When I started to get serious about working out and getting into shape I thought I’d hire a trainer to help me. I never was very disciplined or motivated to work out so I figured if I paid someone to train me I’d have no choice but to do it and he could help motivate me to get stronger. I remember when he first started training me he talked about how I needed to improve my endurance. I could lift the heavy weights but I would give out quickly. I had some natural strength but not a lot of endurance. Gradually over time my endurance improved and I could tell a difference. The weights were getting easier to lift; I wouldn’t get tired as quickly. My endurance was improving and I was getting stronger.
My faith has been much like this. The challenge for me though is I didn’t have a trainer or someone who could coach me on how to improve my faith and how to endure through tough situations in life. I was acting like a believer in Jesus, going through the motions like a Christian, but I did not have much endurance toward overcoming my sin. I would always think I could handle it on my own and stop the sin and I didn’t need to rely on Jesus to help me endure and stop the sin. This ultimately left me suffering through a lot of pain, anguish, guilt, humility, loss, and feeling like I was not good enough. Through this suffering the Lord has been slowly revealing Himself to me and the love He has for me. It’s not been a switch that has flipped but a gradual rebuilding of my faith and endurance to fight sin. The pain I have felt is being emptied out and I’m being filled up with Jesus love. The challenge for me getting past the pain was made clear to me by a friend recently. He said you don’t just stop eating and expect not to ever be hungry again. That was exactly how I had been feeling and it helped me realize that it wasn’t going to be a switch I just flip and the feelings would change. But gradually as I have emptied out my sin and filled up with Christ love I’ve begun to be able to endure through those times that I think back on my sin. As I have built up my endurance toward the sin I have begun to feel true repentance for my sin. No longer feeling like I wish I hadn’t been caught up in the sin but actually feeling guilt and shame for the sin.
As this endurance builds I have begun to feel stronger in my faith and slowly the pain is turning to joy. The apostle Paul writes “…we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been give to us.” (Romans 5:3-5) Am I fixed? By no means! I am a sinner and always will be. But as I pour more of myself out and fill back up with the Holy Spirit I build up more endurance and hope that I will be made righteous. I must continue to work out my faith muscles through reading scripture, confessing my sins, being obedient to His will, and asking the Holy Spirit to reveal himself to me everyday. But the joy in all this is there is a living hope in Jesus Christ. He forgives us for our sins and washes us clean to live a new life. A joyful life with Him where everything we desire is in Him. We are completely satisfied with all that he gives and has given and we can be joyful and endure through our life knowing that there awaits for us an eternal kingdom where Jesus reigns and we will live with Him forever.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Jesus Controls
If you totally give everything over to Jesus, He will control all things for His good. It’s absolutely amazing though that we deny this and try to control things on our own. When we do this it only separates us from Him who does control everything. And if you think He is not going to, just wait, He’ll show you. I recently made a huge mistake morally and have been totally humiliated and thrown into the dirt. I thought I could control it and it was going to be okay; oh no, well the beauty of this now is I see how much Jesus really does control things for His good. If only you just take on this belief before you get thrown into the dirt like I did.
Jesus does things as He pleases; He doesn’t need anyone’s approval. He will call you out and reprove you. But through this you are given grace upon grace forgiveness by faith and it makes you realize if you just allow Him to control your life you will only be blessed all that much more. Jesus does as He pleases with us to make us, who are elected, to love Him so much more. As Jesus forgives the sinful woman he says “her sins which are many, are forgiven – for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” (Luke 7:50) Her love showed that she understood what God’s forgiveness meant for her. Jesus forgives us for all our sins and by our faith will we be transformed to “walk in the light, as he is in the light” (Heb 9:22). The shedding of the blood of Christ was a voluntary substitutionary sacrifice of infinite value for the elect; it paid in full God’s penalty for sin (Heb 9:27, 28). We are saved by grace through faith. He has paid the price for our sin. Now we should rejoice and turn our hearts toward Him in glory. When we do this and release our grip on what we “think” we control we will be happy, joyful, and alive with our new life with Him. He then controls us and our desires change, we want to do good things that are pleasing to Him. We don’t do good things to please Him. We are given a new heart and through our faith we desire to do good things that please Him.
Jesus does things as He pleases; He doesn’t need anyone’s approval. He will call you out and reprove you. But through this you are given grace upon grace forgiveness by faith and it makes you realize if you just allow Him to control your life you will only be blessed all that much more. Jesus does as He pleases with us to make us, who are elected, to love Him so much more. As Jesus forgives the sinful woman he says “her sins which are many, are forgiven – for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” (Luke 7:50) Her love showed that she understood what God’s forgiveness meant for her. Jesus forgives us for all our sins and by our faith will we be transformed to “walk in the light, as he is in the light” (Heb 9:22). The shedding of the blood of Christ was a voluntary substitutionary sacrifice of infinite value for the elect; it paid in full God’s penalty for sin (Heb 9:27, 28). We are saved by grace through faith. He has paid the price for our sin. Now we should rejoice and turn our hearts toward Him in glory. When we do this and release our grip on what we “think” we control we will be happy, joyful, and alive with our new life with Him. He then controls us and our desires change, we want to do good things that are pleasing to Him. We don’t do good things to please Him. We are given a new heart and through our faith we desire to do good things that please Him.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Restoration and Finality
Too many times in my life I have been left with no finality on things. This has left big gashes and wounds in my life because I haven’t been able to resolve the matter internally and process all of my feelings and emotions without some sort of finality. I heard an awesome quote from FDR one time that helped “When you get to end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on”. I also like the added statement “and swing” at the end of this quote. But for some reason life doesn’t always work so easy. I feel like I have these loose, frayed ends that just hang there and I have a hard time resolving the matter. This has been a big challenge for me because of betrayal, loss, failed relationships, wondering why it happened like that, or what has happened since. What happens to me is the enemy keeps whispering in my ear “if you had only done this or you should have done that or if I had just said something else”. The enemy lies though to you and wants you to think that there is no restoration for you.
The good news is there is restoration for me. The restoration though must start in my heart. My mind will try to rationalize some thing or figure it out in my head and process it so it makes sense. I am only fooling myself though when I do this. This is where the enemy sneaks in and starts telling these lies. But if my heart is restored and I allow Jesus to come in to my heart all of this can be resolved with Him. As Jesus hung on the cross and said “It is finished” (John 19:30) he took all of my unrighteousness and sin and forgave me so that I can live a new life of joy and happiness with Him. When Jesus said it is finished we as Christians are suppose to rejoice that we have eternal life. It is a total gift that I am underserved of. The challenge with the world and religion is that it’s not always seen in this light. Religion teaches you, do these things then God will forgive you and accept you. That’s not what Christianity is about. Christianity is about accepting the gift that Jesus died for my sins and I am forgiven. From that a new heart will poor “rivers of living water” through me (John 7:38). From that I have new desires and want to live more Christ like. The true expression of Christian character is not in good-doing (works), but in God-likeness.
If I keep my relationship with Him right, then regardless of my circumstance, past pains, unresolved issues I can live joyful knowing that I am restored through His forgiveness. I no longer have to worry about what happened or what I could have done or should have done different. Once I have been a restored, have a new heart and a relationship with Jesus I no longer have to worry about finality. Because whatever circumstance I was in I was placed in it by God and He uses that to fulfill His purpose for me. But I must continue to “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7). I no longer have to worry about finality with anything in life any longer. I am restored through Him and can trust that all of these things have been done for a reason and all I need to do is hold on to the knot at the end of my rope and swing.
The good news is there is restoration for me. The restoration though must start in my heart. My mind will try to rationalize some thing or figure it out in my head and process it so it makes sense. I am only fooling myself though when I do this. This is where the enemy sneaks in and starts telling these lies. But if my heart is restored and I allow Jesus to come in to my heart all of this can be resolved with Him. As Jesus hung on the cross and said “It is finished” (John 19:30) he took all of my unrighteousness and sin and forgave me so that I can live a new life of joy and happiness with Him. When Jesus said it is finished we as Christians are suppose to rejoice that we have eternal life. It is a total gift that I am underserved of. The challenge with the world and religion is that it’s not always seen in this light. Religion teaches you, do these things then God will forgive you and accept you. That’s not what Christianity is about. Christianity is about accepting the gift that Jesus died for my sins and I am forgiven. From that a new heart will poor “rivers of living water” through me (John 7:38). From that I have new desires and want to live more Christ like. The true expression of Christian character is not in good-doing (works), but in God-likeness.
If I keep my relationship with Him right, then regardless of my circumstance, past pains, unresolved issues I can live joyful knowing that I am restored through His forgiveness. I no longer have to worry about what happened or what I could have done or should have done different. Once I have been a restored, have a new heart and a relationship with Jesus I no longer have to worry about finality. Because whatever circumstance I was in I was placed in it by God and He uses that to fulfill His purpose for me. But I must continue to “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7). I no longer have to worry about finality with anything in life any longer. I am restored through Him and can trust that all of these things have been done for a reason and all I need to do is hold on to the knot at the end of my rope and swing.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Trusting the law
We know the law, what’s right and what’s wrong. The law comes in two different forms, God’s law and man’s law. I have a good friend who often justifies things to me by saying “don’t beat your self up over man’s law”. We know God’s law in the 10 commandments from the Old Testament, which are ultimately wrapped up in 2 laws in the New Testament – Love God and love your neighbor like Jesus loves them. What happens though is that in our mind we know what the law is but our flesh desires something else. As Paul wrote “I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin” (Romans 7:25). Even Paul an apostle to Jesus Christ struggled with this. It’s hard to deny the desires of our flesh. Earlier in Romans Paul writes “For I know nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out” (Romans 7:18).
The pressure of the worldly desires of our flesh is hard for even Paul to deny. The good thing about the law is it helps keep up the guard rails in our life and keeps us from dying from sin. When sin comes, death comes “…sin came alive and I died” (Romans 7:9). For us as humans to stay alive and avoid this death we must trust that the Lord knows what’s better for us more than we do. We must trust that in every circumstance the Lord has it under control. In order for that to occur we must trust Him and allow our self to be governed by the law. If we do not allow God to rule over us we are kept in a perpetual cycle of disappointment because we think the world is all about us and not about Him. But if we realize God has got things under control and He’s working things out for His glory and our good we will end the cycle of frustration and disappointment.
God is working on making a perfect world through our redemption for a new creation. We are redeemed through Jesus and His death to take away our sin so we can live a new life; a life of joy, happiness, content, love, fellowship, worship. By believing this it causes us to act different in our relationships and how we live out our life. We can forgive those that wronged and sinned against us and we can ask forgiveness from those we sinned against. When we believe the gospel it changes the way we see things. We no longer see them in a horizontal perspective of worldly desires and selfishness but in a way of how can I glorify God in my life in selflessness.
The pressure of the worldly desires of our flesh is hard for even Paul to deny. The good thing about the law is it helps keep up the guard rails in our life and keeps us from dying from sin. When sin comes, death comes “…sin came alive and I died” (Romans 7:9). For us as humans to stay alive and avoid this death we must trust that the Lord knows what’s better for us more than we do. We must trust that in every circumstance the Lord has it under control. In order for that to occur we must trust Him and allow our self to be governed by the law. If we do not allow God to rule over us we are kept in a perpetual cycle of disappointment because we think the world is all about us and not about Him. But if we realize God has got things under control and He’s working things out for His glory and our good we will end the cycle of frustration and disappointment.
God is working on making a perfect world through our redemption for a new creation. We are redeemed through Jesus and His death to take away our sin so we can live a new life; a life of joy, happiness, content, love, fellowship, worship. By believing this it causes us to act different in our relationships and how we live out our life. We can forgive those that wronged and sinned against us and we can ask forgiveness from those we sinned against. When we believe the gospel it changes the way we see things. We no longer see them in a horizontal perspective of worldly desires and selfishness but in a way of how can I glorify God in my life in selflessness.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Overwhelmed
I often find myself overwhelmed. This feeling comes in many different forms; stress, anxiety, joy, compassion, awe, pressure, discontent, nervousness, angst, sadness, happiness, relief, pain, anguish, love. The problem with these feelings is that many of them are worldly flesh desires and reactions to sin and a fallen world. Not often enough are there feelings of being overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit. Too often we as sinful humans allow our worldly desires of our flesh to block the desires and will of God for our happiness. When we block His desires for us and follow our own desires we sin against God and are disobedient. What happens though is that eventually we get humiliated and suffer because of our sinful nature to desire what we want and not what God wants for us. Then we get totally overwhelmed by the pressures that we feel upon us. In reality this is God putting His hand on us and taking control over our life so that we are more obedient to His will for us and less compelled to our own desires.
When there is something in life where God has put pressure on me it’s for a reason and I must learn to obey Him in that matter. If I bring all my “arguments and … every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5) regarding the matter, everything will become as clear as daylight to me. Sometimes I need to act like a 5 year old child and be told what to do. When I act like an adult I try to reason it out; but I don’t really have the reasoning capacity for that like God. When we try to be wise and reason we block out what the Holy Spirit is showing us and trying to guide us toward. When we do this we see nothing; we need to see like a child. Only then do we walk in His will. Jesus said “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children” (Mathew 11:25). Children are so amazing, I wish that I could see through the eyes of a child sometimes and realize how much bigger God our father is and let Him just take control over me and protect me like a loving father. We get so arrogant and strong willed though as we grow up and become callas toward God and we allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the worldly pressures that we face every day.
In the beginning this wasn’t so, everything was perfect until Adam and Eve were tempted by their worldly desires. So since creation we are in the midst of being redeemed by God for His new creation. Redemption doesn’t come easy though. We must be obedient to God and know that Jesus sacrificed Himself for our redemption and ALL of our sins have been paid for on the cross. It’s so hard sometimes to block out the influences that surround us everyday and put our focus on Jesus our savior to allow the Holy Spirit to overwhelm us and not the sins of the world. I have been so overwhelmed in my life and it has lead to a life of sin and sorrow. I am now working toward reconciliation and to God and redemption through His son Jesus to allow the Holy Spirit to take control of my life and live obedient to His will for me. Once I do this and not worry about the past and just worry about what is and what’s to come will I be able to totally rejoice and say thank you God, bring it on, I can’t wait to see you and be at your party in heaven. So what’s the lesson in all that? I must learn from my experiences, make changes, and try again. I can’t change the past but I look toward the future and say I am going to live my life in obedience to you God and just wait for the joys that will rain on me through living my life for your will and not mine.
When there is something in life where God has put pressure on me it’s for a reason and I must learn to obey Him in that matter. If I bring all my “arguments and … every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5) regarding the matter, everything will become as clear as daylight to me. Sometimes I need to act like a 5 year old child and be told what to do. When I act like an adult I try to reason it out; but I don’t really have the reasoning capacity for that like God. When we try to be wise and reason we block out what the Holy Spirit is showing us and trying to guide us toward. When we do this we see nothing; we need to see like a child. Only then do we walk in His will. Jesus said “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children” (Mathew 11:25). Children are so amazing, I wish that I could see through the eyes of a child sometimes and realize how much bigger God our father is and let Him just take control over me and protect me like a loving father. We get so arrogant and strong willed though as we grow up and become callas toward God and we allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the worldly pressures that we face every day.
In the beginning this wasn’t so, everything was perfect until Adam and Eve were tempted by their worldly desires. So since creation we are in the midst of being redeemed by God for His new creation. Redemption doesn’t come easy though. We must be obedient to God and know that Jesus sacrificed Himself for our redemption and ALL of our sins have been paid for on the cross. It’s so hard sometimes to block out the influences that surround us everyday and put our focus on Jesus our savior to allow the Holy Spirit to overwhelm us and not the sins of the world. I have been so overwhelmed in my life and it has lead to a life of sin and sorrow. I am now working toward reconciliation and to God and redemption through His son Jesus to allow the Holy Spirit to take control of my life and live obedient to His will for me. Once I do this and not worry about the past and just worry about what is and what’s to come will I be able to totally rejoice and say thank you God, bring it on, I can’t wait to see you and be at your party in heaven. So what’s the lesson in all that? I must learn from my experiences, make changes, and try again. I can’t change the past but I look toward the future and say I am going to live my life in obedience to you God and just wait for the joys that will rain on me through living my life for your will and not mine.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Confusion and redemption
I often find myself very confused with what God’s intentions are. Why does He let bad things happen to good people? How come when it says in the bible “Everyone who asks receives…” (Luke 11:10) but I don’t get the things I want or something happens to me or a friend that causes difficulty or sadness? Why is there so much conflict in the world with the story God’s writing? I know I’m just a player or a part of the story He’s writing but I’m confused with what His intentions are. I’ve be confused in life trying to figure out why can’t things always be the way I want them? If God does provide why don’t I get what I want? I can’t understand why He won’t give me these things. Confused about what’s my purpose in all this? What are God’s intentions? Where am I going, why do these things happen? How come I can’t get what I want? If He is truly a loving God how come he makes these things happen in my life? Why do I go through life and not have an understanding of what God’s desires are for me? I still don’t know, I still don’t understand all of this but the veil has been lifted and I can see clearer now that there is a purpose for these things and there is good work going on in the midst of the hurt, pain, and what seems so bad, so ugly. For there to be true redemption and transformation my identity needs to be in Christ, not in someone or something. My past certainly makes up who I am but He is the one who makes it happen for His purpose.
When the serpent tempted Adam and Eve in the garden and told them you can be like God and know good and evil; they broke away from Gods will. God wants to bring us closer to Him and Satan just wants to tear us apart. When we do this we brake away from what God desires for us. How do I change to what God desires and not my desires? It’s a heart issue. What’s my deepest desire of my heart? GOOD! I must be regenerated and have a changed heart to only desire God’s will for my life. It’s confusing though when I have a love for Jesus, why do I sin and do things that He doesn’t desire for me? What happens though is while it might feel good to my flesh it hurts deep in my heart and separates me from God and His will for my life. There is so much pain that sin causes so why do I struggle with these things I regret? How do I have more control over the results? This is not the way it’s supposed to be God. Something’s broken! When I find myself in these situations I must elevate God over all these things. Once I do that there is relief from my pain and true happiness and joy can be found in Christ. My behavior change comes out of the heart and a desire for Jesus and what He wants for me not what my worldly flesh desires. If all I want is for the pain/sin to stop all I need to do is redirect it to Him. So many times I just want God to go before me and make the road straight. “The path of the righteous is level…” (Isaiah 26:7) The truth is that He has I just have to be obedient to him. Live by my life verse “Trust in the Lord with all my heart; don’t depend on my own understanding. Seek His will in all I do; and He will show me which path to take” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
For there to be true joy and happiness it all begins with obedience to Jesus Christ. When I’m obedient to Him then I begin to line up with how He created things to be and it increases my joy even in my sadness, difficulty, pain, sorrow. By God taking me through something I temporarily don’t understand and the spiritual confusion it is only to help me come to the understanding of what God wants for me. Even love has to wait in pain and tears for the blessing of fuller fellowship and oneness. When Satan does things in our lives and these bad things happen to us, ultimately God uses them for good. God redeems these situations and turns them into something good. I don’t understand it but eventually His story (history) will be revealed to me and I will be able to look back and say oh that’s why…
When the serpent tempted Adam and Eve in the garden and told them you can be like God and know good and evil; they broke away from Gods will. God wants to bring us closer to Him and Satan just wants to tear us apart. When we do this we brake away from what God desires for us. How do I change to what God desires and not my desires? It’s a heart issue. What’s my deepest desire of my heart? GOOD! I must be regenerated and have a changed heart to only desire God’s will for my life. It’s confusing though when I have a love for Jesus, why do I sin and do things that He doesn’t desire for me? What happens though is while it might feel good to my flesh it hurts deep in my heart and separates me from God and His will for my life. There is so much pain that sin causes so why do I struggle with these things I regret? How do I have more control over the results? This is not the way it’s supposed to be God. Something’s broken! When I find myself in these situations I must elevate God over all these things. Once I do that there is relief from my pain and true happiness and joy can be found in Christ. My behavior change comes out of the heart and a desire for Jesus and what He wants for me not what my worldly flesh desires. If all I want is for the pain/sin to stop all I need to do is redirect it to Him. So many times I just want God to go before me and make the road straight. “The path of the righteous is level…” (Isaiah 26:7) The truth is that He has I just have to be obedient to him. Live by my life verse “Trust in the Lord with all my heart; don’t depend on my own understanding. Seek His will in all I do; and He will show me which path to take” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
For there to be true joy and happiness it all begins with obedience to Jesus Christ. When I’m obedient to Him then I begin to line up with how He created things to be and it increases my joy even in my sadness, difficulty, pain, sorrow. By God taking me through something I temporarily don’t understand and the spiritual confusion it is only to help me come to the understanding of what God wants for me. Even love has to wait in pain and tears for the blessing of fuller fellowship and oneness. When Satan does things in our lives and these bad things happen to us, ultimately God uses them for good. God redeems these situations and turns them into something good. I don’t understand it but eventually His story (history) will be revealed to me and I will be able to look back and say oh that’s why…
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