God is faithful.

I have been through almost overwhelming hardship and I've been through periods of tremendous blessing.  I can tell you that the good times were always more fun.  Regardless of what was going on however, God was always faithful to me despite any outside circumstances.  My thought for the day.

God loves broken things

 

I read this post and I had to share it. It is a very powerful reminder about our Heavenly Father. Even more powerful for me is the fact that it was written by my oldest son, Israel.

 

 "God loves taking the broken things inside of us and turning them into a beautiful tapestry for His glory. Don't be afraid of your past or your brokenness--Jesus is excited to show you His love while He walks you through the process of healing your heart."  #mythoughtstonight

Walking in Authenticity

What the world needs is authentic Christians that walk in a humble, transparent dependence on God. In the past i have had well intentioned Christians try to tell me that we need to only verbalize our victories and  not speak about our failures and pain.  I have been told that we need to "positively confess" what we want to see going on in our lives--and not the reality (if that reality is painful).  I understand the belief in positive confession but anyone reading the Psalms can see the struggles, doubts, sadness and questioning that David went through in walking out his relationship with God.  Yet, in the midst of hardship and grief he didn't pretend that everything was OK.  Instead he verbalized his trust in God despite his circumstances. How can those around us going through hardship feel like they can even relate to Christians (and subsequently Christianity) when every Christian they meet is working so hard to keep the mask on? Personally I've been through joyful times but I've also been through suffering and pain in life. Throughout everything though my loving Heavenly Father held me securely in the palm of his hand. We need more believers to be bold enough when facing hardship to say "my life is a mess, I'm broken and grieving--yet despite what I see, I chose to trust God knowing that he loves me and is faithful."  Being a Christian doesn't mean that we will never face trauma or pain. It simply means that we have hope in the fact that God loves us, He will never leave us, and He will bring blessing out of the adversity.  If we aren't transparent with our struggles--we will never be relatable to a lost and hurting world

Loving our neighbors

It's amazing how people try to justify all kinds of evil behavior. Especially in a divorce--people will justify saying and doing really unkind things without thinking twice.  It's a shame but it seems like concepts such as character, commitment, purity and kindness are even missing in much of the church today.  Often we get so sidetracked on political or doctrinal issues that we forget the simple message that Jesus preached. The message that we should "love the Lord our God with all our hearts, mind, soul and strength-and we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves."   Jesus is coming back for a bride that is spotless and pure. As Christ followers we need to start walking out who God created us to be. Not out of a fear of judgement--but out of a lovesick desire to live our lives to honor our Lord.

Ephesians 5:27 ESV

"So that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish."

Learning to look and listen.

With marriages it’s so important to communicate with your spouse.  Communication includes both speaking and listening.  Isn’t it interesting however that when it pertains to our relationship with God that communication is often 1 way.  We cry out to God when we are hurting or in need—but how often do we truly listen for his voice?  How often do we intently search to hear and see God communicating with us?  What if God desired to speak to us every day but we simply weren’t hearing him because we weren’t listening?  What if God was speaking to us through our dreams and our imagination yet we never realized it as we mistakenly assume that these things were all coming from within us.  What if he is conversing to us through the unusual coincidences in our lives—yet we analytically brush them off?  In 1 Kings 19:11-13, it states The Lord said (to Elijah), “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. ‘Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.  And after the fire came a gentle whisper.   When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.  Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  It’s interesting that God was not speaking to Elijah through a loud booming voice that came to him amidst the tornado, earthquake or the fire.  He instead spoke to the prophet through a gentle whisper.  This whisper was also referred to as a “still, small voice”.  It was such a slight whisper that it almost might not been noticed if Elijah wasn’t intently listening for Gods’ voice.  What if part of our mission as Christ followers is to scrutinize the scripture to learn about God and his character so that when we hear that gentle whisper from God we can identify it as coming from our beloved heavenly father?  What if another part of our mission is to learn how to see and hear God’s voice and prompting in our lives?  To learn to listen intently so that when he speaks we hear him.  Jesus said in John 10:27, that “My sheep listen to my voice, I know them and they follow me.”  Most of us need to start talking less and listening (and looking) more when communicating with God.  Jesus said his sheep listen to his voice.  Well, fellow sheep, we better start listening.        

 

Proverbs 25:2 - It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.

John 10:1-5  “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”

Walking by faith

So many times when things get intense we have a tendency of blaming God. We blame him for our bad decision, we blame him when others are cruel to us, we even blame him for the simplest pains of life. Our fear of rejection and past wounded ness cause us to cry out in judgment and attempt to indict God's character based on our circumstances. But our heavenly father loves us. Regardless of how you "feel", he loves you dearly. Even if you don't believe he exists, he still loves you and earnestly desires for you to know him. Instead of blaming God in the future --when things appear to be falling apart, turn to him with your pain and your sorrow. Cast your cares on him because he cares for you.  Trust that God is good and trust in his character regardless of your external circumstances.  And remember our loving heavenly father has unique ability to take the hardest of life's circumstances and bring healing, hope and restoration.

Learning to trust.

There are a whole bunch of steps leading towards spiritual maturity. One of the first is learning to fully trust God with your life. Learning to trust him when things seem bleak and it seems like there's no hope on the horizon. Learning to trust in God's goodness and his love for us-- even though we don't see immediate evidence of that playing out in our lives. One of the next steps toward spiritual maturity,which is much harder, is learning to trust God with our children. Although it's hard when we go through personal trauma, it's exponentially harder when we see our children wounded and hurting.  God is still sovereign and he is still loving however.  He loves our children more than we ever could. He loves them dearly and holds them firmly in the palm of his hand.  Being able to dwell in the peace that comes with that realization is another sign of a maturing relationship with God

"With the comfort we ourselves received from God."

A little over two years ago I went up for prayer after a New Years Eve service at my church (Indy Vineyard).  At the time I felt like my life was spiraling out of control.  My marriage was failing and not only was I dealing with a pending divorce that I desperately didn’t want—but I was also dealing with the financial trauma of a failing business (Havilah's Boutique).  It was hard for me to be hopeful in the midst of all of the pain. loss and rejection that I was feeling.   That evening--the pain was so overwhelming that I almost sprung out of my seat at the end of the service when my Pastor, Randy Gooder, asked anyone needing prayer to come forward.  When I went forward and told the 2 prayer team members about my pending divorce and why I wanted prayer, they were so comforting.  The prayer team members, a married couple, let me know that they had almost gotten divorced themselves a few years prior before God healed their marriage.  I wept as they prayed that God would give me peace and show me his presence.  Walking away from church that evening, I felt God’s hand on my life.  However, I also felt like I was heard, cared for and encouraged by the prayer team members.  It wasn’t long until I volunteered to be on my churches prayer ministry team myself.  Less than a year after I began volunteering as a prayer team member, I had a young woman come up front and ask for prayer about her own pending divorce.  Her husband had left her for another woman and she was feeling both scared and abandoned.  It was awesome to be able to share with her about God faithfully meeting me in that same place.  I and another prayer team member prayed that God would make himself known to her in the midst of her pain.  That God would give her the peace of knowing that He was holding her and her children safely in the palm of His hand.  I also reminded her that regardless of how she felt at present, her heavenly father loved her profoundly.  As we were praying for the young woman --I could tell that God was really touching her heart that day.  It was so reassuring to know that God can still use us in our own brokenness to touch others with his love and mercy.  Like it says in 2 Cor. 1:3-5, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.”

The Walking Dead.

  One of the most popular shows on TV right now is the "walking dead".  For those of you who haven't seen it--it’s a show about people living in a post-apocalyptic world filled with cannibalistic zombies.  The zombies walk around looking a lot like the living however there is one important difference--they are dead inside.  No feelings, emotions, passion--just a stagnant parody of life.    

   So often we go through life almost like the walking dead, stumbling through the motions of life with the "appearance" of being alive--when in reality we are emotionally dead inside.  In fact, many Christians go through life like the "frozen chosen"--going to church out of obligation without ever realizing that God wants us to live from our hearts.  When I first became a Christian as a 16 year old kid, my relationship with God was exciting and fresh.  I was so zealous to share with my friends all the new things I was learning and experiencing as a "Christ follower".  However, like many of us, that freshness began to fade.  We experience the hardships of life and we slowly begin to shut our heart down.  Because of that, our relationship with God becomes more of an intellectual pursuit than a heartfelt relationship.  We start to learn more "about" God instead of spending time getting to actually know God.  Well the problem with that is that God speaks primarily to our "hearts", not our intellect. Trying to hear God's voice with our heads is almost like trying to smell flowers with our ears.  We expend a lot of effort with minimal results. Well, I went on like this for years.  My relationship with God became a lot more about following certain rules or believing certain doctrine then enjoying a heartfelt relationship with my heavenly father.  When I began to feel distant from God, I began to work harder, thinking I needed to gain God's favor.  I got heavily involved in church activities, in Bible studies, etc.--but I felt that God was distant, cold and ambivalent.  It got very tiring working so hard trying to "earn" God's affection--never realizing that what I was working so hard to attain was something I already possessed.   I lived like that for years until life circumstances caused me to cry out in desperation to the one that loved me the most.  Those of you that know me are aware that almost 2 years ago--I hit the wall hard.  I lost everything I had been depending on for my identity and worth.  My family was fractured and I saw my 25 year marriage disintegrate before my eyes.  I was left numb, broken and powerless to do anything about what was happening around me.  The loss of the family business we worked so hard to start (Havilah's Boutique) was compounded by the enormous financial loss that resulted from that stores closing and its subsequent bankruptcy.  I saw my family home (of 17 years) sold with all equity going to the bank.  Most of my possessions were sold and I was left feeling alone and abandoned.  Instead of being bitter about my hardship however-- I cried out to God in my pain and brokenness.  It was then my loving my heavenly father faithfully met me in my pain.  Amazingly, the God that I met was quite different than whom I expected.  I discovered a creator who loves me like a good father loves his beloved son.  I found out that being a Christian was never about learning a bunch of "thou shalt not's".  I also discovered that being a Christian is also not about simply holding on through the pains of life until you die and go to heaven.  God's desire for you is not simply to survive--but God wants your heart to be alive and joyful as well.  Jesus didn't pay the ultimate price for our sins simply so that God would tolerate you.  God loves you so much that he sent Jesus willingly so that you can experience a relationship with your heavenly father that would transform your life.  How would it change your perception if you allowed the reality of that to permeate into the depths of your heart?  God loves YOU!  He knows you by name.  He sees you and earnestly desires a deeper relationship with you than simply Sunday morning church attendance.  He loves you despite your brokenness and wants you to experience the relationship with him that Jesus sacrifice made possible.  God wants to walk with you through this adventure called life and wants you to be able to experience the peace of knowing that He loves you and will never leave you.  Your heavenly father wants you to feel the joy of knowing him so that you can be "truly" alive instead of simply stumbling through life like the walking dead.

 John 10:10,  "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

Psalm 27:13,  "I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living."

1 John 3:1,  "See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him."

Being on fire for God - by Izzy Wignall

This one woman was frustrated that she wasn't on-fire for God like she used to be. She prayed and asked, "Jesus, why is the Scripture so boring right now? I used to love reading your Word. Why don't I desire to know You like I used to?"

Jesus replied through the Spirit, "Does a child whose diet consists of sugar and sweets desire good, healthy food?"

Media, entertainment, Netflix, movies, mai...nstream music, etc., are sugary-foods that can consume our spiritual diets. They're ok in small doses...but in large doses, they can kill off our excitement for pursuing Jesus.

Wondering why you don't have a passion for Jesus anymore? Maybe the 15 hours of exciting movies you're watching a week is killing off your spiritual hunger--the overload of cheap-thrills is preventing you from hearing Him.

Think the Word is boring? Maybe if you spent less time on Facebook and more time fellowshipping with Him through the Word, it would become energizing and life-giving again.

Think life is boring? Maybe if you stopped living 20 different lives through various video-game characters and MMO's, you'd see how exciting a life for Jesus really is.

Media is so mesmerizing. I can attest to that because it is one of my biggest struggles. I absolutely love film and video-games. I believe that filmmaking is an art form and watching/critiquing film is one one of my favorite hobbies.

In light of this, constant entertainment dulls me from hearing from the Holy Spirit. It makes the Bible boring and causes a pursuit for Christ strenuous and unexciting. Whenever I step back and stop watching movies and stop playing games, EVERY TIME, The Lord re-captures my heart with wonder. The Word comes to life, I can hear Him more clearly, and the "race" towards Christ becomes exhilarating again. It's almost like media can put you in a "trance." Once you break free from the spell, everything re-aligns in your spiritual life.

So, friends, my encouragement for you is to ask yourself this simple question:

How much sugar is in your diet?

‎#mythoughtstonight

RUNNING THE RACE SET BEFORE US

   Often times the person that we desire to be is far different than who we actually are (at least based on how we live our lives).   I recently had a woman, who had read one of my facebook posts, message me about how her marriage was crumbling. Her husband who had always been active in their church had abandoned her and her children and was living with another woman. He was also frequenting strip clubs and had become an alcoholic. She wrote me and said that she (along with her friends and family) were left bewildered as this man, they all “thought they knew” was living a life completely contrary to the beliefs that he had always espoused. Although not always as overt as this ladies story--many of us tend to compartmentalize our lives when it pertains to our relationship with God. We all have areas that we either keep away from God or refuse to see or confront in our own lives. 

   While at an Army Reserve Training Course over the last two weeks, I feel  God has given me some insight into this very topic. At this school that I attended, we had just completed 12 hours of training exercises and had gotten very little sleep the night prior. The next day after running around on another mock training mission--we got ready to go on a 7 mile tactical road march. Now in the Army you are generally carrying between 50 and 75 lbs of equipment in your rucksack (back pack) in addition to your uniform and rifle. The temperature that afternoon also added to the discomfort as it was an almost unbearably humid 92 degrees (97 degrees with the heat index). Within the first mile and a half of the march we had a few soldiers already falling behind the formation. As the march wore on, we came to a large hill;  my legs were burning, my lower back was aching and I was sweating so much that my uniform was completely saturated like I had just gotten out of a swimming pool. At this point my mind started giving me reasons to quit. First off, I was the oldest guy in this class at almost 48 years old.  I was already in the Army before most of these soldiers were even born! I was at least 20 years older than half of the students that I was in class with and my mind kept giving me reasons to quit (or at least to fall behind). Instead of allowing myself to justify quitting however, I focused on staying within the formation regardless of what the terrain looked like. I knew that the battle was in my mind and I refused to quit on myself. You see our bodies are capable of accomplishing much more than our minds can conceive. 

    I thought as I finished the road march that day--how many of us do the same thing in our spiritual walk?  We justify habits and behaviors in our lives that don’t line up with what we say we believe and we let our mind tell our spirit that it's human nature.  We refuse to look at these areas that are not in synch with who God made us to be.  We get comfortable in our own sin and disobedience by using various excuses.  Those excuses include,  "Everybody is doing it", or "My sin was someone elses fault."  Instead of making the painful choice to "Take up our cross and follow Christ daily"--we hide those areas that don't line up with what we say we believe, or worse yet, we twist scripture in an attempt to vindicate our disobedience.  It's not that Christianity is about a bunch of rules and restrictions, our Heavenly Father wants the best for us. Just like I establish boundaries for my children so that they might grow up to have successful, joyful lives--God wants the same for us.  Often we only give God a small percentage of our heart when what he desires is all of it.  How would you feel in a marriage relationship if your spouse only gave you a percentage of their heart? Or a percentage of their devotion? Jesus said the greatest commandment was to love the Lord with "ALL your heart, soul, strength, and mind". I have purposed in my life to serve Jesus “whole heartedly“. No area in my heart is off limits to God because you see, our “spirit” is also able to accomplish much more than our minds can conceive. With all my heart I want to put aside all excuses and pursue God’s heart with everything in me.  I want people to look at me and see that in every way my actions line up with who I state that I am. I want the man I desire to be and who I actually am to be in synch as I walk out who God created me to be

　

Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

WE ARE ACCEPTED

I always used to feel like I had to perform to be accepted in Church. I had to work really hard and "look" really spiritual to feel that I  was worthy to be in God's Presence. I would look at people like Billy Graham or Mother Theresa and feel completely worthless. Comparing myself to these spiritual "Giants" I always felt like the  'Biggest Looser'!  I worked really hard while growing up to garner God's "favor". I went to church every Wednesday night for Bible Study as well as Sunday mornings. I even pushed myself to get involved with volunteering at a local orphanage trying so hard to get God's attention. How many people live there lives like that? Working hard to attempt to earn God's favor without ever realizing that they've had it all along? You see we are not orphan's vying for the attention of a perspective caretaker. We are beloved children adored by their loving father. That's the message that Jesus taught. The message that God loves us and REALLY wants to spend time with us. He knows all our fault's and flaws. He knows the hidden places in our heart but still loves us. No matter what we've done in the past--God wants to clean us up and invite us to be part of his family. No judgement--just His desire that we experience the relationship with Him that we were created to enjoy and that we start to walk out who we were created to be. 

Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 8:38, 39  "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

FERTILE SOIL OF SUFFERING

      I was talking to a friend the other day (on face book) about how sometimes life circumstances, pain, discouragement, and spiritual attack, takes us out of the game for awhile. God’s calling on our life can be thwarted if we begin to look at our difficult circumstances, instead of looking to the one who can redeem those circumstances. In Romans 8:28 it says, “And... we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Often times on “Christian TV”, I hear people stating that God wants us all to be healthy, rich, and so on. Subsequently they state that because all we need to do is simply “claim” our inheritance—if we don’t see that financial prosperity it must be due to a lack of faith. While there is some truth and benefit to positive affirmation, it is a false belief that bad things don’t happen to good people (or believers). Bad things happen to good people all the time. Loved ones die, businesses struggle, people lose their jobs, relationships fail, cars brake down, etc, etc, etc. Hardship is a part of life. The difference as a “Christ follower” is that when those hardships happen, I have the assurance that I serve a sovereign God that loves me and promises to grow something beautiful in the garden of my heart (using the manure of life). I also know that no matter how hard things get, my loving heavenly Father has good things planned for me in the future. I look at some of the people whose testimonies/lives have had a profound impact on my life and one common trait is the fact that God had developed character within their lives while they went through tremendous adversity. Women like Corrie Ten Boom, who was a simple some unknown Dutch watchmaker’s daughter until she learned to trust God in the midst of a Nazi concentration camp. Joni Eareckson Tada, Elisabeth Elliott, Melody Green, etc. All people who learned to trust God deeply in the midst of tremendous adversity and were transformed by God’s faithfulness in the midst of hardship. 
A great quote By Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a Swiss American author, which I just read;

 “The most beautiful people are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”

WHAT DO I KNOW?

[Brian's Thoughts for the day: Dec. 21st]

 WHAT DO I KNOW? 
 I was drawn into a web discussion one night about; “What was the unforgiveable sin talked about in the Bible?” I then began to think about how important it was for me, when I was a 16 year old new believer in Christ, how I could figure out every doctrinal and theological concept in Christianity. Was I a believer in Arminianism or a Calvinist? Did I believe in a pre or post tribulation rapture? When will the world end? What exactly did the “Unforgiveable Sin” actually refer to? Who will be the anti-Christ? Etc, etc, etc. Luckily, by the time I was 18, I had figured out the answers to all of life’s questions (at least I thought so). Now, as a middle aged man I finally realized that I didn’t need my seminary education to understand God's heart or Christianity. Jesus’ message is really VERY SIMPLE (even young children can understand it). In Luke 10, Jesus was asked by a Jewish religious leader; "What was the most important commandment, of the 613 commandments (or Mitzvot) found in the Torah (Bible)?" Jesus responded very simply by saying; “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and Love your neighbor as yourself.” Really simple concept! God loves us and wants us to love and trust Him in return. He also wants us to show love towards those around us. It’s a shame that in my life it took hardship, loss and trauma to turn my face fully towards my Heavenly Father. It was still ok though as God had been waiting patiently and always rejoices whenever His children turn to Him. Can’t say I’m fully walking this all out yet—but loving God fully is the current desire of every fiber of my being.   ~ Brian

Daneille Snowden [Blog Editor]: Brian and I are friends from our high school youth group and had recently reconnected on facebook. Also, I was there when he first accepted Christ in 1982 at a Keith Green concert. I have been following his Facebook posts on his journey back into intimacy with God and offered to share them on a blog.