10 things…

Your top ten may look drastically different than mine, but here goes…

10) Cherish Life!

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
― Helen Keller, The Open Door

That’s right don’t take a minute of this life for granted, no matter how mundane or boring it can sometimes get. Today, for example, the outdoor temperature is currently -15 below zero with a windchill of -40 below…so you can imagine we are not doing much outside today. Regardless if life is entertaining or not, cherish this gift, this spark of life that we have all be given!

9) Perspective.

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

We don’t (or shouldn’t) live life in a box. Meaning that life and the living of it is so much broader than our own interpretation of life. So it’s important to understand our interpretation of life as well as other people’s perspective on this vital subject. If we only view life from our perspective then we fail to view humanity as a whole. It may sound rather philosophical but if we are to truly appreciate this gift of life and to cherish it, we ought to understand more than just our little box of living. Stepping back, viewing the world from someone else’ perspective might help us to better appreciate what we have in life. What this “stepping back” will also do is help us to see other people as well. When we can begin to see other people besides our own wants and needs, we can begin to see God’s handiwork through humanity and creation.

8) Fun & Laughter

“I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it’s the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It’s probably the most important thing in a person.”
― Audrey Hepburn

If we fail to laugh, we fail to live. I want to and try to find humor in this life. I don’t want to take myself so seriously that I can’t laugh at my mistakes and my failures. Laughter and fun heals a lot of issues in life, and I want to make the most of living. They say it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile…so I try to smile often.

7) Healthy Living

A healthy body is a guest-chamber for the soul; a sick body is a prison. ~Francis Bacon

By now you might begin to think that I’m all about living…and you’d be right. Why create more pain and issues down the road by NOT living a healthy lifestyle? Confession time: I’m not as health conscience as I should be…but I know what I need to do to get there. I need to eat better and perhaps enjoy smaller portions. I’m not feeling guilty! Perhaps I should also stop staring at the elliptical machine and get on it more often. I ~~want~~ no I desire to live a healthy life…and eating right as well as exercise will help me.

6) Education

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

As a person who desire to know more about life as well as the One who created this life, it is my desire to read more about Him. There are many good writers out there who have many wonderful perspectives that would not only edify my life but others as well. In life education never ends. Education helps us grow as people. Education cultivates a broader understanding of the spiritual and physical world around us. My desire is to only stop reading and applying what I’ve learned on my deathbed.

5) Write about what I know!

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
― Ernest Hemingway

Here is where some lists may vary. I would probably explode if I didn’t write. When I have gathered inspiration and caught a hint of a spark from the writings of others I just have to share it. When I write, my world seems clearer and the page becomes my very breath. Thus, it becomes quite important to share with the world what other words of inspiration have taught me.

4) Fellowship of Believers

“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”
― A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

I have been renewed and re-tuned by times of genuine fellowship with other brothers and sisters in Christ! I crave it’s support in this life and I desire to grow more deeply in its waters as life progresses forward. I could delve into what is and isn’t genuine Christian fellowship, but perhaps that is for another time. Long story short, if you find friends and peers who encourage you and push you further in the faith with love and care, then you too are/have experience(ing) genuine Christian fellowship!

3) Family

“Family is saying to one another “let’s go another mile together” even if the last was unbearable and painful…family is forever mile after mile.” -SES

I wouldn’t be where I am without family beside me. My parents and sister encouraging me, fighting with me and loving me. My extended family who love me in the best of time and the worst of times. The love that I feel as I converse with my children within my immediate family now, and the love of my spouse who challenges me to be better than I am right now. Family, my dear friends is vital to me. It makes life so much more worth living. Another aspect of having children is that I now have this important responsibility to teach them how to live appropriately. They are little mini-me’s walking around looking to me to set a good example of godly living. Sometimes I fail and sometimes I succeed…all the time I need God’s guidance and wisdom to help me. Sometimes…family is life.

2) My Wife

“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
― Dr. Seuss

Some might say, “What? You didn’t put her at the #1 spot in your life?” She knows how important she is to me…at least I hope she does! My relationship with my Love is one of a kind and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. She is my other half, my friend and my compass. To say more, might get me in trouble.

1) My relationship with Christ.

“Because God has made us for Himself, our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.”
― Augustine of Hippo

Whether it’s meditating on His words in Scripture or talking with Him through out my day, this relationship has to take the number #1 spot. But don’t get me wrong, in every other listed thing of importance in my life Christ is invited in. These things that I list here are nothing without Him in it. Every moment of every day should be immersed in Him. I too must confess it is not always so…sometimes it is far from so, but this is my desire! My relationship with Christ is life, it means life to those who seek after Him, and it means life even after these final breaths on this side of the veil!

What does your top ten look like?

January 6, 2014 0

Stop Giving Dirty Diapers to God!

“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.”
― John Lennon

I was driving down the road when I saw it. It was a purple bill board. It was the color that first caught my eye (someone please pay that advertising genius). As I got closer and adjusted my “old man” eyes I read what the sign said, “Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, we all worship TV.” Perhaps the advertisers were just trying to unify us by saying we all worshiped something together, but it just didn’t sit well with me. I drove past that bill board but in a way I was still staring at it for the next ten miles. Something felt sinking in my heart…was it really true? Do we worship the television?

What is the definition of an “Idol”?

i·dol

ˈīdl/

noun

noun: idol; plural noun: idols

1.

an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.

synonyms: icon, representation of a god, image, effigy, statue, figure, figurine,fetish, totem; More

Here’s another definition – an Idol is whatever you allow to take up and consume all of your time. How much time do we spend in church? Maybe four – seven hours a week (if you don’t work there). How much time do you spend in front of the television or perhaps the tablet device/computer screen? I would venture a guess that for the most part the hours spent here would out number the hours spent at church. But church isn’t the only place to find God is it? I mean we all own bibles don’t we? How many hours a day or even a week do we spend reading its pages?

What is consuming your time? Some might say, “well my family takes up a lot of it“, while others might say, “I work sixty hour weeks” and I certainly don’t want to sound as if I’m condemning any of that. It just hit me driving by that big purple bill board how little time I sometimes actually-physically give to God. Not just at work, but as a devoted lover and follower of God.

“Here God – take my left-overs”

It’s almost as if I’ve been saying to God, “You stay home while I go to work, I’ll be back in like eight hours…see ya!” or “Well God I’ve got more pressing things to do today, I have to catch up on all of my DVR’d shows, we’ll talk some other time”. God doesn’t have an on/off switch. He isn’t some toy you place on a shelf and only take Him down when you feel like it. God desires from us real and genuine fellowship, not our left-overs.

“CAIN & ABEL”

Do you remember Cain and Abel? (Read Genesis 4 again) Sure we remember that Cain kills his brother, but why? Because he was jealous of how he was blessed by God. But why was he blessed by God? Because Abel honored God with the first fruits and not his left-overs. Cain honored God with the scraps of his left-overs, the less desired cuts from his crops, while he feasted on prime rib of the land. Abel set apart the best of the best for God and then used the rest.

You see there’s an application here. Are you ABEL (pun intended) to give God the best of the best first? For far too long I’ve been giving Him my left-overs. I’ve been giving Him my after thoughts, my junk…my dirty diapers, and I’ve been thinking that’s good enough. WELL IT ISN’T! God didn’t send down some second rate half-wit of an angel to save us did He? No way! He sent us His best. He sent us His Son to save us from sin and death. God doesn’t want our scraps…He wants genuine fellowship with us. He wants us to set apart our hearts first for Him and then for others…then for our self. Be we get that backwards ~~sometimes~~…~~a lot of times~~…most of the time.

Stop giving God your dirty diapers, your rubbish, your “good enoughs”. Only your best will do! Maybe it’s time to turn off the television for while, or put down that novel. Maybe it’s time to let God consume you instead of you consuming stuff and work and play. Are you prepared to give God your best instead of the rest of the left-overs and the dirty diapers?

-Just a thought to consider.

“But I do know we’re deficient in some way. We are too involved in materialistic things, and they don’t satisfy us. The loving relationships we have, the universe around us, we take these things for granted.”
― Mitch Albom, Tuesdays With Morrie

January 5, 2014 0

Kicking in the front door

“Knock and it shall be opened.’ But does knocking mean hammering and kicking the door like a maniac?”
― C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

We pray and pray at times for God to answer our prayers the way that we want them answered. We yearn and we groan, and at times we call God cruel secretly in our hearts because of the lack of answered prayers. Could it be that it isn’t so much about His answer but about our asking? I cannot be calloused here to say to a dying person that it was God’s will for you to die…of course it wasn’t. I am not saying either that God is harsh and wishes some to perish from physical afflictions, this is not the God I serve. We do live in a fallen and temporal world in which diseases like cancer and AIDS prevail. God weeps with those who mourn and comforts those who hurt…it was never His doing that would create such a sad predicament of man.

But in terms of our every day prayers, we can become like a SWAT team attempting to kick in the front door of an assailant instead of humbling petitioning before God the needs of our lives. It isn’t about our wants, but our needs that He will provide (which are according to His riches). But sometimes in our asking (prayer) we become more like Veruca Salt. Do you remember the spoiled character in Roald Dahl’s book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”? Veruca Salt was a salty, spoiled brat who was given anything her heart desired. This led to her downfall within the Chocolate factory, because her father could not give her something which didn’t belong to him. Sometimes our asking prayers can seem like a spoiled little brat, I don’t mean to sound condescending because I too have asked like this. Then when the answer doesn’t come to us the way that we wanted it, we flail on the floor and cry like a child desperately in need of some discipline.

How is your prayer life? Are you approaching the throne of God with reverence and fear or are you Veruca Salt, intent on kicking down the front door if you have to? Take an inventory of your prayer life, be mindful that God does listen to us and He will provide to those who ask in faith and that which brings glory and honor to Him.

December 3, 2013 0

Thanks-Living

“I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way–in all your speaking and in all your knowledge.” (1 Corinthians 1:4-5)

My friends, we shouldn’t need a specific holiday to remind us that we ought to be thankful…but it doesn’t hurt! Thankfulness should be second nature to a Christ-follower, and yet it is often easy to take the blessings, that we have been given, for granted. The challenge for us is to learn the discipline of simplicity. What is simplicity? It is the discipline of letting go of our hunger and craving for more “stuff”. It is letting go of our lusts for possessions, affluence, popularity, recognition and power. These things are called mammon. What is mammon? Webster’s dictionary even describes it with a biblical context: “material wealth or possessions especially as having a debasing influence <you cannot serve God and mammon — Matthew 6:24“

Richard Foster explains this issue:

“We really must understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic. It is psychotic because it has completely lost touch with reality. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy. ‘We buy things we do not want to impress people we do not like.’ …It is time to awaken to the fact that conformity to a sick society is to be sick.” (Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth)

Stuff, in essence, can become our god. It can consume us, making us ungrateful and blind to the truth. We can become lost in our “stuff”. Possessions and things aren’t inherently bad but it depends on how we use them.

Richard Foster had more to say on this topic:

“Jesus Christ and all the writers of the New Testament call us to break free of mammon lust and live in joyous trust…They point us toward a way of living in which everything we have we receive as a gift, and everything we have is cared for by God, and everything we have is available to others when it is right and good. This reality frames the heart of Christian simplicity. It is the means of liberation and power to do what is right and to overcome the forces of fear and avarice.” (Richard J. Foster, Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World)

The key to the discipline of simplicity is…well discipline. Do you really need that cell phone upgrade? Do you really need that new car? Separate your wants from your needs. Thanksgiving isn’t about getting more stuff to make you happy. It should be about appreciating what God has already given to us and utilizing these tools for His glory! That doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy life or become obligated to a boring existence. God created us to enjoy life and more importantly to enjoy His presence in life.

Are you experiencing life through thanksgiving? Do you have time in your day to just stop and say thank you to God for all of the awesome gifts and blessings He has given to you? Don’t wait for specific holidays to recognize your need for thanksgiving. Celebrate “Thanks-living” every day, because after all, each day is a gift from God!

“No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks” – Saint Ambrose

Life is precious…use it wisely!

November 19, 2013 0

I Surrender All?

“You never go away from us, yet we have difficulty in returning to You. Come, Lord, stir us up and call us back. Kindle and seize us. Be our fire and our sweetness. Let us love. Let us run.” ― Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

Why does it still happen to us, who call ourselves Christ-followers? Why do we shy away from this disciplined, more refined lifestyle? God is calling us to something deeper, something far better than what we experiencing in the here and now. Why do we fight it? Could it be that we have something more to surrender? Could it be that we have held back a part of us from Him?

God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. He did what? It’s true. God told Abraham to take Isaac up into the mountains, build an altar and shed his only son’s blood as an offering and as a sign of allegiance to the Almighty. Scripture doesn’t say that Abraham refused, yet I struggle with this passage. How could a father follow through with a request like this? Abraham doesn’t refuse and he does what God asks of him, he goes up into the mountains and takes his son with him. Everything is premeditated, including the murder weapon. Yet I know that Abraham must have dreaded what was to come. He must have mourned and waged within himself over this request from God. Isaac’s name means “He laughs” and that is certainly what Abraham and Sarah did when they received the news that they would have a son. After all, Abraham was nearly a hundred years old when they received this divine news. But Isaac’s name meant much more then their initial response. He would bring joy into their lives. They would laugh until tears ran from their eyes! He was their answer to so many years of barrenness and familial emptiness. Isaac was Abraham and Sarah’s pride and joy…even to the point of replacing God.

We do this sometimes. People and even things have a tendency of replacing God as top priority in our lives. We don’t intentionally run from God, but little by little we find ourselves unwilling to surrender everything before Him. This is a very real danger in our ministries and in our spiritual journey and Christ-followers! We utter the chorus “I surrender all” with our lips and yet in our hearts we’re holding onto something that needs to sacrificed at the altar of self!

Abraham didn’t hold back. He was obedient to God. Perhaps he understood the message that God was trying to send to him way before he held the sharp blade over his bound son on that stone altar. He certainly displayed his obedience in his response to Isaac’s questions about where the lamb was going come from when Abraham replied, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” (Genesis 22:8) Though Isaac had become his pride and joy, and perhaps, for a time replaced God on his priority list, Abraham had faith! His faith was indeed rewarded when an Angel appeared and stopped him from completing costly sacrifice. The angel said, ““Do not lay a hand on the boy,…Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” (Genesis 22:12)

If, today, we find ourselves far away from God because we have run may we return to Him! If, today, we find that we have placed others of things before God may we be willing to lay them all at His feet in total surrender. God is faithful and longs for us to return to Him! He also longs to make us holy people, the very image of Christ for all the world to see. But that image cannot remain on us if we are unwilling to surrender everything and return to Him!

Prayer:

Lord in my returning, make me holy.

Lord in my renewal, send the fire!

May my life and heart be ever for you

restore me from sin-sick muck and mire!

November 18, 2013 1

Before my day (a Poem)

In the waning hours before the sunrise

when soft light wisps through curtained window panes

and before the sounds of busy lives begin again

I renew my conversation with my God.

In blankets wrapped and pillow propped

before these feet place themselves into gravity

and as my eyes have yet to batten a lash in focus

I find again my deep connection with my God.

And in my counting of as many breaths

these lungs are filled with countless blessings

all my hopes and needs begin and end

with these early morning times of confessions.

So, dear Lord before I begin

and the world with all of its chaos ensues

allow me one more moment here with You

let me linger but for another and then…

come with me into the fray.

-Amen.

November 11, 2013 0

I’ll Fight!

In the years that I have lived, loved and groaned

I have never known the hunger pangs of children

I have never witnessed a child dying from the curable

because resources and money was lacking.

I have never found pleasure in a single morsel of rice

because this was all I would eat in a week.

I have never been witness to the slaughter of my parents

because they believed in Jesus.

I have never had to watch as my brothers and sisters

were sold into slavery on the human trafficking market,

loaded up in boxed trucks by the dozens like animals

heading to market…

Yet I know it exists.

I know that many still today find grace in one ray of sunshine

in the midst of hell and fury of hate.

I know children go hungry as militant leaders steal

their wealth and resources and make child soldiers out of them.

I know Aids has killed and will kill entire generations in Africa

leaving orphans in its wake.

I know human slavery hasn’t been eradicated

but is extricating the innocent still to a shortened life of horror.

I know.

But how can we end this?

How can we bring food to the hungry,

safety to the threatened

and cures to the dying?

My heart yearns to help.

My heart groans to give aid.

I want to fight this.

I want to stand in the gap for those who cannon for themselves.

I want to bring the light of Christ into darkened places.

To be a place of safe harbor to the lives clinging to death.

Lord how?

How can we fight this?

How can we go?

How can we soldier on?

How do we shine when all we want to do cry and weep over

the evils of man?

This fight must begin and end with You!

Your strength.

Your peace.

Your discernment.

Your empowering arms of love.

Father, we cry out to You in a world

sin sick and broken.

Be our salve.

Be our shield.

Our fortress.

Our deliverance.

Our Victory.

I’ll fight!

I’ll fight on!

I’ll fight on into your victory!

November 8, 2013 0

Lord I forgot about You! (A Poem and Prayer)

Life is marred by many things

and busy schedules

with phones that ring

and Lord I confess I forget You.

When worries increase

and time flies by

my space all leased

I am left wondering why…

why have I forgotten You?

These fears flood in

and hope leaks out

under-sieged by sin

and I’m without

why have I forgotten You?

Until on my knees I must bend

In prayer and solitude again

to reconnect with the Eternal friend

this is how is begins and ends.

November 7, 2013 1

“Choose God”

1 Samuel 8:6-9 (NIV)
But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD.
And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”

God’s heart must have ached in hearing the pleas of His people. They demanded a king. They looked around at the other nations and coveted what they had. God had provided them food and protection in a barren land during the exodus, and He had provided them lands to call their own, but still they strayed from Him. Still they wanted more. Enemies were vanquished before His people, provisions were met and yet they took it all for granted.

When they cried out for a king in the setting sun of Samuel’s leadership, God reminded him that it was aimed at the Almighty. “It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.” (1 Samuel 8:7) Imagine for a moment giving up the One who was their fortress of protection. Imagine saying to God, your wealth, though it outnumbers the stars in the sky, is not enough for me…we want something else. God had poured out His love upon His people and they had rejected it again and again.

If there was ever a governmental system in this world that could stand the test of time it was and still is God’s model. No other form of government has ever before or ever will prove more pure and selfless than His. No other form of democracy will ever remain without being tainted by man’s selfish ambitions for power, prestige and wealth. Yet His people chose a lower form of government because other nation’s systems looked more appealing. The lure of other gods and openly degenerate moralistic standards appealed to the people of God. How awful Samuel, God’s prophet must have felt. How hurt and heartsick with grief Samuel must have been.

Have you ever felt the sting of rejection? I have a time or two. It is an emotion that without a doubt begs never to be repeated in the human heart. Though this went much deeper than a single person being rejected, God was rejected by the entirety of His chosen people! They turned their backs on Him. They decided that He couldn’t support their needs any longer and so a king would better suit their pleasures.

I imagine through pain, disdain and hurt God tells Samuel to give the people what they want. But He also warns Samuel to tell them what the results will be of their betrayal and choice. “Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.” (1 Samuel 8:9) The idea of a king was far more appealing to the people of God than actually considering the consequences of their choice. The king would reign over them, not like a loving, understanding and all knowing God, but like a man driven by selfish intentions and sin this would be how they would be ruled over.

God allowed them to choose. We are a created with this free-will within us. We are not compelled or forced to love and serve God. Yet when we choose to reject Him and His hand upon our lives we soon find that in our folly the devastating consequences of life without Him! I am not advocating for one form of government over another today, nor am I renouncing any leadership within our government (Scripture clearly says: “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” (1 Peter 2:13-17)) But what I am saying is this; above everything choose Him. Don’t turn from the One who created us and has preserved our lives. Choose God. Serve Him, love Him and make Him Lord of your life above and before all else.

-Just a thought for today.

November 7, 2013 4

Honest Questions…

What if I actually did as Jesus instructed? What would that look like? Would the world be better off because of it? If I actually loved my enemy. If I actually extended grace that extra mile. If I actually opened my heart to the whosoever? What would that look like?

What if I actually got serious about disciplining my thought processes? The way that I think. After all didn’t Jesus say that even if we think about adultery we’ve already committed it in our hearts? What would it look like if I applied the Paul principles in my life? If I pondered on all things true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy…(Philippians 4:8)? What would come of thinking this way? If I got rid of all the junk, filth, malice, hate and envy? If I, like David, asked God instead to create in me a clean heart and to renew that right spirit within me (Ps 51)…how would I be different than I am now?

What if I got serious about holiness? If I actually started listening to those promptings of the Holy Spirit to truly surrender all? If I stopped holding onto to those darker portions of my heart. If I stopped messing around thinking that there’s always time later to mature in this thing called ‘faith’. How would this surrender take over my life? Would I be truly transformed? Would I be more confident? Would I have more assurance of His grace in me? What if His holiness became a priority instead of a temporary, on again off again passing phase? What if I got serious and got disciplined in this faith?

What if I stopped talking all the time in my prayers and actually began to listen? What would I hear Him say? What is He saying right now? Am I afraid of His words? Am I dreading wrath or condemnation? Have I been putting off these listening ears because I would rather ask Him for things instead of do what He wants of me? And why don’t I spend more time studying His Word? Why is it laborious for me to read a single chapter but I can spend hours in front of the TV, with my fiction books and surfing the web? Am I afraid of what He might say to me regarding my other idle activities? Would I be convicted too much? I can justify it all away, I can say ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ but never really mean the words that I say.

What if I was honest with myself…with Him? What if…what if…what if. Perhaps it’s time to stop asking ‘what ifs’ and starting asking why not now? What am I waiting for? Why am I stalling? What are the reasons? WHY NOT NOW?

-Just a few honest questions.

September 20, 2013 0

Tag: God