Jump on in, the water is fine!

Philippians 4:7; Matthew 14:30; Hebrews 12:2

“The closer you live to Me, the safer you are.  Circumstances around you are undulating, and there are treacherous-looking waves in the distance.  Fix your eyes on Me, the One who never changes.  By the time those waves reach you, they will have shrunk to proportions by My design.  I am always beside you; helping you face today’s waves.  The future is a phantom, seeking to spoke you.  Laugh at the future! Stay close to Me.” Jesus Calling

The future is a scary place; it is full of unknowns and possibilities.  Full of decisions and full of effects based on those decisions; where do I go to college, do I change careers, where is God calling me and on and on. The future is full of things that will happen either one way or another based on the path that we chose.  One of the scariest things about the future is the unknown of if you made the right choice or not.  Was that girlfriend/boyfriend my soul mate? Was this college the best college that I could have chosen?  What am I missing by working at this job?  The closer that we are in our relationship with our God, the more in tune that we are with the paths that He has planned for us.  When we are close to God, we can more easily hear His voice guiding, directing our plans.  When we are close to God we are more at peace with the decisions that we have.  “And the pace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7 NASB.  The peace of God will guard our hearts and our minds! The creator of the universe is so madly in love with each and every one of us that He will guard our hearts from things that are not beneficial to us; he will guard our minds from thoughts of inadequacy, thoughts of uselessness, thoughts of worthlessness, thoughts of “what-if”.  Our God wants nothing more than for us to rest in His peace, to have peace that doesn’t make sense other than that we are in the presence of God. Our God does not want us to fear the unknown, our God doesn’t want us to fear the “what-if”.  The story of Peter walking on water illustrates exactly that.  Peter always get a lot of flack for sinking while he is on the water, but I feel like Peter does not get the accolades that he deserves for actually walking on water, anyways I digress. 

Matthew 14 is the story of Jesus walking on water towards the boat that the disciples are in.  The winds are beating the boat and tossing it around in the waves and here comes Jesus walking towards them on the water.  Now if I were in that boat after spending who knows how long trying to keep a boat from capsizing and then all of a sudden the shape of human appears on the water, I can bet that I would be a little terrified.  Peter takes this opportunity to call out to Jesus and to ask Jesus to bring him out of the boat.  From there we all know what happens, Peter gets out of the boat, starts walking, and then sinks.  End of story, right?  Well not exactly.  Here in West Texas we have been involved with many, many winds storms or even tornadoes but never once have I seen the wind.  Now I have seen the dirt that was thrown into the wind, but never have I actually seen wind.  Matthew 14:30 “But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” NASB.  Now I can only imagine the joy that swept over Jesus at that exact moment when Peter cried out “Lord, save me!”  That is the response Jesus had been looking for all along.  That is the same response that Jesus is looking for today when we face the winds and the waves.  He is looking for us to cry out to Him, “Lord, save me!”  In other translations, it says that Peter took his focus off of Jesus and that is what made him aware of the wind and the waves.  It wasn’t that the waves and the wind had stopped, Peter just didn’t notice them because he was so focused on Jesus.  “…fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2 NASB  When we fix our eyes upon the “author and perfector of faith” we don’t realize that the wind is blowing and that waves are crashing in around us.  When we fix our eyes on the “author and perfector of faith” we are so enveloped in the presence of God that the “peace that surpasses all comprehension” is upon us. 

In order for us to not fear the future, in order for us to now fear the chaos that is happening in the world around us we must be wrapped in the presence of our Lord and Savior.  We must be enveloped in the love that has shown us by enduring the cross.  Do you really think the same God who allowed his son to be crucified for us so that we may have the ability to spend eternity with him, would let the uncertainty of the future be what separates us from His love?  I can’t believe that.  Nothing in this world, nothing that Satan can throw at us can ever separate us from the love of Christ Jesus.  When the future is scary, laugh at the future because you are walking with the God who created that future. Love God:Love Men

Is your cup empty?

1 Samuel 16:7; Romans 8:38-39

“Do not be ashamed of your emptiness.  Instead, view it as the optimal condition for being filled with My Peace.” Jesus Calling

It is easy for me to appear to have it all together.  I want it to look like to other people that I know what I am doing and that I know how things are supposed to be done; whether that is in my job or my personal life or anywhere.  I don’t ever want it to seem that I don’t know what is going on regardless of the situation.  Clearly, I am not the only person to have felt that way because in 1 Samuel 16:7 the Lord said to Samuel “…Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature…for God sees not as man sees, for man look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  I feel like that when I put on the face of I have everything together that I am fooling some people.  Sure I may be able to fool the person that I see at the grocery store or the teller at the bank, but there are certain people that I cannot fool regardless of how hard I try.  My wife is one of those people, it doesn’t matter what I do or how I act if there is something that is bothering me my wife is one of the first people to know.  My wife can do that because she knows me so well.  So well in fact that there are times when just by an expression on my face she can tell exactly what is going on.  Even though my wife knows me that well, our God knows me even better than that.  Our God knows exactly what I am thinking; our God knows exactly how much we don’t have it together.  Our God sees straight through the façade that we put up and directly into our hearts.  And even better yet, our God isn’t disappointed when we don’t have it all together.  He takes that opportunity for us to be filled by His spirit, to be filled by His Presence.  Our God is walking side by side with us through every trial and tribulation that we face just waiting for us to let Him carry us. 

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39 NASB.  Our God is never going to leave us when we don’t have it together.  Our God is never going to abandon us when we feel empty.  Our God is never going to hide himself from us.  Our God is never going to let anything come in between us and Him.  Our God wants nothing more than for us to be the people that lean on Him in every situation.  He wants us to be guided by His plan.  He wants for us to be wrapped in love, a love that we cannot comprehend, a love that was made possible by the death of Jesus.  There is nothing in this world, nothing that we can do, nothing that Satan can throw at us that will make our God leave our side.  Be filled with the presence of God, let your cup runneth over with blessings that our God has laid out before us.  Let our God walk beside you.  Love God: Love Men.

Do you have control issues? Maybe you have trust issues instead!

Psalm 46:10; Colossians 4:21; 2 Peter 1:3-4

“When you bring Me prayer requests, lay our your concerns before Me. Speak to Me candidly; pour out your heart.  Then thank Me for the answers that I have set into motion long before you can discern results.”  Jesus Calling

“Trust Me by relinquishing control into My Hands.  Let go, and recognize that I am God.  This is My World: I made it and I control it.” Jesus Calling

I have heard the verse is Psalm 46:10 many times, “Be Still and Know that I am God…” but the New American Standard Bible that I have has a different translation of that verse and it takes on a whole new meaning.  The NASB states it this way “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”  Psalm 46:10.  Relinquishing control is not my thing, relinquishing control means that I am not in control.  I know, I know that is the part of giving up control, you are not supposed to be in control.  Cease striving…quit trying to control everything.  I have never thought that keeping control was going against the will of God.  Our God is a control freak.  Our God is the creator of the universe, and He made the universe the exact way that He wanted it made.  By us hanging onto things that we cannot control, but desperately want to are we going against the will of God?  For those of you that know me, if I am not in control of the situation I feel super uncomfortable in that situation.  I am as much of a control freak as there is on this planet, but does that mean I am going against the will of God?  If I am completely honest with myself, I may not like the answer.  At the end of verse 10 in Psalm 46, it says that “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Our God has planned everything and in the end He will be exalted regardless of how much we try to prevent that. 

When I pray, (and that is not near often enough) I don’t like things to get messy.  You have been around the person that spills out their entire heart at the feet of God so that our God will carry those burdens, I feel really uncomfortable during those situations.  But God calls us to lay our burdens down at His feet.  He doesn’t say lay your burdens at my feet as long as they are clean and tidy.  He doesn’t care how messy things get in our lives; He wants us to be completely real and honest at the foot of his throne.  He knows what is going on in your life already; He wants us to be able to trust Him and to be vulnerable so that we have to lean on Him during those times.  Trust and control seem to be two different disciplines in my life, but the more and more I think about it trust and control go together like supply and demand.  For those of you not familiar with supply and demand here is very, very scaled down version.  Supply and demand are usually inverse properties.  If demand is high, then supply is typically lower.  If supply is high, demand is typically lower.   It is like the old playground toy, the teeter-totter; if one end is up the other is down.  Now apply that to trust and control.  The more we trust in our Heavenly Father, the less control that we have over our life.  The more control we have, the less we are trusting.  That steps on my toes a LOT! I don’t like that fact that if I am trying to control my life, I probably do not trust enough what God is doing in my life.  Our God wants nothing more than for us to trust in Him completely, to completely lean on Him for everything in our life.  Not just the life-changing, groundbreaking things, He wants us to lean on Him in our daily life with even the smallest of things.

My challenge to me especially and to anyone else who struggles with control, let go of the things that you cannot change.  Let go of trying to be god of your own life.  We already have a God who is way better equipped to do that.  Love God:Love Men

Peanut Butter Jelly Time

Psalm 56:3-4, Matthew 6:20-21

“Store up for yourself treasure in heaven, through placing your trust in Me.  This practice will keep you in My Peace.”  Jesus Calling

Until recently, storing my treasures in heaven and trust did not seem to be on the same playing field.  They didn’t seem like they went together like peanut butter and jelly.  Storing up treasures in Heaven to me was don’t worry excessively about what your bank account looks like because you can’t take it with you anyways, and trusting God looked more like “God, I didn’t study for this test as much as I should have, but I  trust that you won’t let me down.” My GPA can speak to the fact that I don’t believe God “bailed” me out of not studying all the time; the grades would have probably been worse, but my last minute “hail-mary” (talking football play here, not actual prayer) didn’t magically make my C become an A just because I told God that he wouldn’t let me down.  That is not the trust the keeps us in His presence. 

Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasures are, there your heart will be also.”  I have heard that verse preached on by a few different people who have tried to make it a sin because your bank account has more than a couple zeros at the end of the numbers.  I have heard that you can’t be rich and a Christian.  You know the camel through the eye of the needle thing.  But I want to challenge that.  Down a few verses in verse 24 it says that “no one can serve two masters…”  it lists wealth at the end of that verse as a master that cannot be served along with God, but it does not say that you cannot have wealth.  It says that you cannot have two masters.  There is a big difference between having money and worshipping money; although sometimes there is a fine line that between the two.  But at the end of verse 24 in Matthew 6 you can place whatever word you would like in place of wealth.  Maybe your master is popularity, power, a sin you struggle with, fill in the blank; that verse still means the same thing.  You cannot serve God completely if you have something in your life that you are treating as an equal to God. 

When Jesus says in Matthew 6 to store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, I know he isn’t talking about building up your bank account for use in Heaven, (I hear they don’t have ATM’s there).  Instead Jesus is asking you to examine your life and build up qualities that are Heavenly qualities.  He is asking us to serve the one true God instead of placing other things in our lives that we place on equal footing or even higher than God.  He is asking us to be kingdom people who have the desires of God in their hearts instead of desires of this world.  Let me say that again, God is imploring us to be kingdom people who have the desires of God in our hearts instead of the desires of this world.  That last part hits home really hard for me because there are desires of this world that I struggle with immensely.  But God is calling me through His Son to leave those desires in this world and instead be a kingdom person. 

That is where the trust comes in and makes the other side of your peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  We are a fallen people who continuously look for out for our best interest first, but by God sending his Son to the cross for you and for me, he is asking us to trust that His plan is way better than ours.  He is asking that we store up treasures in Heaven because our God wants nothing more than to spend eternity in Heaven with us.  Trusting that giving up the desires of this world and following Jesus is the type of treasure that we can store up in Heaven.  Trusting that God has a plan for each and every one of our lives that is so much better than anything we can ever imagine is building up treasures in Heaven.  Trusting that even though we stumble and fall, our God will lift us up, dust us off and continue to hold us as we walk with him that is building up treasures in Heaven.  Having a super large bank account with more zeroes than I can count, but spending the majority of that helping widows and orphans, spending that money to help spread the Word of God to people who are so desperately wanting to hear the Good News, that is storing up treasures in Heaven.  Trust in God that His plan is better than mine, better than yours.  Build that treasure in Heaven.  Love God:Love Men

Fear Of What We Might Miss

“Much, much stress results from your wanting to make things happen before their times have come.  One of the main ways I assert my sovereignty is in the time of events.” Jesus Calling

Romans 8:31, Psalm 46:1-3, Luke 1:37

I can’t tell you how many times that I have prayed for God’s guidance or help in a situation in my life only to go ahead and do what I thought was best all along.  I felt because I had prayed for it, that it was okay to go ahead and do what I wanted to do anyways.  Praying for God’s direction and guidance is only one part of the recipe.  Yes, that is one of the main ingredients, but how good are chocolate chip cookies with flour or chocolate chips?  The same principal is in effect here as well.  Just asking God to help you do something or to help guide you down a path doesn’t mean that we can go ahead and head down whatever path we want to go down. 

I think the main reason that I just jump on the path and start going is because I am insecure of what I might miss if I don’t go ahead and start down that path.  Yes the path that I am headed down may no be the worst path in the world and it may even have some good things on that path, but what am I missing when I don’t let God tell me which path to take.  Sometimes it may be the same path that I was going to take, but other times and probably more so that not, it is a path altogether different than the one that I think would be best.  That is why he is God and I am not.  I believe fear is what drives a lot of our decisions.  Whether it be moving investments out of mutual funds or stocks because one day the market has a down day, whether it be putting in an alarm system because your neighbor’s house got broken in to, whether it be keeping your kids in a bubble because the outside world is a scary place.  All of those decisions are completely normal decisions, but are they driven by fear?  Psalm 46:1-3 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in our trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.” Our God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in our trouble!

How many of you remember the game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”?  Remember the “life-line” that the contestant could choose, and how most of the time the person on the other end of the phone knew exactly what the correct answer was to the question?  But do you also remember the few times when that person on the other end of the line had absolutely no clue as to which way was up in regards to the question being asked?  Remember how dejected the contestant felt and how helpless they felt?  Our God is always on the other end of the phone and always has the right answer to our questions.  Our God is never, not going to be there to provide us with help that we couldn’t come up with on our own.  Our God is never going to give us the wrong answer. 

Luke 1:37 talks about how nothing is impossible with God.  That is right before Mary responds to Gabriel and tells the arch angel that she will in fact do as the Lord has said.  Imagine the fear going on inside of her at this time.  A unwed teenage girl is going to be a mother, as if that is not enough reason to be scared, her child is going to be the Savior, but yet Mary in all of her wisdom tells Gabriel that because of who the Lord is in her life that she is going to go down the path that the Lord has shown her. 

I have heard the verse in Romans 8:31 quoted so many times in times of grief or despair.  “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”  But how many times do we allow those words to sink and really hit home?  If the God of the universe who knows how many hairs are on our head from before we were even born is for us, then no power is Hell or on earth is strong enough to overcome us.  My prayer for me and my prayer for you is this, may we lean on the discretion of our Lord and bask in His presence while we wait for the plans of the Lord.   It will not always be easy, but it will always be worth it.  Love God: Love Men.

The Gift of Hope

Psalm 46:1, Romans 12:12; Romans 15:13

“Hope is like a golden cord connecting you to Heaven. The more you cling to this cord, the more I bear the weight of your burdens; thus you are lightened.”  Jesus Calling

Heaven is not a place for burdens.  I remember the song No Tears in Heaven that says in heaven there will be no tears, no sorrow, no pain; and that is a life that our Heavenly Father so desperately wants for us now.  Yes there are going to be times of tears, sorrow, and pain while we are on this earth, but the promise that we have if we hold tight to Him that he will carry our burdens for us. Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”  According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, refuge is defined as a shelter or protection from danger or distress or a place that provides shelter or protection.  Our God wants to be that protection for us while we are on this earth.  Think about it like this, in North America alone there are 556 wildlife refuges.  The reason that we have wildlife refuges is because those animals were being harmed or were in danger whether it is from man-made devices or from natural causes.  Our God is our wildlife refuge, whether it is because of something that we have inflicted upon ourselves or because of something out of our control.  Romans 12:12 says “…rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer…”  We are called to rejoice in the fact that we have a hope of eternal life, we are called to rejoice in the fact that we have a Savior whose love for us is so far outside of our understanding, we are called to rejoice in the fact that the tribulations (read dangers) of this world are temporary and that our Lord and Savior wants nothing more than for us to lean on him during those times. 

Romans 15:13 “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”    Our hope is not some basket we just carry around with us holding onto in the case that we need it.  Our hope is powerful; our hope in the coming Savior draws the power of the Holy Spirit into our lives.  The same Holy Spirit that led David to be a man after God’s own heart, the same Holy Spirit that led a teenager become the mother of Christ, the same Holy Spirit that led Jesus to perform miracle after miracle.  That is the same Holy Spirit that we can have dwelling inside of us if we have the hope that our God so desperately desires for us. 

Jesus Christ does not want us to live a life full of fear of what is happening around us.  Jesus Christ does not want us to live a life where we feel that the world is closing in around us.  Jesus Christ wants us to live a life that is so full of hope that we cannot wait for the day that He returns.  Jesus Christ wants us to live a life that is full of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ wants us to live a life were we can share that hope with others.

My wife is a huge fan of giving gifts.  Christmas is one of her favorite times of the year because she gets to go out and get gifts for people she loves in hopes that they will in turn like the gift that they have been given.  But let’s pretend that next year; there are no people to receive the gifts that she has spent so much time and effort on.  The joy of gift giving would be gone for her.  Our God is also a big fan of giving gifts; not only did he give us this gift of his Son, but he gives us the gift of Hope every day.  The question is, are you in the place to receive that gift? 

Jesus, Is That You?

A New Year, a new set of resolutions, a new set of successes, a new set of failures.  A new year represents a time where we get to wipe the proverbial slate clean.  We get to wipe away the times where we failed, we get to build upon the times where we succeeded.  For most of us it is any opportunity for us do something better; be better about going to the gym, be better about watching what you eat, be better about not drinking cokes, etc.  How often do we take the opportunity to be better at listening to what God is saying to us?  How often do we take the opportunity to be better at being the light in the dark?

This New Year provides an opportunity for each and every of us to better ourselves.  Every New Year provides us a challenge to be better in which ever arena of our life that we feel needs some improving.  This year and every year, that challenge is for me to develop a deeper relationship with our Heavenly Father, to be aware of the opportunities that are being provided to me to be the Light in the dark, to be more diligent in my daily quiet time and to continue to develop my relationship with my Savior.  A lot of the time I see the New Year as a time to improve myself only, but my challenge to you is that you take this opportunity to see the world in a new way this year.  To change the way that you interact with your neighbors, to not see people as a means to an end, but as an end in and of itself that is pretty spectacular. 

This New Year I challenge you, but more importantly, I challenge myself to be the change in the world that we so desperately need.  This blog is going to follow the daily devotional of the book titled Jesus Calling by Sarah Young; not only is the blog going to be an opportunity for me to get some of my thoughts out on paper, but also a time where my fellow Christians who are walking along with me can express their thoughts as well.  I truly believe that as a society that we have fallen away from communal relationships.  I hope that this blog is an opportunity for fellow believers to share in an experience that is greater than the individual. 

Jesus Calling is a daily devotional written by Sarah Young.  Sarah wrote this book after spending considerable time listening to what God was telling her.  This book is an opportunity for each and every one of us to hear the voice of God in our daily lives.  As we embark on this journey, I would encourage each and every one of you to take part in this devotional; to include your families, your parents, your kids, your co-workers, and yes even your neighbor.  I truly believe that the more in tune we are to the word of God the more apt we are to be the light in the dark and to be the hands and feet of Christ.  If at any time during this devotional, you have a thought, a prayer, a concern, a praise I encourage you to allow your brothers and sisters to lift you up during that time.  I hope that this blog provides all who read it an opportunity to realize that we are not in this battle alone, there are followers of Christ fighting this battle with us literally all over the world. From Africa to the Philippines, from Washington D.C. to the war-torn border towns, from Seattle, Washington to Stuttgart, Germany, from Itu, Brazil to Eastern Europe; there are followers of Christ who are making the stand to be the hands and feet of Christ.   My prayer is that this blog will provide strength to those who are weak, to provide encouragement to those who are downtrodden, and to provide a network of Believers who know that they are not in this fight alone. 

Peter asked the same question in Matthew 14; “Lord if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.”  Jesus answered that question for Peter the same way that He answer s that question for us. “COME”.  Won’t you step out of the boat with me?