The Temple

Sometimes when we have heard a concept for so long we can become numb to the depth and the complexity of the concept.  Paul wrote that we are the "temple of the Holy Spirit"

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;  you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

These frail human bodies have the ability to be the Temple of the Holy Spirit of God.  God's holy presence that was so incredibly powerful that when men tried to carry the Ark of the Covenant on a cart instead of by the poles - and the cart shifted and Uzza put his hand on the Ark he was immediately struck dead.  The Holy Presence of God that was so amazing that Moses face glowed after spending time on the mountain.  

God challenges us to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, soul, mind and body!  (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 - Luke 10:27) 

Love God with your heart: that inner most part of your being that houses your emotions. 

Love God with your soul: that creative part of you who loves to question and to be creative. 

Love God with your mind: the more you know God the more you love God.  As we keep learning and gaining knowledge we can see how much more amazing God is the more we know. 

Love God with your body (strength, resources):  All the physical things that make you who you are outwardly must also love God.  Your physical body, you worldly possessions, all the things you tend to call your own need to glorify God!  

CS Lewis said: "the instrument through which you see God is your whole self.  And if a man's self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred,"  

Kingdom Minded

I am always amazed at God's calling for us to be Kingdom of God minded.  Amazed that we have the privilege of being a part of the work that God is doing in the world.  Amazed that or prayers and our works of service impact the work of the Kingdom.  Amazed God doesn't have a "plan b" to transform the world.  

I am amazed how easily we are distracted for the Kingdom work.  How easy it is to focus on things at church that don't have an impact on the Kingdom.  How easy it is to get busy with the details of life and to keep pushing the Kingdom work to the fringe.  How easy it for the enemy to get the church fighting each other instead of praying and encouraging each other.  

The Kingdom of God is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough. (Jesus - Matthew 13:33)

God's Kingdom can and will work its way through every aspect of our lives, our families, our church, our community, our nation, and our world.  The awesome power of the Holy Spirit of God wants to bring a transformation revival to our hearts so we can help spread the news of the Kingdom throughout the whole world. God will not settle for His Kingdom only touch one part of your life!  God will not settle for His Kingdom to impact part of the world.  

We are praying this month that God would transform Southeast Kansas by the unlimited power of the Holy Spirit.  That God would come against the apathy, addictions, and immorality that seems to keep people bond up in sin and instead people would have a desire to seek God.  

Will you help us pray in faith?  

Going Deeper

"But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7-8) 

What a beautiful image God has given us for a life that is rooted deep into God!  We can be like a tree planted along the river bank.  People who live in areas like Kansas understand this concept.  Trees grow near the source of water.  You can be driving along a Kansas road and see field after field, but not many trees until you come to a river or a creek of some sort.  Then there are trees growing along side the river.  

I want to put myself in a place that I can be firm and sound in the grace and the love of God.  Too many times we are tempted to live our lives in drift mode.  Just floating around aimlessly. Going wherever the current of life takes us.  It seems like a good idea.  It seems like it is so much fun.  Care free living!  No worries.  But we find that the opposite is true.  That the best life is not drifting from here to there, but is in firmly rooting our lives in God. 

So excited about preaching about this for the next few weeks at Living Faith!  Going Deeper in our faith! Finding the Living Water of God when we send our roots deep into the fertile soil.  

Let's Talk about Racism

Earlier this year Julie and I found ourselves eating with friends who are also full time pastors at Olive Garden. I guess we were loud enough that a man from the next table was ease dropping on our conversation and as he was leaving he came over and talked to us about our conversation.  We chatted for a few moments and one of our friends made a comment about the man's race.  I was a little annoyed by the comment, but felt like if I confronted my friend it would make a bigger deal out of the situation.  One more comment came and I was even more irritated.  After the conversation, I asked my friend, "Why did you bring up race in our conversation?"  He simply answered, "Well didn't you notice he was Black?"  To be clear, my friend did not say anything negative or offensive about the man's race.  It raises the question in my mind do I need to be more willing to talk about it in order to help overcome racism?  
So with the recent news stories being dominated by the Zimmerman trial of the shooting of Trayvon Martin the issue of race is at the forefront. It is clear that we need to continue to the work of stamping out the injustice of prejudice and racism in our world.  
A recent Cheerios' commercial included a bi-racial parent couple with a young daughter putting Cheerios on her dads chest while he was sleeping to help him be healthy.  The questions that come to my mind are: 
1. If you saw the commercial did you notice the couple was bi-racial? 
2. What was your reaction to the couple being bi-racial? 
3. Are you surprised that Cheerios had to end people being able to comment on line about the commercial because of the racist comments about the commercial?  

Here is a link to a video about kids reaction to the commercial and the comments about the commercial:
http://globalgrind.com/news/kids-react-interracial-cheerios-commercial-video

Galatians 3:28 there is not here Jew or Greek, there is not here servant nor freeman, there is not here male and female, for all ye are one in Christ Jesus

We are one in Christ!  Connected, equally important to God, equally essential to the Kingdom, no matter what our skin color, our economic status or our title.  

John Wesley theology of original sin irritated the upper class societies of Europe.  How could he possibly suggest that a noble was equally depraved and influenced by sin as a common person?  How dare he suggest that God sees us all as equally able to do evil or good.  

Killdeer

I have really enjoyed watching the killdeer in our church parking lot this year.  They build a nest on the ground by moving rocks enough to create a bowl shaped nest.  The eggs are perfectly camouflaged and very difficult to see.  The parents will do anything they can do to keep you away from the eggs.  They will act injured to make themselves look like easy prey.  They will come right at you and try and make you forget they are a bird.  So I had been watching the four eggs.  Watching and waiting.  Everyday I came to work I would go check on the progress.  Then I was gone to Chicago on a missions trip and I just knew I would miss the eggs hatching.  But when I returned the eggs were still there.  Then on Monday of last week I went out to look and there they were 4 feathered little birds.  They didn't even move.  The most amazing thing was that Tuesday I went out and there was only one little bird in the nest.  I assumed the worst had happened and then from under the church van came three little killdeer birds running along the ground.  Wednesday, I noticed all four birds running next to their protective parents.  I was simply amazed at how fast the birds had gone from in egg to running at high speed.

I thought about my own spiritual journey.  How some segments of my life seemed to be slow and growth seemed to be hidden.  I often asked God if I would ever get out of this and move forward.  God was patient with me and continued to remind me, "My grace is enough!"  Other times I have felt like things were going so well and I was growing rapidly and I just couldn't wait to learn more and grow more.  Growing felt so natural and easy.  Wherever we are in the growing in faith process, may we always remember to keep moving forward!  We must grow!

2 Peter 3:18 Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.

Expressing Love

We are all created to love and to be loved!  Jesus reminds us - "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:12-13)

Jesus said the ultimate way to express love is to lay down our lives for our friends.  To express our love for someone else by preferring that they live over our own live continuing.  I have always connected to the definition of love being preferring someone else's needs over my own.  When I love people in my life I make decisions that are best for them over myself.

Gary Chapman in his book - The Five Love Languages writes about five different ways to express love to people.
1. Words of Affirmation
2. Quality Time
3. Gift Giving
4. Acts of Service
5. Physical Touch

The key is finding out what is the most dominate of the love languages to the people you are in relationship with and use that language most to express love.  We need to use each language in our relationships.  The book is a good read!

Don't just assume people know you love them - show them you love them!

Holy Week - Thursday

Who is the person that betrayed you in the most damaging way?

What did it take for you to work through that betrayal and come to a place of forgiveness? or have you?

Jesus was betrayed by two of his disciples. Judas who sold out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.  There has been a lot of speculation about what motivated Judas to betray Jesus, we may never really know.  But when I am betrayed I am not too concerned about people's motivations.  It doesn't really reduce my pain when I find out why someone betrayed me.  I may be curious, but I am still hurting.

Betrayal is always the most painful when it is someone you trusted or someone who is close to you.  Judas was one of the twelve men that Jesus invested his life into and who called himself a disciple.  Peter was even closer to Jesus.  Peter was one of the three who spent extra time with Jesus along with John and James.

Judas and Peter give us two different ways to handle our own betrayal of Jesus or other people.  We can either allow it to destroy our lives like Judas, or we can confess and ask for forgiveness.  Both men felt terrible after their betrayal, but Judas was unwilling or unable to deal with his feelings.  Judas sadly ended his life and is remembered only for his failure.  How many kids do you know named Judas.  Peter stuck it out and was amazed to find that Jesus restored Peter and gave him another chance.  We cannot allow betrayal to consume our lives and never allow God's grace to cover our sins.  We cannot ignore our betrayal and hope it goes away.

Bring the pain of your own betrayal to God.  Bring the pain of being betrayed to God and allow His grace to help us overcome!

Holy Week - Wednesday

Luke 22:27 Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.

As Jesus makes the disciples aware that one of them will betray Jesus, the disciples end up in a conversation about which one of them is the greatest.  How often do we miss the point? You would think they would have tried to find the one who would betray and try and stop it.  But instead they end up talking about why it wouldn't be them.  Jesus, of course, used their distraction as an opportunity to teach a valuable lesson about the Kingdom of God.  

The Kingdom of God operates quite differently than the worlds kingdoms.   If you have power and authority in the world, most people will use that power for their own purposes and enjoyment. I have been in a position of authority and there is always a temptation to use the authority for your own good over the good of others.  There is the temptation to allow the authority to make you feel like you are more important than other people because of your position of authority.   

Jesus reminds us to think differently!  In the Kingdom of God the ultimate is to serve and not to be served.  We can become great to God by serving God and others.  Jesus set the example by washing the disciples' feet, by laying down his life on the cross, and by laying down his divinity by coming to earth.  We need to trust and follow Jesus' example.  Living with a Kingdom mindset is not normal in our world, but will make us honored in the Kingdom of God!

Holy Week - Tuesday

Luke 21:37 Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives. 

Jesus spent his evenings in the garden praying.  He found a place of peace and quiet.  He found a place of beauty and comfort.  He prayed.  I am looking forward to Spring actually arriving - not the date on the calendar - but the actual days where we can get outside and spend some time out of the house, office, buildings, etc.  I know I could put on warm clothes and spend time outside, but I don't seem to do it and it doesn't seem as enjoyable as warm weather.  Maybe my days living in the Phoenix, Arizona area have spoiled me. 

I have found a garden for myself.  A place to go to and to pray.  To leave the distraction of the day behind and to focus on God.  I can remember a time when I would have been bored after 10 minutes.  Now I find I can spend hours and wish for more time.  

Jesus worked hard at teaching and being with people; and He realized that meant he would need some time to recharge and be with His heavenly Father.  When our physical bodies are run down and we have spent all our energy, we realize we need sleep.  We need to be more aware of our spiritual battery and make sure we spend time in the garden to recharge!

Where is your garden of spiritual rest?  

Holy Week - Monday

Jesus was being tested and questions by the teachers of the law and the chief priest of Jerusalem.  They even sent spies to hang out with Jesus and ask him tough questions.  "Who gave you this authority?" "Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" "Now at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since seven were married to her?" (Luke 20) 

At every answer that Jesus gave his testers where either confused, "We don't know where it was from." 

Or they were angry and wanted Jesus arrested. 

Or they were astonished and became silent. 

Or they agreed with Jesus and dared not ask him any more questions.  

What are the difficult questions you have asked Jesus in your life?  Why did you allow this tragedy? Why did this person have to die? Why do some people have to face cancer?  Why did my parents have to get a divorce?  Why did I loose all my money in what looked like a good investment?  Why do all my friends seem to let me down?  Jesus, are you there?

I have found when I ask Jesus the difficult questions of life, He is willing to answer!  I might not receive all the answers I want to hear, but I always receive answers that astonish me and cause me to be silent before the Lord.  I receive answers from Jesus that give me an insight into God's perspective and I see things more clearly than I did before.  Jesus has the amazing ability to answer our deepest questions and to give us peace.  Usually my biggest issue is - am I willing to stop and listen to Jesus' answer to my difficult questions.  

Warnings to the Religious

In Luke 11:39-52 - Jesus gives some strong warnings to the religious leaders of his day.

Warning #1 - don't clean up the outward life and neglect the inward life.  When we focus too much on the religious activities of the Christian faith we have this same temptation to clean up the outward part of our lives.  We have to look good when we come to church.  We have to act right during the week so church people will still talk to us and think we are good people.  We have to put on a front that everything in our family and in our personal life is going great so people will think we have it all together.  It is easy to do all these things and neglect the reality that God's first priority in our heart.  There is nothing wrong with living a good and godly life on the outside as long as it flows from a heart that is being transformed by God on a regular basis.  But what often happens is we just get good at hiding our messy lives and so there is never true confession and transformation.

Warning #2 - it is easy to give to God out of your abundance and never know the heart of God in generosity.  The heart of God is to be generous to people in need and to use our financial blessings to fight the injustice of the world around us.  There is nothing wrong about giving to God's work in the church, but that can't be the only thing we do with our many blessings from God.  God has blessed us with time, energy, talents, spiritual gifts and money to help make a difference in the world.  Don't assume if you give a portion to the church that you have found the heart of God and that is all God desires you to do.

Warning #3 - watch out that religion does not become your platform for attention.  I had a conversation with a community member just yesterday and he was complimenting me and giving me credit for the work that God has done at Living Faith.  Man, did that feel good!  But I have to be careful, and heed the warning from Jesus that church is not my platform to become an important member of the community.  I have to give glory to God for all He has done, and not take personal pride in all God is doing!

Warning #4 - don't become an unmarked grave that people don't even notice is there.  Religious activity without the power of the Holy Spirit will lead us to a place of zero impact on the world and the culture.  Zero impact on our friends and neighbors.  Our lives won't have purpose and meaning if all we have is religious activity.  Life is found in the Holy Spirit alive and active in our religious activity.

May your connection with Jesus be more like falling in love and less like following a set of religious activities!

  

Filled with Joy!

Luke 10:21 - At that same time Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit... 

Jesus had just sent 72 disciples out to the cities ahead of him and they came back rejoicing and sharing their stories of God's amazing work in their lives.  Jesus teaches them a short lesson on priorities - it is better to be in a great place with God than to do great works for God.  Then it says Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit.  

That phrase just made my heart jump today!  Jesus was so proud of these disciples and the work that the Holy Spirit was doing in their lives - maybe He received a glimpse of the coming days and the amazing work of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the church.  Maybe He got a glimpse of you today, allowing God's Spirit to use you to be a part of the Kingdom of God today!  Whatever God revealed to Jesus it made His heart full of joy!  When we connect with the Holy Spirit of God - He can also fill our hearts with joy! 

Maybe the key is in that same lesson of priorities - if we are more focused on being in a place of communion and connection with God than being in a place of doing for God - we will be more likely to receive the Joy of the Holy Spirit.  God seems to always prioritize being over doing.  Doing is essential.  Jesus said pick up your cross and follow me!  Faith without action is dead.  But doing without being is also worthless.  Doing must flow naturally from being in Christ.  

I hope today your communion and connection with the Holy Spirit allow you to be filled with JOY! 

Complaining

Luke 7:32 They are like children playing a game in the public square. They complain to their friends,

'We played wedding songs
   and you didn’t dance,
so we played funeral songs,
   and you didn’t weep.'

Jesus has a way of dealing with us so directly and cutting to the heart of the matter!  The people of Jesus' day tended to complain about all things.  John came and he was too solemn.  Jesus came and he was not solemn enough.  How I find that same mindset in myself some days.  Complaining that God doesn't do more.  Complaining when I have to go through things I don't enjoy.  Complaining when the weather is bad.  Complain when life is too good because I am just waiting for something to happen to mess it up.   Complain, complain, complain.  Sometimes I feel like my prayer list becomes a complaining list.  God, why are you not answering my prayers like I want you to? 

My prayer today is that I would learn to dance in the times of joy that God sends my way.  To really enjoy the moments of peace and joy that God brings into my life.  Too many times I am too focused on what it next to really enjoy the right now!  

My prayer today is that I would learn to weep when it is time to weep.  To have a deep compassion for the things in my life and my world that break the heart of God.  To not be willing to just escape from the world of trouble, but to walk right in and embrace the pain.  

Dance my friends!  Dance!

Grow Up!

Luke 2:41-52:    Vs. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

We have only one story of Jesus as a middle school age kid.  Nothing of his later teens or his days as a young adult.  What a gap in time!  If Jesus was wise enough at age twelve to amaze the people at the temple, imagine what he could have done in his twenties.  But God's plan for Jesus was to wait until he was around thirty years old to begin his public ministry.  What was Jesus doing?  Growing!  He continued to grow in his wisdom - being able to apply his knowledge to life.  He grew up physically in a normal fashion.  The awkward teenage years, the growing pains, learning social skills, and all the other things that go along with growing up human.  And Jesus grew in his favor of God.  The writer of Hebrews says that Jesus learned obedience to God the Father.  That even though Jesus was fully God, he was also fully human and his human side needed to learn obedience to the Father.  The amazing balance of God between grace and favor!  That God loves us unconditionally, and yet as we follow God with our lives we can be favored by God.  What a mystery of the faith.  Jesus also grew in his favor with people.  He learned from his experience with getting lost from his parents at the temple that he must submit to his parents, even though he was the Messiah.  He learned about people and what makes us tick.  God sent Jesus to be with us!  To experience the human condition.  So the writer of Hebrews could say we have a High Priest in Jesus who is sympathetic with our human condition.

I realize if Jesus needed to grow and he was fully God and fully man - I will always need to grow!  I may be done with the growth of stature - been 6 foot tall since 8th grade - but in all the other areas of this verse I must continue to grow!

Gospel Inspires us to DO GOOD

Titus 3:4-8 (New Living Translation) 

But—“When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.” This is a trustworthy saying, and I want you to insist on these teachings so that all who trust in God will devote themselves to doing good. These teachings are good and beneficial for everyone.

Paul reminds Titus, a leader in the early church about the Good News of Jesus.  It truly is Good News!

Paul also reminds Titus that the Good News will help people to trust more completely in God.  The more clearly we understand God's message and plan the more we can trust Him.  The Good News will also help us devote our lives to doing good.   We don't do good deeds to earn our salvation, but because we are have been rescued by such and amazing and loving God, we are inspired to act like Him!  

Will my doing good make a difference?   Yes – by the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through you!  You have to keep believing that God is using your good deeds to impact the world.      "Not only does each of your actions have a direct impact on the world, but also every choice you make sends a message to those around you… We create momentum for each other… Don’t let anyone convince you that you have no power – together we have the power to change the world.  All significant changes in the world start slowly, at a single time and place, with a single action.  One man, one woman, one child stands up and commits to creating a better world.  Their courage inspires others, who begin to stand up themselves.  You can be that person." (Better World Handbook, Ellis Jones, Ross Haenfler, Brett Johnson with Brian Klocke) 

b.    Lead others by doing good and inspiring them to do good.

Day 21 - Continue the Story

Psalms 105:1-6 Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness.
    Let the whole world know what he has done.
² Sing to him; yes, sing his praises.
    Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds.
³ Exult in his holy name;
    rejoice, you who worship the Lord.
⁴ Search for the Lord and for his strength;
    continually seek him.
⁵ Remember the wonders he has performed,
    his miracles, and the rulings he has given,
⁶ you children of his servant Abraham,
    you descendants of Jacob, his chosen ones.

God is looking for people of action to follow Him.  Notice all the action words of this Psalm.  Give, proclaim, sing, tell, exult, rejoice, search, seek, and remember!  Seeking God on a continual basis takes action on our part.  If we want to find God's blessing for 2013 we must continue the story of our lives following Jesus.  

The story of our lives being a follower of Jesus won't come from watching more television, playing more video games or reading more fashion magazines. We must take action in this coming year to create the story that will give glory to God.  

Day 20 - Contentment

Hebrews 13:5 Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said,  “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”

When we think about praying for God's blessing in our lives for 2013 it would be easy to focus on all the things we would like to have.  God bless me with success.  God bless me financially.  God bless my family so they will be healthy.  Our prayers for blessing can easily be for really good blessing from God, but they may not be what is best for us this year.  Will we trust that God will bless us with exactly what we need.  That we will content with whatever blessings God sends our way.  

Will we remember this year that the greatest blessing in our lives is that God is with us!  He will never abandon us!  No matter how we feel or what live circumstances bring us, God is with us!  We must come to the place where we realize that God does not fail us.  He does not forget us and our situation.  He does not just want to torment or torture us.  He does not fail!  So where ever you are and whatever you are going through; it is not because God has failed you or forsaken you.  

Day 19 - Sweet Aroma to God

Ephesians 5:2 Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.

Paul reminds us that if we follow the example Jesus set before us that two things will happen in our lives.  

One: we will live a life of love.  Our lives need to overflow with the love of Christ and it will impact every area of our lives.  God's love will be displayed in our family, friends, jobs, school, and every other area of our lives.  The clearest way to know that you are following Christ is to ask people around you if your life is characterized by love.  What is your reputation at work or school?  A complainer? A manipulator?  A nice person? Friendly? Don't mess with them?  Your family knows you better than most other people, so how do they characterize your life?  We must allow the love of God to so fill us that we are first and foremost known as people who love.  

Two: Jesus life and sacrifice became an pleasing aroma to God.  So if we follow Jesus our lives will be a pleasing aroma to God.  When we are willing to sacrifice for the Kingdom of God with our worship; we are a pleasing aroma to God.  When we are willing to sacrifice for friends, family, or strangers; then we are a pleasing aroma to God.  I am amazed at the Bible passages that communicate that we as the created beings have the ability to please God!  I don't completely understand it, but by faith I believe and it motivates me to sacrifice for the cause of Christ.  

Day 18 - Win the Prize

Philippians 3:14  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

As a kid my goal was to become a NBA Basketball player.  I was one of those kids who was focused on the goal so much that I drove my friends crazy.  I always wanted to play basketball and my friends had other interest.  In the winter I would shovel the snow off the driveway in order to play.  In the summer when my friends wanted to go swimming I would try and convince them to play a game before we went swimming.

God wants us to have that same drive and determination when it comes to our spiritual lives and our goal of following Jesus.  That nothing would get in our way of following Jesus!  Nothing would come before our spiritual training!  That people might even think we are a little bit crazy because following Jesus is our first priority.

Of all the things we pursue in life - family, money, recognition, friendships.  All these things are good and fine when they are not our priority!  Jesus must be the prize we long to obtain and the focus of our best energy and desire.

Day 17 - Mindset

Colossians 3:2  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

I have met a few people in my life that I believed were so focused on heaven and life after death that they seemed to not really live well in this life.  But most of us tend to have the opposite temptation.  We tend to focus so much on this life and all the details of life here on earth that we fail to focus enough on the spiritual realities.  

The reality is all our earthly concerns will pass.  Nothing here on earth will matter all that much once we are gone.  You might leave a legacy with your family, business, friends, and community for a while, but sooner or later you will be forgotten.  Your good deeds, your efforts, your lifestyle will all fade.  

Margaret Feinberg tells an account of a missionary who spent his whole life here on earth in Africa as a missionary.  In his old age, he finally retired and returned to the United States on a ship.  There was a large crowd at the docks and for a moment he was so excited that someone was welcoming him home. But then he realized the crowd was there to welcome home a movie star that was on the boat.  No one was there to welcome him home.   He prayed to God in his distress  "Could just one person welcome me home?"  And God answered his prayer, "You're not home yet!"  

Day 16 - Stubborn Heart

2 Chronicles 30:8 Do not be stubborn, as they were, but submit yourselves to the Lord. Come to his Temple, which he has set apart as holy forever. Worship the Lord your God so that his fierce anger will turn away from you.

God warns us about the reality that our hearts and minds can tend to be stubborn.  I was talking to a friend today who was putting up some kitchen cabinets and talked about how he had rigged up all these things to hold up the cabinet so he could connect them to the wall.  I can so relate.  How often do I stubbornly do things myself when it would be so much easier to ask a friend to give me a helping hand.  

Similarly in our spiritual journey, we often get so stubborn that we refuse to ask God to help us.  We often do not have help because we have not asked for help.  We continue to struggle and resist God when He wants to help us if we will simply ask.  

The encouraging part of this verse it that if we worship God it will help us overcome or stubborn spirit.  That is good news for us.  We can overcome our stubborn heart with true worship of God.  Worship helps us put God in the rightful place in our hearts and lives and helps us to call out to God for help. 

Day 15 - Following Jesus

Numbers 9:23  So they camped or traveled at the Lord’s command, and they did whatever the Lord told them through Moses.

God is looking for our willingness to follow Him in obedience.  We can try and sugar coat that all we want, but God is still looking for us to obey! We still believe in grace and God's love.  Because of grace and love we are called to believe God is good and following Him is the best possible life. 

On this Martin Luther King Jr. holiday,  I encourage us to continue to become a people and a church that follows God in the area of treating others with love and respect.  Identify your prejudices.  Pray that God would help you overcome those prejudices.  Let's become a church known for our fighting injustice and racist in obedience to God!  

Pray for our president today!  Whether we agree or disagree with him is not the point, the point is to pray for him.  I had a friend pray for the president the other day, but the prayer we degrading and insulting.  Not sure that is the type of prayer that God honors.  

Day 14 - Marathon Running

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

Running has never been something that I have excelled at in my life, either for competition or for enjoyment.  I have always preferred to get my exercise through playing a sport like basketball than just plain running.  That might have been because I was not that fast.  And now it is just painful. 

But the idea of competing in a sport to develop endurance I can relate to.  In all sports there are moments that are key, but yet it is the whole of the event that is most important.  If a team can play basketball really well in the first quarter that is a nice start, but they will give up the lead unless they play all 4 quarters.  One of the things God is telling us by talking about endurance is that God sees the whole picture of your life and the Kingdom of God more completely than we do.  God is not surprised when we have great victories or failures.  The point is not the victories or the failures, but the whole picture of our lives and our connection with God.  Will we keep going and complete the journey God has put before us?  Will we finish the race? 

What a great assurance that in our journey there is a great crowd of witnesses that are cheering you on.  When you think you are all alone and no one cares what you are doing, don't believe it!  Remember someone is cheering for you!  

Running shoes and clothing and getting lighter weight and less wind resistant all the time to help improve the running experience.  We sometimes will need to get rid of some of the weight of our lives that keep us from following Jesus with all our hearts.  But remember it is worth it!  

Day 13 - Facing Your Fears

Isaiah 41:10  Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
    Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
    I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

I have a couple of embarrassing and unreasonable fears.  I have a bit of claustrophobia in me that makes it difficult to climb under my house and complete a simple project. It really irritates me when that feeling comes over me and I have to climb out from under the house.  I blame that fear on my brother who always thought it was so funny to capture me in a sleeping bag and close off the end and drag me around the house.  I also have a silly fear of needles.  I say it is silly, because I can take a sewing needle and stick it in my arm and it is no big deal.  But when I go to the doctor's office and they want to take blood or give me a shot, if get really nervous and I start to sweat.  It is so strange.  

We can face fears in our spiritual journey as well.  Unreasonable feelings that come into our hearts and minds as we follow Jesus.  Sometimes we fear what other people will think of us.  Sometimes we fear what other people will do to us.  God longs to remind us that we do not have to fear if we really believe God is on our side.  If God is for us, who can be against us?  He has all the strength we need to live a life that we can face our fears and overcome our discouragements. 

Day 12 - God's Words to Us

Psalms 119:105 Your word is a lamp to guide my feet
    and a light for my path.

I have the ability to make simple jobs really complicated.  Well, at least when I start a project I think it will be simple, but it usually seems like something makes it complicated.  Many times the complication comes down to the fact that I might now have the right tool to do the job.  But instead of just biting the bullet and paying for that right tool, I often try to figure it out with what I have.  Those home improvement projects that don't just take one trip to Home Depot on a Saturday, but two trips.  

Many times in our spiritual journey it is easy to try and manage our relationship with God without the most essential tool, God's Word.  We get too busy to spend time reading.  We get too prideful and think we know the Word well enough, we really don't need to study it more.  We doubt God's ability to lead us through the Word.  Fasting, praying and seeking God for His blessing in our lives in 2013 will be powerless without adding God's Word into the mix.  

So many times we choose to walk around in the darkness of this world when God says simply: "His Word is our Light!"  If you are not sure which direction to go with your life, the first thing to do is not visit with your friends and seek wise counsel.  The first thing to do is not to make a list of pro's and con's and try to make a logical decision.  The first thing to do is to read the Word and ask God to use the Word to direct your path!  

Day 11 - Hopeless?

Jeremiah 32:27  “I am the Lord, the God of all the peoples of the world. Is anything too hard for me?"

Many times our disappointment with God's lack of action causes us to believe that God is not capable of acting on our behalf.  When God seems to be severely late in arriving or answering our prayers.  When God seems to be distant and uncaring in our darkest hours.  When God seems to neglect our prayers for healing and we feel the emptiness of loss and grieving.  Our disappointment in Him brings bitterness and resentment which blocks our ability to hope and believe in God's power.  

We pray for healing, but don't really think God will answer the prayer. 
We pray for life transformation, but don't really believe people ever really change.  
We pray for our nation, but we really believe the world will continue to get worse and worse.  
We pray because we know we are should.  We pray because we still believe God exist.  But we pray with little or no hope.  

But God says He is the Lord of the world and nothing is impossible for God!  So we have hope and we must pray in faith and believe in a God who can do anything and everything. 

What area of your life has reached a place of impossibility and hopelessness?  Ask God to renew your hope in His might ability to do the miraculous.  

Day 10 - Lift Up Your Eyes

1 John 4:11-12 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.  No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

One of the key skills to teach kids about basketball is to keep your head up and to keep looking forward.  It is easy for a kid to want to keep their eye on the basketball, especially when dribbling.  By doing this they miss the opportunities to pass or score.  It is easy for all of us to keep our heads down and to only focus on what is right in front of us. Our circumstances tend to dictate what we do and we become focused on our reactions to situations more than people who live life.  

God reminds us that we are not here to merely react to our circumstances, but rather we are here to experience the love of God and to love others.  When we look up from our circumstances and we remind ourselves that God loves us unconditionally, we are free to love others.  When I get just a glimpse of God's unconditional love that says: "Even if I was a super saint and fasted for a year and prayed 3 hours a day, God couldn't love me more!"  "Even if I gave every moment of the my life feeding the hungry, God couldn't love me more!" "Even if I became the laziest couch potato the world has ever seen, God couldn't love me more or less!"  All these things might impact my life, my family, my friends, my community; but they won't impact God's love for me.  John says when we lift up our eyes and see the love of God for us, we don't have any choice but to love others.  

Day 9 - Heart of Thanks

1 Thessalonians 5:18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

James 5:7-9 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

I am always amazed at the brains capacity to see the things through the most negative lens possible.  I can easily believe people are against me.  I can easily believe that God is against me.  I can easily believe that my circumstances will continually get worse and worse.  Why does it seem to be so easy to think negatively?  

One aspect of renewing our hearts and minds is that we allow God to help us look at life through a heart of thanksgiving instead of complaining.  It takes me praying - God help me to be thankful for all my blessings or I tend to focus too much on my grumblings.  It is God's will that I learn to give thanks for all my circumstances, not just the ones I like and enjoy.  

Pray that everyday God would help us to be thankful and positive about all God is doing in our lives and in the world.  

Day 8 - Learning from Life's Pain

Psalms 119:71 It was good for me to be afflicted
    so that I might learn your decrees.

I don't like pain any more than anyone else.  I always joke with my kids during sporting activities that pain is irrelevant.  It is just nerves sending a message to your brain - ignore the message.  But the reality is sometimes pain feels like an elephant stepping on you more than irrelevant.  

Fasting is a painful experience and it helps us to learn how to trust God.  I have had a new experience with the Daniel fast - stomach cramps.  The kind that kept me in bed for a couple of days.  I finally had to come to the conclusion that my body and the Daniel fast do not agree with each other.  That is hard for me because of my pride.  I once at 12 "Air Head's"  (super sour candy) at one time because someone told me I couldn't.  It was no problem until I realized it fried my taste buds and I couldn't taste anything for 12 hours.  So God is teaching me through this fast that I can't do it because I am prideful, but must learn obedience from God.  Many times God starts us out in one direction and then changes the plan and we have to adjust.  So I am adjusting.  I am learning humility and am reminded of my human limitations.  I am learning that I often judge others because of their inability to follow through, when I don't always know what they are going through.  

Each of us will have our own learning experience with God and our fasting.  God is so good to work in us uniquely for what we need today and what He is longing to teach us. 

Day 7 - God's Plan for You

Philippians 1:6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

God has a plan for you that is a "GOOD WORK"!  God didn't mess up when He created you the way that you are.  God isn't surprised when you mess up.  God create in you a spiritual life that is the breathe of God, therefore you have God in you!  Trust in God's good work that is in you and that God has a plan for that from today until the day you meet Jesus face to face.  

Our job is to be confident in God and His ability to complete the work in us that He has started.  Not to be confident in ourselves and to be conceited, but to be confident of God in us.  God is trustworthy!  God works miracles!  God is awesome!  I am certain that if I make all my decisions I will mess up my life completely.  I am confident that if God continues to work in me that He will create something beautiful out of my life.  I fast and pray in order to remind myself how completely dependent I am on God to do the work in me!  

Day 6 - Ropes of Kindness & Love

Hosea 11:1-4 “When Israel was a child, I loved him,  and I called my son out of Egypt.
² But the more I called to him,  the farther he moved from me,
offering sacrifices to the images of Baal and burning incense to idols.
³ I myself taught Israel how to walk,  leading him along by the hand.
But he doesn't know or even care  that it was I who took care of him.
⁴ I led Israel along  with my ropes of kindness and love.
I lifted the yoke from his neck,  and I myself stooped to feed him.

I find great comfort in the patience and compassion of God with His people Israel.  He loved them and was so patient with them.  God says He sent them rope of kindness and love.  What an image of a people who have put themselves in a pit because of their own rebellion and their own selfishness.  Totally trapped and confined in a pit of their own making.  God could have easily left them in the pit, but instead God lowers a rope to rescue them.  

I know I have put myself in many pits of my own making and my own selfishness.  I have found myself in places I never wanted to be, in messes of my own making.  I have often found the rope of kindness from the Lord and He is able to raise me up from my pit.  I have also found myself in the pit of other peoples decisions.  Living through difficult days because of the choices of other people.  Those pits may seem even deeper than the ones we dig for ourselves.  But even then, Jesus sends his rope of rescue and pulls us out of the pit and sets us on solid ground.  

God, through Jesus, has stooped down to lighten our load and to feed us when we are hungry.  Are you in a pit of loneliness, depression, toxic anger, bitterness, jealousy, unforgiveness, rebellion, selfish habits, etc.?  Reach for the rope!