaming just the opposite. Do we struggle to be real, genuine and honest with other fellow, trusted believers? Are we willing to confess that we are still “under construction”? Are we afraid to admit that we haven’t attained the measure of holiness that others seem to project upon us? It is difficult to live up to other people’s expectations of us isn’t it?

Consider what the Apostle Paul writes to his protege Timothy here in the above verses. Paul gets to the heart of the matter. Timothy is warned of certain kinds of teachers, to avoid their trappings and to remain content in the Lord. But Paul goes on to tell Timothy to flee from this sort of thing. In the process of fleeing, he is to pursue some very essential kinds of spiritual disciplines: righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness and gentleness. These disciplines won’t be easy to fulfill all at once as the world spills into his life and the pressures to conform mount day by day.

Does this sound at all familiar to you today? What sort of pressures are you facing from life? Obviously in Timothy’s day these pressures could have very well led to death as Christ-followers were hunted and killed. Paul, while in prison, reminds Timothy to pursue these vital things while continuing to “fight the good fight”.

How goes your battles today? Are you fighting for the right and correct purposes? Remember “the battle belongs to the Lord” (1 Samuel 17:47)! Keep on fighting and where ever you are today, stop and pray to the Lord, who is always ready and willing to listen, support and strengthen you! We are all over-comers if we have declared Christ Lord of our lives and placed His mission above anything else!

Fight on dear brothers and sisters! Don’t grow weary, don’t give up and quit, because we are all appointed to this holy purpose with eternal results. If you have been frustrated as of late, may the Lord provide you with clarity and encouragement! If you have been discouraged and considered your resignation in this fight, reconsider and start by taking inventory of what the Lord has already brought you through and the many blessings He has provided for you along the way.

-Just a word of encouragement to you today from a person who daily seeks His encouragement in my life as well!

“The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)

Shalom!

October 31, 2013 2

Complete Surrender (A Poem)

When the sails have been lofted

And the gusts of winds,

Not in our favor, have shifted

All of our hopes and dreams

Sometimes finding jagged rocks

Upon distant shores.

As foam and tide clasp

And then collide

We ride on…broken

yet still alive.

Other times we cling to

These water logged

life boats,

bailing out bucket-fulls

praying in earnest

that we find safe harbor…

we yearn, we labor

savoring these remaining

ounces of courage

all the while

depleted reserves

left in our spiritual storage

of reservoirs are the only things

that have run dry.

The tides continue to

Beat their tribal drums

thumping against our feeble plans.

Could it be, perhaps

The Divine waiting

In earnest yet lovingly

on our complete and

utter capitulations?

October 31, 2013 0

“Seasons” (A Poem)

Seasons

In the late autumn,

when trees have discarded

coats,

and we

have put them on

chasing down the rising dawn

while snow and rains,

claim within us a shiver…or two;

blanketed between soft cottons

and goose feathered downs

we dream perhaps of warmer days

when sunsets lingered and

the choirs of bulbous bull frogs

and field crickets, mahogany in color,

perform in their nightly stridulation

an encore, now sorely missed.

Miles away,

down dusky shadows

Of winding country roads

Enveloped in dust and mud,

Farmsteads,

Moated and armed

with Barbed-wired

rusting fences…

the brontide sounds of protest

echo and reverberate,

as a dying summer storm collides

and swirls.

Clouds, dark and foreboding,

curtain the sky as summer

exhales one last staggering breath.

Tears descend

upon the earth,

dampening the soil

with one last frosted kiss goodbye…

soon, an ushering in of

new birth will meet

us again.

October 30, 2013 0

Having the Right Perspective

Perspective matters. In every aspect of life it matters from which perspective you are peering at any given issue.

Take this sidewalk art for example:

As one walks up to it from a distance the illusion within this drawn perspective makes it look as though the man is truly standing on a globe. But what happens when you peer at it from the side? It looks like this:

Now the illusion is revealed for what it is. This globe has been drawn for the viewer to see it head on and not from an angle such as this, but the mystery and trick is quickly broken.

Life can be like this too. Problems and troubles come our way, but how they effect us is a matter of perspective. This isn’t some sort of “self-help” thought, but rather a “heart-help” notion. How we view our worries, our fears and our hurts matters. It not only matters to our emotional, physical and spiritual well-being; but it matters to God as well.

King David was a man after God’s own heart who knew a thing or two about worries and problems. He faced death threats, murder attempts; he saw a woman bathing on a roof and plotted to not only seduce her but the murder her husband too. Some of his problems were of his own making while others were dependent of the whims of a tyrant and foreign entities. How David faced these trials became a matter of perspective.

Though David wasn’t perfect, he did know where his help came from. In Psalm 86 he wrote; “Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant, who trusts in you – you are my God.” So much can be said of these two sentences. David recognizes how poor and needy he is, and he is in need of saving once again. He pleads with God to save him, and elicits a powerful reason for his request: “You are my God.”

Problems, fears and worries will be waiting for us in this life like hungry wolves on a hunt, but if we have the right perspective, and declare “You are my God” we too can overcome anything that comes our way! We may not be delivered from those problems, but we will have One who will journey through it with us…come what may.

What does your perspective look like today? How is your viewing angle on the problems of life? Can you boldly declare as David did, I “trust in you – you are my God“? If you can’t, then perhaps it is time to adjust your vision. Stand before Him, trust Him, and find that He will always be there for you even in the midst of your worries and fears.

Perhaps it’s time to get some Godly perspective on these earthly troubles.

-Just a thought for today.

October 28, 2013 0

Once an addict, always an addict…a spiritual application for Holiness.

There’s an old saying in the Drug rehabilitation process which goes like this: “Once an addict always an addict”. Some people say this is a scare tactic to keep people locked into a program…I think that this saying has more credence than we realize.

There is a real difference between an active addict and a recovering addict isn’t there? One addict is still seeking that high, that rush, that dependency on their drug(s) of choice. While the other addict had finally come to the realization that they weren’t controlling their habit, their habit was controlling them and their life has been horribly altered by it. They are seeking to become better, stronger and healthier so that they can avoid those old trappings. The recovering addict knows what weaknesses they possess and so they will go to great lengths to stay away from the slippery slope that is the erosion of self-control. They know that one glance back into that lifestyle…one sniff, one hit, one pop…and it’s goodbye recovery hello active addiction once more.

The recovering addict needs support. They understand that they can’t go at it alone. The addict knows that they need accountability of a sober companion or a sponsor of some kind. Someone who will push them when that “itch” returns…or when stress threatens to push them over the edge. Sponsors and addictions partners are vital to recovery and a return to a healthier “normal” in their lives.

THIS IS SPIRITUALLY APPLICABLE!

Either we are an active sinner, or a recovering sinner. To borrow a little from the Calvinist, we are all fallen, wretched creatures…but we don’t have to remain that way!! Praise the God of second and third and fourth chances! No this isn’t some sort of excuse to say that we can slip up and just wander back with some sort of “get out of hell” redemption card every time we willfully chose to sin again and find forgiveness…but as a recovering sinner who is saved by grace I recognize that we can still fall away if we are not careful! Recovery from sin requires not only the avoidance of sin and its subsequent temptational trappings but also the recognition of our own personal weaknesses. We too must realize that if we know our weaknesses Satan certainly does as well.

Scripture tells “there is no one righteous, no not one!” (Romans 3:10) If this is true then we are all sinners in need of a redemption that is beyond our physical reach. Enter Jesus. He comes and gives us the only way out of our addiction of sin. Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me…” John 14:6.

Our addiction to sin can be ultimately relieved but only after entire sanctification has ravaged our souls, scrubbing it clean of our prior ways of life so that our vessel is fit for the embodiment of Christ alone within us. This act requires from us our complete faith and utter surrender. The Holy Spirit provides the act of cleansing from the moment of initial sanctification and the invitation for Christ to be ours and ours alone, to the maturation of our spiritual growth as we continue to feast on His word and our absorption of His grace within and without us so that in word and deed we serve only Him. This is a hard and difficult road. For though Holiness isn’t physical perfection it is a complete death to selfish wants and needs in an answer to this higher and holy calling of Christ-likeness.

Yet in and of ourselves we can not complete this daunting task. Dare I say that the Holy Spirit is sufficient though without other godly men and women beside us to prompt us, correct us, affirm us and challenging us along they way, we can find this complete surrendering nearly impossible. We need sponsors of the Spiritual kind. We are all in need of spiritual sober companions to help in our discipleship. Because there is a very real danger that though we are saved by His grace, we can look back, and in so doing find that we have backslidden into our old selfishness and sin. Addictions, across the board, are like this. We crave it’s seductive lure. We yearn for the instant gratification yet if we succumb, we will have gone horribly backward, and would have strayed from our desire to be like Christ and would have threatened to unravel our entire salvation story in the process.

The Holy Spirit wants to make us like Christ. He wants to restore that first image that God set at the dawning of time within us. Yet we are still addicts to sin. We must never forget where we have come, how we got there, and where our weaknesses lie so that we can accept this full restoration that He so willingly offers to us. For many, this restoration will take a life time. For all of us, we must continually go to The Well of our righteousness! We must come to His waters and be filled up not just daily but moment by moment. Isaiah 55 says: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; …”

Come all who are thirsty! We can be fully restored, but we must be willing to let Him continue this work within us! It must be found in our daily even moment by moment surrendering to His will and to His image forming hands.

October 27, 2013 0

Knowing God (A thought on Holiness)

3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 2 Peter 1:3-4

Do you know God?
Let me ask this seemingly simple question again, but this time consider what the word “know” means. We might know something about the topic of history but not know it enough to teach the subject or know the dates when monumental things took place…we simply know about history but not truly know history. There’s a great divide between knowing about something and truly KNOWING something.

The same thing can be applied to our knowledge of God. Even demons know about God don’t they? Many people in our world know something about God…but how many people truly KNOW God? This passage this morning reminds me that it isn’t enough to simply know something about God but it must become something much, much deeper. My heart, my soul longs for that communion with the One who created me. There is, in all of us, this innate essence to be known. We desire for others to know us. This isn’t some sort of narcissistic notion, but rather this essence inside all of us to be wanted, to be loved, to be known. It speaks of a very intimate kind of knowing.

GOD KNOWS YOU!
God knows you. This is a truth we all must come to terms with in our own spiritual development and formation of our faith. God knows you so intimately. Psalm 139 speaks of this. Before we were even created, God knew us. Before we had conscious thought – God knew us. He knows us better than our parents, spouses and kids know us. He peers into our hearts and knows us for who we are.

For some of us, this notion that God deeply knows us scares us to death. He knows me- He knows you.

DO YOU REALLY KNOW GOD?
If God knows us, and He does, then should the reciprocation of that knowing be evident in our study and worship of Him? He has “called us by His own glory and goodness” (v3)…that should be a relief for us. We didn’t have enough glory and goodness in our total depravity. God knew this lack of glory and goodness was evident within us and so He sends us His Son Jesus so that we might know Him truly! Total and utter redemption can come to us all by knowing Christ!

It is not good enough to know about religion, or about being kind to others or even knowing about God. It is never good enough. We have meditate on His words written for us in His scripture. We have to know Him in our prayer life, in our prayer closets. We have to know Him in our treatment of other people and our love for even our enemies. Every facet of our lives should be consumed with knowing God. This is the pathway of Holiness – knowing God, Surrendering Self, and through the Holy Spirit becoming like Christ.

Do you know God?

-Just a thought for today.

October 23, 2013 3

Holiness (Poem)

Lord, I long to devote my all to You

to surrender my heart and will

and I complete in Your holiness live

yet I confess a fragment lingers still.

My heart yearns to be one with You

to stand complete before the King

and sin no longer a binding force

my all before you I must bring.

Holy Spirit, descend upon my life

I yearn for entirety of grace

with nothing restraining my heart

I long to see Your face.

October 18, 2013 2

Devotion, Grace, with a Dash of Salt…

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful….be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (Colossians 4:2,5,6)

Dear Christ-followers, how are we representing Christ to the world around us? How are we representing Christ to other believers and to those who have yet to accept Christ? Are our conversations ALWAYS full of grace? Or are they only sprinkled with marginal grace while the rest is so full of “know it all ignorance and judgement”?

We may be the only living example of Christ that others might see…no pressure or anything, but what kind of example are we setting? Are we consistent in our testimony of Him and in the ways that we conduct ourselves? If you are anything like me you too struggle with these consistencies. I am not trying to make us feel guilty today, but let me go a step further; how is your prayer life?

Prayer is Vital!

The very first words of the section of Colossians speaks of devoting our lives to prayer. Prayer is THAT important! We shouldn’t view prayer as our last resort but our primary weapon and the source of strength and endurance in this life. The word “Devote” implies a deep commitment, something that becomes our sole focus just as we become devoted to our spouse in a lifetime commitment to marriage. Becoming devoted to prayer is a serious commitment, not a part time job! Prayer shouldn’t be treated flippantly! Either we are committed to prayer or we aren’t. Prayer is our lifeline to God. It is our source of hope, restoration, and renewal of strength for the journey that we are on.

Wrapping it up:

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we still have our struggles. We still endure hardships of many kinds. Yet may we be devoted together in prayer for one another, and coupled with that, may we also be full of grace and seasoned so that our consistency of testimony and action be an accurate representation of the One who has taken up residence within us through Salvation by the shedding of His blood. Do not quit this fight or grow weary of one another! Stay in this fight! Work side by side with each other even when we share differences. For just as Christ prayed that His disciples would be united, He too prays this for us as well!

-Just a thought for us today!