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!

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!