Dealing with the Root of the Problem

"Like Isaiah, I saw the holiness of God," Res Howell said, "and seeing Him, I saw my own corrupt nature.  It wasn't sin that I saw, but nature touched by the Fall."   (Res Howell Intercessor, by Norman Grubb)

Res Howell had an encounter with the Holy Spirit of God and he realized that God was not just interested in behavior modification.  He saw that there was a core issue at work in his life that caused the actions and attitudes of sin.  God was revealing that his outward sin was being caused by an inward cause.  God took Res through a journey dealing with surrendering his life to the life of the Spirit.  God dealt with four core issues in his life: 1. Love of Money, 2. Family relationships, 3. Ambition and 4. Reputation.  

When Res Howell surrendered each of these areas to the will of the Holy Spirit in his life he felt the cleansing he had longed for and he began to live a life in the Spirit. 

How often are we dealing with the symptoms, symptoms and more symptoms of our spiritual issues and don't ever deal with the root causes?  

Take some time in prayer to ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to what are some root cause issues that are still alive and active in your life.  Ask God to not just help you with the sin symptoms, but to help cleanse your selfish nature. 

Your journey will probably be different than Res Howell's journey or mine, but we all have core selfish issues we must surrender to God for cleansing and then daily keep those surrendered as we live in the Spirit.  God will be faithful to reveal these to us if we are willing to ask.  Go to prayer with a pen and paper so you are clear on what God is asking you to surrender.  Wrestle with it for a while and make sure you are willing to let it go.  Then let it go!     

Deep Rooted Faith

Ephesians 3:17b Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong! 
What are your strengths?  What are you good at?  Do we naturally answer those questions with our own personal strengths?  I am a good friend!  I am a good listener.  I can rope a horse.  I can ride a skateboard.  I can roof a house.  I can balance a checkbook.  
What if we started thinking about the reality that our greatest strength is our connection to God.  And in fact the more deeply I am connected to Him the stronger I become.  Just like a tree - the deeper my root system is the more tree can withstand the hardships of the environment.  

2 Corinthians 5:14 Christ love controls us!  Some versions of the Bible say Christ love compels us!  Somehow we need to get the concept that God's love must be the foundation of our lives and when it is it will cause us to act in love.  It will control us or compel us into action.  When we experience the deep love of Christ it will impact us and impact the way that we live, move and our very being!

How do we grow deep roots?  Spend time with the only one who can help us grow - Christ!  Let Him mentor us and mold us!  When you pray take time to listen to His voice in response to your words!  

Coming Clean

The NFL has been a mess this fall.  Realizations that some players are abusive off the field and are not model citizens is completely evident now.  I think we all knew it was part of the culture of the NFL and professional sports as a whole, but now more  than ever we see you can't keep much held back from the public eye.  Everyone is carrying a video camera on their phone with them 24/7 and there are cameras catching our actions about everywhere.  We need to figure out it is time to come clean with our actions instead of being a cover up culture.  

Spiritually the church is in the same boat.  We have created a church culture of cover up.  When we go to church or are with church friends we keep up this image of what we think people want us to be and it can be exhausting.  We need to come clean with our imperfections and our failures.  We need to be honest with someone about who we really are and what we are really dealing with deep down in our inner being.  
Hebrews 4:13 reminds us that: "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable."


Once we get use to being honest with God, then maybe we can start finding a group in the Body of Christ that we become comfortable with enough to share who we really are as a person.  James 5:16 reminds us that we need to not only confess our sins to God, but also each other.  Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

Are you willing to come clean?  

Been with Jesus

In Luke's account of beginning of the movement we usually call the church, Peter and John stood before the ruling council what had only a few months earlier sent Jesus to the Romans to be crucified.  They should have been shaking in their boots.  Peter had denied he even knew Jesus a few months ago.  John had been close by and had influence, but refused to speak up on Jesus behalf.  And yet now they are boldly proclaimed that they healed a man in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene.  The ruling council take a few minutes to talk about the situation and we read: 

Acts 4:13 The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. 

When through the power of the Holy Spirit we have been with Jesus we can be bold!  Even when we are in circumstances that in the past would have completely taken us to a place of fear.  By God's power in us we can now be a bold witness of the Good News that Jesus brings to the world.  

When through the power of the Holy Spirit we have been with Jesus we can overcome our ordinary human appearance and ability.  Peter and John did not have the politically correct speech or Hebrew scriptural studies that were so important in those days in Jerusalem, but Jesus helped them overcome their ordinary up bringing.  We are most likely just ordinary people!  We probably don't impress others with our great wisdom or understanding and sometimes we allow that to hinder our use in the Kingdom.  Let the professional ministers, reverends & pastors do that work; we are not qualified.  But if we have been with Jesus - Jesus helps us overcome our ordinary lives and makes us extraordinary! 


Have you been with Jesus enough that people recognize Him in you?  

Ten Towns

Mark 5:19-20 But Jesus said, “No, go home to your family, and tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been.”  So the man started off to visit the Ten Towns of that region and began to proclaim the great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed at what he told them.

Jesus just healed a man from being possessed by a legion of demons.  He was once running around naked and crazy but now he is clothed and in his right mind.  This freaks his neighbors out and they try to get Jesus to leave the area as soon as possible.  The man wants to follow Jesus and go with him.  But Jesus doesn't allow him to go with Jesus but rather tells him to go home and tell everyone what God has done for him!  

I have read and heard this passage preached on may time in my life - (Read the whole passage if you have time) but today the Ten Towns stuck out to me in a fresh way.  The man who is released from the nightmare of demon possession doesn't just go home to tell his family and his closest neighbors; no that would not be enough.  He went on a mission to tell the people in the Ten Towns!  

We might now have quite the same story of healing from a legion of demons, but we have a story of redemption to tell.  We have all be imprisoned in the chains of our own desires and passions.  We have all been held captive by the things of the world.  We all have a story of freedom to share with people who are stuck.  God has given you freedom to share!  Whatever we have been through is our story to tell.  What is your story?  Practice telling it and tell it in faith, believing God wants to use your story to impact people around you! 

How many towns will hear the Good News because we are called to share our story?  

Holy Week - Resurrection Sunday

Luke 24:1-9 But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.  So they went in, but they didn't find the body of the Lord Jesus. As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes. The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive?  He isn't here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.”  Then they remembered that he had said this.  So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened.  

Resurrection power is so incredible to us even today.  We have great technology that can do so much, but still death is so final.  Death is such a powerful force and unknown in our lives.  But for God death is powerless.  For God death has no impact or sting.

Jesus resurrection remind us that we serve a God who is not controlled or intimidated by death.  Death was not God's choice, but rather the unfortunate impact of sin on the creation of God.  We can live with a confidence that our God is more powerful than death!  

Jesus resurrection reminds us that there is power in living with the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  What threat can the devil make against us when we have Jesus on our side?  What can the enemy do to us if we have resurrection power on our team?  We can live with a calm assurance that He who is for us is greater then the one who is against us!  

Holy Week - Saturday

Mark 15:42-47 This all happened on Friday, the day of preparation, the day before the Sabbath. As evening approached,  Joseph of Arimathea took a risk and went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. (Joseph was an honored member of the high council, and he was waiting for the Kingdom of God to come.)  Pilate couldn't believe that Jesus was already dead, so he called for the Roman officer and asked if he had died yet.  The officer confirmed that Jesus was dead, so Pilate told Joseph he could have the body. Joseph bought a long sheet of linen cloth. Then he took Jesus’ body down from the cross, wrapped it in the cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone in front of the entrance. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where Jesus’ body was laid.

Jesus was in the grave.  His followers discouraged and scattered.  All seemed lost.  All was quiet that Sabbath.  Not the Passover celebration they had anticipated. The day of rest and worship must have seemed empty and hollow for the disciples that day.  How do you go on with life as usual when this type of life changing event has happened?  How do you go on when all you hoped for was dead?  

And there was silence.

Silence in the tomb.

Silence in the lives of the disciples.

Waiting. 

Not even sure they had the ability to hope again. 

And there was silence. 

God doesn't mind having us wait in the silence.  He knows it is good for us to wait and to listen.   It may even be good for us to struggle through the feelings of hopelessness.  It is definitely good for us to wait, even though no one likes the process.  

It is in the silence that we can hear from God.  It is after the waiting that God moves in incredible ways! 

Holy Week - Friday

Mark 15:21-27  A passerby named Simon, who was from Cyrene, was coming in from the countryside just then, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. (Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.)  And they brought Jesus to a place called Golgotha (which means “Place of the Skull”). They offered him wine drugged with myrrh, but he refused it. Then the soldiers nailed him to the cross. They divided his clothes and threw dice to decide who would get each piece. It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. A sign announced the charge against him. It read, “The King of the Jews.”  Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left.

As we think about Jesus being crucified we can think about the symbolism of the two portions of the cross.  One vertical post that was placed in the ground and reached towards the heavens.  The crucifixion of Jesus impacts our vertical relationship with God. Jesus described it as a new covenant between God and humanity.  Through the forgiveness of our sins by the cross we have gained access to the presence of God.  

The cross also had a horizontal post which held the arms of Jesus.  The crucifixion also impacts our lives horizontally.  Because we live in a new covenant with God we can live differently in our relationships to each other.  There is a bond in the body of Christ that is cross empowered.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote if we are struggling with a fellow Christian we should pray that God would help us picture them at the "foot of the cross." We are all equally in need and we all look the same at the foot of the cross. 

We must continually look to the cross to impact our lives both vertically and horizontally!  

Holy Week - Thursday

John 13:1-5 Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.  Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him. (NLT) 

What is it that we think we deserve because we follow Jesus with our lives?   We have given God so much, surely He will bless us and honor all the hard work we have done for the Kingdom.  God's answer always seems to be - wash feet!  Serve other people is our calling and our blessing!  The enemy tempts us to believe that serving is miserable work and the real living is kicking back and enjoying the good life.  But as usual, the devil is a liar and a deceiver. 

God created us to serve and to find our fulfillment in loving God and loving others.  How do we ever expect to find satisfaction in doing anything else?  We will simple be "chasing after the wind."  

It is not that God doesn't bless us because He truly does in our lives and for eternity.  But our blessings are not usually what we expect them to be or what we thought we might have asked for from God. 

Try putting some real feet to this process and serve someone this week without seeking applause of people.  Don't tell anyone you served and ask God to fill your heart with love and purpose in the process.  

Holy Week - Wednesday

Matthew 26:14-16 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went to the leading priests and asked, “How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?” And they gave him thirty pieces of silver.  From that time on, Judas began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus.

It is estimated that 30 pieces of silver would equal about 3 to 6 months worth of income for Judas.  No matter how much the amount was it was not enough to betray a friend.  

What are the things in our lives that cause us to be tempted to betray Jesus?
- the slow drift away from a passionate relationship with God 
- temptation to seek the material over the spiritual 
- Jesus disappointing you by not answering your prayer in the way you wanted him to 
- seeking your own solutions and plans instead of trusting and waiting on God


Maybe you want to count out 30 coins and place them somewhere you will see them this week to remind you of your tendency to betray Jesus.  

Holy Week - Tuesday

Mark 14:3-9 Meanwhile, Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who had previously had leprosy. While he was eating, a woman came in with a beautiful alabaster jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard. She broke open the jar and poured the perfume over his head. Some of those at the table were indignant. “Why waste such expensive perfume?” they asked.  “It could have been sold for a year’s wages and the money given to the poor!” So they scolded her harshly.  But Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. Why criticize her for doing such a good thing to me?  You will always have the poor among you, and you can help them whenever you want to. But you will not always have me.  She has done what she could and has anointed my body for burial ahead of time.  I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and discussed.” (NLT) 

It is amazing how fragrances can spark memories in our minds about events in the past.  The smell of bread takes me back to coming home from grade school and knowing my mom had baked fresh bread that day and I would be asking to eat a heal.  

Jesus smelled of this anointing all week long.  This was powerful stuff.  It was used to help the dead not smell as bad as the dead smell.  Jesus commented on the reality that this anointing was part of his coming death.  So for the rest of the final week of Jesus life before his crucifixion he smelled like a man about to be buried.  There is no doubt Jesus was aware of what was coming and how it coming.  

It was also the smell of royalty and the wealthy.  This was not a time of daily showers and deodorant and so there was a clear distinction between the wealthy and the poor by smell.  So here is Jesus going through his week of teaching in the temple, on trial, being persecuted by the Roman soldiers, being crucified and all the time smelling like a person of royalty.  

Jesus saw this act of gift giving as significant and worthy of being remembered.  What act of worship and giving can we offer up to God that will also be remembered?  Not remembered by people or written about in books but remembered by God that we brought honor to Him? 

Holy Week - Monday

Mark 11:15-18 When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.” When the leading priests and teachers of religious law heard what Jesus had done, they began planning how to kill him. But they were afraid of him because the people were so amazed at his teaching. (NLT) 

Author John Eldridge in his book, "Beautiful Outlaw"  talks about the event of clearing the temple and how Jesus is fiercely intentional in his life.  It is hard to imagine a feeble, tender spoken Jesus being forceful enough to clear the temple.  He surely showed he was a force to be reckoned with on this day and not a quiet prophet speaking softly on the side of a hill.  

Why was Jesus so angry?  (den of thieves) Part of his anger was at the injustice of the system that had been put into place to take advantage of people.  You can't buy a sacrifice for the temple with regular Roman money so you would have to exchange your money for "Temple" money.  And of course the exchange rate was in the money changers favor and not the common persons favor.  

Part of his anger was that all of this money changing and animal sales was happening in the temple. (House of prayer)  The outer court of the temple was the only place non-Jewish people could worship God.  They couldn't gain access into the inner courts of the temple.  Money changing and animal markets are not the normal places of prayer.   

How will you clear some space and some time to worship the Lord through prayer this week?  What is some of the noise you might need to reduce or turn off completely? Sometimes we need a change of place and a change of place to have ears to hear what the Spirit says!  

Where, then, is Boasting?

In Romans 3, Paul makes his case that we are redeemed by the grace of God on the basis of our faith in Jesus' atoning act of the cross/resurrection.  We are not redeemed because of who we are or because of the good works that we do, but rather because we trust in the work of Jesus.

This was a major shift of thinking who God was and what religion was all about for the audience of Paul's letter.  Whether they were Jews who believed it was their family heritage and their following the Law that would atone for their sins or they were Gentiles who worshiped god's who demanded acts of service and gifts of obedience to be appeased.  And for many people today we are still trying to please a God with our church attendance or by being a good enough person that God will not condemn us.

But when we believe we had a part in our redemption besides receiving and trusting we will most likely boast about our goodness.  Paul writes when we realize it is all about the work of God we have no reason to boast and no grounds to boast about ourselves, but only boast in the amazing grace of God.

Money is the root of all kinds of evil.

Rebellion is the root of all kinds of evil.

Pride is the root of all kinds of evil.

- Pride keeps us from asking God or others for help
- Pride keeps us from trusting in Christ completely with our lives
- Pride keeps us from having tough conversations with friends/family which would deepen relationships
- Pride keeps us focused on our own little world instead of seeing the world like God
- Pride keeps us from being empowered by the Holy Spirit because we believe we are good enough
- Pride keeps us from loving others as Christ loves others
- Pride undermines the work of God
- Pride keeps us from saying I was wrong
- Pride keeps us form saying I am sorry
- Pride keeps us boasting in our own goodness instead of God's goodness

What power have you given the enemy in your life because of pride?

Do you boast in God to your friends and family or give yourself all the credit?

Romans 1

Paul in the first chapter of Romans has given us a history of sin in the human race.  Why it came to be and how it has increased. Then he began to describe some of the sinful behavior of people.  He deals with idol worship, homosexuality, and a long list of other sins people have committed against God and then in verse 30 we can read (Romans 1:30)  They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents.

All these actions that we weigh out as really bad sins committed by really wicked people and we get to feeling pretty good about ourselves, then Paul adds "disobey their parents."  It seems a little or a lot out of place.  It doesn't seem to fit in Paul's list of sins, "Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.  They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful."

  

Maybe Paul is trying to remind us of God's understanding that sin is despised by God in all forms.  Sin separates us from God whether it is idol worship, homosexuality or disobeying our parents.  

Maybe Paul is reminding us that all sin starts somewhere in the hearts of people and manifest itself in many different ways.  The heart of much of the sin in our lives is the issue of pride which does not allow us to be submissive to our parents or other authorities in our lives.  

Maybe Paul is making sure we all realize we need a redeemer!  No matter how large you think your sin is or how seemingly good of a person you think you are, you need a redeemer.  We all do! 

Thanks be to God through faith in Jesus Christ, we can be redeemed. 

Open Doors

In 2 Corinthians 2:12 Paul talks about God opening the door for him to go to Troas.  I believe that simple statement is amazingly helpful for us to learn about the leading of the Holy Spirit.  There are times in our lives when God will open doors for us and we need to be ready to walk through the doors that God opens. A journey with God implies movement.  Yes, there is a time to wait and seek the Lord, but for many of us that becomes our normal mode in the journey and so we don't get anywhere.  I am still waiting for the Lord to open the door as I sit at home and watch my life go by.    If we want to be lead by the Holy Spirit we have to pray that he would open doors for us.  Only through prayer can we expect God to open doors.

Paul experienced closed doors in his journey.   He experience persecution when he walked through a door that he was lead to go through but he didn't allow that to stop his journey.  He was beat, whipped, stoned, imprisoned and more as he went through the doors God opened for him.  But he didn't quit moving forward and he didn't quit looking for open doors.  In 2 Corinthians 2:13 we see that even though God opened the door for Paul at Troas, Paul did not feel at peace there because he didn't find Titus.  Sometimes as we journey through the open doors we find that everything is not right and God will not allow us to be at peace. We must seek the wisdom of God to be able to know what God wants us to do in each situation.

Paul ultimately praises God in verse 14  - But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal processions in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. Paul realized that when God opens a door it was not about Paul, but rather about the Kingdom of God.  Paul realized the God opened doors to allow His followers to spread the fragrance of Christ to the world.

I hate the feeling I get when I realize I missed an opportunity.  God will open a door and I missed it and didn't realize it until it is too late.  It is my desire to learn to better follow the Spirit's leading in my life and see the opportunities as they come.  It is my desire to have the courage to walk through the doors God opens and allow His Spirit to give me the words and the actions to be the aroma of Christ to the world.

Nothing Can Ever Separate

Romans 8:38  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. (New Living Translation) 

A song we sing at Living Faith Church is One Thing Remains - which simply reminds us that God's love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me.  I recently had a conversation with a friend who wondered if we set people up to believe God's love would not run out for them.  Does this concept keep people from accepting Christ in their window of opportunity?  Does it give them false hope for eternity even when they don't have a relationship with Christ?  

My answer was that songs like One Thing Remains reminds us as followers of Jesus that we can be confident in God's love for us.  On God's side of our relationship we can be confident that God will always keep His part of the covenant and He will always love us.  Even if we are facing demons, worries, trial, or the powers of all hell coming against us, we need to remember God still loves us.  

In the same way I don't believe that our love for God is consistent.  We can be led astray or we can decide to turn our backs on the love of God.  As we all know from relationships it take two individuals to have a relationship.  I can love someone very well but if they chose not to love me back the relationship is strained.  This is how many marriages are today.  One person loves and their partner is not fully committed to the relationship.  The one person cannot create a loving relationship.  Just because God's love is amazing doesn't mean we will receive it, have a relationship with God and keep a relationship with God.  Either way in the end all that will remain is the love of God.  

Seeking God's Blessings

Well, another year has passed and we have started a new year.  2014 - wow, seems like only a few years ago we were all concerned about the Y2K - 2000 year coming and now we are 14 years later.  Time does seem to keep right on moving.  "I close my eyes, only for a moment and the moments gone.... dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind."  (Kansas, Dust In the Wind)  It seems so easy for life to just keep passing us by, moment by moment, day by day, year by year our lives seem to pass us by and we seem so unable to make changes or make a difference.  We simply feel like dust in the wind at times.
But... God reminds me of a couple things this time of year when I get to lamenting the passing of time.
1. January is a great time to seek God's blessing for the coming year.  Spend a day, evening, early morning, or lunch hour or two this month to simply seek God and His blessing on your life, your family and your ministry this next year.  One of the best things we can do is to spend some time on a prayer retreat and just get away to seek God.  What we need more than a diet plan, exercise plan or any other resolution is to seek God's blessing.  If Jesus could bless a kids sack lunch and multiply it to feed 5,000 people; God can surely bless your life and multiply all your efforts this year for the Kingdom and make a difference.
2. January is a great time to remember how valuable you are to God and the Kingdom team.  We tend to be experts on pointing out our own failures and problems - this tends to lead to feeling pretty bad about ourselves.  God has the ability to see us as our potential selves and if we ask, just might give us a glimpse of that vision.  God sees you as a part of the Body of Christ.  The church is better with you if you are willing to let God use your natural gifts and your spiritual gifts to help the Body of Christ impact the world around you.  Remember also that you are doing more good than you believe you are by the power of God's Spirit that lives in you.
3. January is a great time to make the most of every opportunity.  One of God's challenges to me this January is to limit my time killer activities and replace them with reading/writing/being more productive for the Kingdom.  Nothing wrong with some time wasting activities, but what if you use some of that time to encourage a friend, write a novel, or whatever God calls you to do in 2014!
You are not merely dust in the wind - you are a valuable part of God's Kingdom team!  Seek God's incredible blessings for 2014!