Life is living out our design to love God and others. BUT — this is not the love of our culture. The Spirit’s work in you is always to make you a Jesus-like lover!
“Love is the key.
Joy is love singing.
Peace is love resting.
Patience is love enduring.
Kindness is love’s touch.
Goodness is love’s character.
Faithfulness is love’s habit.
Gentleness is love’s self-forgetfulness.
Self–control is love holding the reins.”
~ By Barnhouse
“Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” — Jesus
Lord, May we, in joyful confidence in You
— Willingly do small things;
— Boldly do big things,
— and —
— Be Relentless in doing all things you offer to us.
Like a little child may I run hard, enjoy every waking moment, laugh a lot, cry when I fall down, and run to your arms for your healing Papa kiss that makes it better.
May I so enjoy all the things you give me to do that I say, “I’m not sleepy!!!” and then as soon as I stop I am soundly and peacefully resting in you.
— Your kingdom children, Roy & Pandora
What is the difference between a problem and an opportunity?
What is the difference between a interruption and a surprise?
What is the difference between a complaint or a burden?
Most often the only difference is our PERSPECTIVE that is guiding our response to a life situation.
I can have a life full of opportunities, surprises, and burdens if I see God as bigger than anything touching my life. If I embrace his good and loving heart toward me as seen in Jesus then the load is lighter and I am filled with gratitude instead of complaining.
I am NOT describing a spiritual denial — NO certainly not! I am holding up a trust and confidence in God’s presence and activity in all spheres of my life.
He holds my whole world in his hands!
God gave me the opportunity to preach at Sandhills Community Church in Columbia, SC on July 2. My text was Revelation 1:4-8.
In the first 4 minutes I explained our new adventure which includes church starting and leadership coaching.
Whatever “BAD NEWS” is touching your life — God has GOOD NEWS to touch the hard painful places. The good news centers on our God who IS, who WAS, and who is TO COME. Enjoy!
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SERMON.
I WELCOME YOUR COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS
In fact, the spiritual journey can be understood as the movement from seeing God nowhere, or seeing God only where we expect to see him, to seeing God everywhere, especially where we least expect him.
Discernment is an ever-increasing capacity to “see” or discern the works of God in the midst of the human situation so that we can align ourselves with whatever it is that God is doing.
I do not believe God hides his will and we must discover it. God is working all the time around us and we must be looking to see it.
WHAT HELPS YOU SEE GOD’S HAND?
John 16: 32 Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. . .
Just below the surface of my life I can be wrestling with several agendas…
Follow Jesus and no turning back or falling away,
OR
Live for a safe, comfortable life,
OR
Avoid pain or rejection,
OR
Preserve the current reality and refuse to go into the future. . .
these and many more conflicting life ambitions and motives simmer like pots on a stove competing for my attention.
Don’t be surprised that God will engineer circumstances to expose the confusion I am tolerating. It requires faith, mixed with courage, and the strength of the Spirit to put a knife in the throat of any goal — save one — STAY WITH JESUS.
Oswald Chambers, MY UPMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST, April 4
We will be scattered, not into service but into the emptiness of our lives where we will see ruin and barrenness, to know what internal death to God’s blessings means. Are we prepared for this? It is certainly not of our own choosing, but God engineers our circumstances to take us there. . .
But once we get there, no matter where God may place us or what inner emptiness we experience, we can praise God that all is well. . . .
“. . . you . . . will leave Me alone.” Have we been scattered and have we left Jesus alone by not seeing His providential care for us? Do we not see God at work in our circumstances? Dark times are allowed and come to us through the sovereignty of God. Are we prepared to let God do what He wants with us?”
Luke 19: 41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Notice in verse 41 Jesus concern for they could have known that would given them peace and in verse 44 what they failed to know that forfeited their peace.
When I think I am walking with God I can be deceiving myself. Like the people Jesus weeps over on what the church calls “Palm Sunday” we can totally miss what God is doing. The King had come among them and they were too busy doing business and evaluating what was occurring by how it impacted their agenda. Pride is a blindness that comes from lies I am believing. Pride makes God weep because of what is missed, lost and ignored of God’s working around us. Pride pulls patches over the eyes of our heart and makes us stumble right into the hands of our enemies.
What happens right after Jesus’ tears? He upsets the polluting of the temple grounds and calls the people back to God’s mission. How did the spiritual leaders respond to the confrontation and teaching? They were plotting for how they could kill the God – Man King.
What is blinding me?
How is pride making me miss God’s work in my life?
Jesus weeps because the people were responsible for their choices and would harvest a terrible loss.
(Much thanks to Oswald Chambers MY UPMOST… April 3 reading) Quotes from his reading that stirred my reflection —
I am not angry as often or as passionately as when I was younger. I finally realized that much of my anger was rooted in sensing that life was getting out of my control. Once I began to live daily expecting God to be in control instead of me much of the pressure came off.
BUT — I still forget and try to run the universe, and I then use the intensity of anger to register my complaint and seek to whip others and my circumstances into the shape I desire. I also encounter angry people. It is challenging to find yourself under attack and to respond with the love of Christ. It drives me to pray and seek God’s strengthening and wisdom by the Spirit so I can offer a genuine Christ like response. I have to catch myself quickly and not just let my anger be fueled by the other person’s attack.
This word of God to Cain helps me to always remember.
Genesis 4:6-7 (ESV) 6 The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
Anger is like a flashing red light on the car’s dashboard.
There is something wrong under the hood. Putting black tape over the red light on the dash will not make the problem go away.
Much of my anger reveals my fear of life being out of my control. In other words I don’t trust God with my life.
Remember this verse the next time you feel anger bubbling up.
Substitute your name for Cain’s.
Ask God to help me see what is crouching in the shadows of my life door.
Ask Him to give you the power of the Spirit to rule over IT… deal with the temptation/sin and the anger will subside.
My big mistake — thinking I need to just choke on, stifle, or go find a wall to hit — to put my focus on the anger. Does not work. Instead focus on the source, the trigger of the anger.
Do you struggle with anger? What are you learning? Angry people cannot be life giving leaders.
See the 4 images Paul uses as anchor points for the Christian in the passage below.
2 Timothy 2:1-9 (ESV)
1 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.6 It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!
Soldier – Conqueror, Overcomer, Victorious (See: John 16:33; 1 John 4:4, 5:4-5; Rom 8:37-39; 1 Cor 15:57-58; 2 Cor 2:14 also: 2 Sam 22:32-43; Ps 18:34)
Athlete – Training, Competing, Discipline (See: Lk 6:40; 1 Cor 9:24-25; 1 Tim 4:6-16; Titus 2: 4,12; 2 Tim 3:16; Heb 5:14; Heb 12:11)
Farmer – Vineyard worker, harvest, fruit, Steward/manager (See: Psalm 126, 128, Is 5:4, 55:10-13; Mt 9:37-38; Mt 13:1-9, 18-23; Mt 12:24-33, 35-43; Mk 4:26-29; John 4:35-39; I Cor 3:5-9; 2 Cor 9:10; James 5:7)
Jesus – Risen King, Son of David/Living Word of God
What does BEING a soldier, athlete, and farmer who remembers Jesus look like right now in my life?
I am one of his troops sent on a mission.
I am sent as an athlete to wave the flag and represent my heavenly country of citizenships in the race of life.
I am laboring in his fields and honored to be seeing his harvest coming in.
STOP — think about these verses and let those image speak to you. Follow the advice in verse 7.”Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.”
It is Labor Day weekend. I have joined my Dad and other family members in and around ICU since Friday. My Mom had a brain bleed Thurs afternoon. She has been in a deep sleep broken by short periods of wakefulness with her eyes open, no speech, little recognition and limited responses.
Life Giving Leadership 