It's not my fault!

This year I have begun to read the bible from cover to cover. If you have never done so (and even if you have) I would encourage you to join me in this journey. I have found that reading the bible straight through gives me an opportunity to see things that I normally would have overlooked. The most recent nugget of wisdom that I received while reading has to do with blaming others for things that are clearly our own fault. This can be seen in the life of Moses in the book of Deuteronomy and Numbers when God told Moses to speak to a stone so that the power of God would cause water to spring forth for the Hebrews to drink in the desert. God told Moses to speak to the stone but instead Moses struck the stone. This caused God to tell Moses that he could not enter the "promised land" because he had been disobedient (OUCH!). After this disappointing experience Moses gets to get a glimpse of the land but never gets to experience the joys of going there. So what does the leader in the faith do? How does the man who has personally spoken to God handle this? How would you have handled it? Probably by doing the same thing that Moses did...by blaming someone else. Time after time in Deuteronomy when recalling the situation Moses says that it is because of the Hebrews that he could not enter the promised land. As I read I was thinking, "Excuse me Moses but what about the rock? What about the rod? What about the disobedience?" It appears as though Moses was not able to accept the fact that his actions had kept him from walking into something that he wanted to see in his life. In other words, Moses was in denial. He denied any involvement in his present condition and would be forced to spend the rest of his life living in it. What areas are you denying your involvement in? A bad credit score? A bad relationship? A bad temper? Denial is one characteristic that you do not want to copy from Moses because in the Bible it didn't work out too well for him so it probably won't work out well for you. If you have a shortcoming or hangup, if you have made a mistake and disobeyed God just admit it and turn away from the selfish behavior and turn to the mercy of the Savior. Who knows what would have happened for Moses if he would have turned to repent rather than saying, "It wasn't my fault."

The Gospel According to My Mac

I recently purchased a Mac laptop and immediately began to see differences between my new toy and the system that I was used to working with. For example, when I downloaded a few programs that weren't what I thought that they would be I didn't have to go through a difficult process of uninstalling them, I could just use my app-zapper and ZAP!-they're gone. I could close the screen and when I opened it back up BOOM!-it was wide awake and ready for service. I'm sure there are a ton of other features that are different about it but as I reflect on the differences that I have mentioned I am encouraged that the "upgrade" that I just experienced is similar to (but not nearly as significant as) the upgrade that we should experience when we receive a new life in Christ. All of us have gone down roads, made decisions and even dealt with people who were not what they seemed. We thought that the person completed us until the relationship left us broken in the end. We thought that doing our own thing was great until it turned out to be the wrong thing to do. We hurt ourselves or others time and time again which loaded us down with pains that we didn't expect to receive. That's where Jesus comes in...When we have "downloaded" things into our lives that left us stained and broken, Jesus hung on a cross and rose from the dead as the ultimate "app-zapper" to clean us up and give us a new life in Him. Are you dealing with depression? ZAP! Are you dealing with lust? ZAP! Are you struggling with sin in your life or from your past? ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! Jesus is willing and able to zap ANYTHING that has separated you from God and my Mac would tell you that all you have to do is drag them and drop them on the App Zapper (That means letting them go because you can't still operate in an app that has been zapped).
As interesting as the App-Zapper is, the promptness that is demonstrated by my Mac as it wakes is convicting as I try to live out the life of a Christian on a daily basis. What I mean is that as soon as I open the lid my Mac is ready to go. Did you catch that??? AS SOON AS I OPEN THE LID...better yet, as soon as I lift it's head it is ready to be used. I wish that we would be so forgiving and focused on moving forward. How many times have you had something make you bow your head in disappointment, sorrow and brokenness and when God sends a Word to lift you up you allow your feelings to stop you from "waking up" and being used to be a blessing? My Mac would tell you that your head doesn't get lifted for no reason. When the God of heaven lifts your head out of despair & brokenness to follow Christ or lifts your head out of depression & self pity to embrace the newness of life and to be all that He designed you to be don't wait in a posture that says "I can't be used to do great things for God." because if God didn't want to use your life to be a blessing He never would have lifted your head.

The worst thing you can do! (When going up hill)

As I enjoyed a brisk 21 mile ride with one of my good friends yesterday morning we traveled a route that I hadn't ridden before. The first ten miles were almost completely down hill. I enjoyed the way that I could coast at 20-25 miles per hour. The wind was keeping me cool and may have even been pushing me along. All was well ...until we reached the half way mark. When we were ten miles out we had to turn around and all of the hills that we enjoyed coasting down were now mountains that we had to climb. As I pushed the peddles and made my way up the hills I discovered a secret that will work in many, if not all, areas of life. I learned what not to do when going up hill. When you're climbing a hill in life the worst thing you can do is stop. The law of inertia says that "things in motion want to stay in motion and the things at rest want to stay at rest" so when you're climbing a hill, although you may be moving slower than you were on a straight-away you're still moving forward. Even though it may be difficult, keep going! The energy and effort that it will take to gain momentum all over again is greater than the energy that it will take to simply stay the course so I don't know what hills you're facing at the moment but the worst thing that you can do is stop climbing.

Service or Spin?

What we do is not nearly as important as why we do it. We can do all of the right things for all of the wrong reasons and all the while send those in our sphere of influence down a different path than we are following ourselves. As we endeavor to live our new life in Christ we must always focus our efforts on how we may serve others rather than how we may put a spin on our actions to get recognition from others. When we serve our community, serve our church family and serve those whom we interact with on a daily basis we will be able to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and lovingly lead others to Him as well; however, when we focus more on spinning our deeds into a pat on the back by the public we will one day realize that we have been looking at the crowd more intently than Christ. We have to decide on a daily basis who our God is and who is worthy of our focus. Is it Christ or the crowd? If it is Christ then look for ways that you may serve others. If it is the crowd than look for ways to exaggerate and exploit ("spin") the services that you provide. I know you do great works for others but lets be honest...is it for the sake of service or just another spin?

What's the Rush?

I must admit that I do not like waiting. When it can be avoided I will usually do whatever I can to expedite a process. I don't like waiting for my food. I don't like waiting in line at the grocery store. I don't waiting on my dreams to come to pass. I just don't like waiting...but like everyone else in life, I have to endure moments of waiting and I am forced to remind myself that there is a difference between waisting time and waiting. When you're wasting time there is no potential for anything to change (baring a miraculous move of God of course) but when we are waiting on something (and the steps have been taken necessary to receive it) many times it's only a matter of time before it comes to pass. So we find ourselves waiting on the seeds that we have sown in faith to bring forth a harvest in our lives. It's only a matter of time but the temptation arises telling us that we're wasting our time as we wait on the blessing that we're expecting from God. The temptation comes to try to get us out of position...to get us out of "line" so that when what we've been waiting on comes up we won't be there to claim it. Don't be so foolish. Don't allow impatience to cause you to get out of line. When the Hebrews were traveling in the desert they would move when the cloud provided by God moved. If it moved after a day they would move. If it moved after a month they would move. If it moved after a year they would move BUT if the cloud didn't move, they didn't move. Let's do the same...keep your eyes on what God has provided for our direction (They had a cloud but we have His Words...the Bible) and move when AND ONLY WHEN God says so. So relax; you'll get there soon enough. What's the rush?