IT'S NOT YOU...IT'S ME

Imagine if you will if I told my wife that I didn't love her.  If I just woke up one day and looked at her and told her "baby, I don't love you anymore.  I know were married so I will stay with you like I said I would, but I really don't love you anymore, I'm just with you because I said I would stay with you until one of us kicked the bucket.  So for the rest of our lives I will be with you and hold you and provide for you, but I just don't love you."  More than likely those words would devastate her.  Even though I promised to go ahead and go through the motions of marriage the fact that I did not love her would completely make everything that I did feel cheap and insincere.  Fortunately I do love my wife.  Yet all too often this is how we are told to live out our Christian lives.  We are constantly having our arms twisted and being swindled into doing something "for God" that we really don't want to do.  As long as we can hold up the happy Christian mask then everything seems to be a-ok.  We really don't love what we are doing, but we will do it anyway because we think that is what we are supposed to do to make God happy.  If we don't do what everyone else thinks that we are supposed to be doing then we are told that we are lukewarm or being disobedient to God.  The bible presents us with a different approach to serving God, and that approach is love.   1 Timothy 1:5 NASB But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.  So many Christians get caught up in going through the motions that they begin to lose love.  Everything is just about doing doing doing, gotta do this and gotta do that to keep the church running smooth when in reality they are overwhelmed overburdened and have no love.  The message that Christ gave to the church at Ephesus in the bible was this  Revelation 2:3-4 NASB and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary. (4) 'But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.  The church at Ephesus was effective in its programs and at exposing false teachers, but somehow that lost their love.  They got to caught up in the motions that they lost love.  God wants us to love Him from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith that are all built on Jesus Christ and what He did for us.  Christ lives inside of us and wants to express His love through us.  Whatever you do, do it with true love, with sincerity and from the heart.  Everything done outside of a pure love for God is just a dead work and a waste of your time and your energy.

COULD YOU REWIND THAT PLEASE

I am quite sure that we could all use a rewind button. We can all probably think of things that we would do different if we had the power to rewind our lives and have a second chance at something. Fortunately and unfortunately we do not have this power. There is no telling how different we would make our lives. The possibilities of what could have been if we would have done just one thing different in our lives are endless. We could sit and imagine how much happier we would be if we had done such and such different. While we could sit and imagine that we would be happier if our circumstances were different there is no guarantee that anything in our lives would be any better if we could redo certain events. As I mature in Christ I begin to realize just how amazing God’s divine guidance really is. God’s care for our lives goes beyond anything we could ever imagine. All the fine details of our lives are being cared for by God almighty Himself. While it may seem like we have messed everything up beyond repair, God specializes in fixing the broken pieces of our lives. In fact God’s specialty is in making things new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB (17) Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. We can see from scripture that when we place our lives in Christ we become brand new. God completely does away with everything that happened outside of Christ and makes us brand new in His Son Jesus Christ. While the world considers us to be the same old person, God knows that we are actually brand new. We may not have a rewind button for this world, but we can rest easy knowing that God does not count our mistakes against us. Hebrews 10:17 NASB "AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE." We do not need a rewind button with God. He has paid for our sins with His blood and He now remembers them NO MORE!!! Too many of us are hiding from God because we are burdened with guilt for the things that we have done wrong. In Christ we are brand new and the sins that once put up a wall between us and God are now done away with and God never brings them up again. There is no need for us to be burdened with guilt. In Christ we are made brand NEW.

BE WHO YOU ARE

Some of us may know what it is like to have a job that you just absolutely HATE!!!  When you have a job that you hate it seems to affect every other part of your life.  Everyday that you have to go to your job seems to be another unfulfilled day in your life.  It feels as though your trapped and your going to waste your life stuck in a dead end job.  You look around and see everybody else doing jobs that look like it just fits who they are.  Everybody else looks like they have a job that they love and you just can't seem to figure out why you can't have a job that you love also.  You feel as though you are not doing what you were wired to do.  Many people in the world have these feelings about their jobs, but there are also those in church who have these feelings also.  They feel as though they are doing something they really don't want to do.  There are people in the body of Christ who are being convinced that they need to do things that they were really never meant to do.  As the body of Christ we are all different and unique and God has made each and every one of us to fulfill a unique calling to who He wants us to be.  God wires us with desires that are His desires and puts in us a will to want to live a life that fulfills the desires He gives us.  When we act outside of the things that God has for us we are trying to do something that God never meant for us to do.  Many Christians get stuck in this trap where they allow other people to tell them what they are supposed to do, rather than fulfilling the desires that God has placed inside of them.  Consider what the bible says about this.  Philippians 2:13 ISV For it is God who is producing in you both the desire and the ability to do what pleases him.   God first puts in us a desire to do something for Him, and then enables us with the ability to do it.  Too often though we as Christians suppress these desires because we are told that we are supposed to be outside of our "comfort zones", and do things that we really have no desire too.  If God has not put the desire in your heart to do something then I would suggest not doing it.  Sometimes we jump into things that we have no buisness being involved in and instead of growing deeper in our walk with Christ, we become too busy with something we don't enjoy doing.  Matthew 7:7 ISV "Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened for you.   Seek God in all that you do and whatever desires that He places in your heart, live those out.  Glorify God by living out the desires that He places inside of you.

CAN I GIVE YOU A HAND

Very rarely do I ever have a day without encountering somebody who has a conflict with me.  It seems as though no matter what I do there is no way to please everybody.  As I mature in Christ I realize that it is okay if somebody doesn't like me for who I am.  It dosn't mean that I need to change anything about me to make them feel different towards me.  I encountered one gentleman who did not like me because I was too happy, he insisted that my happiness was fake.  I had no idea how to respond to the young man.  There would have been a time in my life when I would have thought to myself "am I really too happy?"  I'm sure you can probably think of somebody that you encounter on a daily basis who says that you are too      (insert your own word)      .  Let me assure you that whoever you are that is exactly who God designed you to be, and there is no need to change who you are to please anybody else.  There are people out there who are just absolutely miserable with their lives and want everybody else to be miserable with them.  Then there are some people who really love to get under your skin.  They spend their lives learning new ways at getting you mad and actually enjoy doing it.  The more angry they can get you to be the more they enjoy doing it.  No matter what type of people we encounter the bible states how we should treat everybody.   Galatians 6:9-10 NASB Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. (10) So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.  Notice the words "all people" in verse (10).  As Christians we have inside of us the life of Christ.  Our savior lives in us and is working through us His will.  We are reflections of Christ.  God is continually working in us His fruit.  The things that God wants in our lives He is continually working to produce in us.  So when God tells us to be good to all people it means what it says, and it can only happen through the strength that we have in Christ.  It does not matter what kind of people we encounter we are called to good to all of them.  Whether they are Christians, muslims, rich, poor, black or white, we are called to be good to all people.

TAKE A BREAK

Life here on earth can burn you out at times.  So many times we as humans give every effort that we have just to keep our lives from completely falling apart.  It may seem at times that the more effort that we put in to something the harder it gets.  It may feel like no matter how much you give it is never enough, between your boss and your family it may seem like everybody needs you to do something for them, and yet there never seems to be anybody there for you.  It saddens me to say that much of what goes on in the church today is not very different then what goes on in the world.  The world puts heavy burdens on us demanding from us nearly impossible goals, and many turn to the church because we hear about a savior named Jesus Christ that can save us freely and without works.  However as soon as we become saved it seems like we are now being told that we need to work work work for the Lord.  The demands from the church only add to our overwhelming burden from the world.  We hear the message that we are saved when we put our faith in Jesus Christ but for some reason in order to stay saved we are told that we need to dot all of the i's and cross all of the t's or God is displeased with us.  Is there something that changes from getting saved and being saved, do we become saved through fully putting all of our trust in Jesus Christ to save us and then when we become saved we need to work to stay saved.  Is that what God wants from us.  Consider this passage from the bible about what God wants from us.  Hebrews 4:9-11 NASB So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. (10) For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. (11) Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.  Contrary to what you hear from the pulpit today about living by the ten commandments and continually working to stay saved and please God, we are actually told to REST!!!  In the Old Testament God actually gave His chosen nation a commandment to take the seventh day of the week to rest.  God wanted them to do no ordinary worldly work, God wanted them to do His work and that was to rest in Him.  The sabbath commandment was a foreshadow of what God wanted to give His true chosen ones in Christ, and what God wanted to give us was rest.  I find it interesting that the writer of Hebrews warns us that we could fall if we are not in God's rest.  It is very easy to rely on our works to determine where we stand before God.  Our standing before God is always because of what Christ did for us not because of what we do.  We are simply told now to rest and the rest that we have in Christ is not just one day a week, it is part of our relationship with God for all eternity.  True faith in Christ is a continual trust in Christ that what He did was enough to save us and give us everlasting life.  True faith requires that the only effort we make is the effort to enter into God's rest.  Notice that in verse (11) we are told to be diligent to enter into rest.  Any other work outside of Christ that we rely on to please God is called a dead work.  Christ is enough.  Enjoy God's rest!!!

FORGIVENESS

The bible reveals to man God's unconditional plan of love expressed through His Son Jesus Christ.  God the Father freely gave to mankind a payment for sin through His Son.  God has revealed continually to mankind the He has unconditional promises.  God freely gives and He also freely forgives.  Every thing that we have in God we have because of Christ.  We are blessed by God through Christ, we praise God through Christ and we also have peace with God through Christ.  The work of Christ allows us to freely approach God.  As Christians Christ now lives inside of us through the ressurection, and Christ wants to live His life through us.  We as Christians have been given every blessing freely in Christ, and now God wants us to also feely give to others.  We are also called to freely forgive others.  Listen to what the apostle Paul writes.  Colossians 3:12-14 NASB (12) So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; (13) bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. (14) Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.  Notice in verse (13) Paul writes "forgiving each other...just as the Lord forgave you".  In Christ all of our sins are forgiven.  Through the shed blood of Christ we have forgiveness, it is the blood of Christ alone that brings forgiveness.  Just as all of my sins are freely forgiven through Christ, God wants me to do the same to my brothers and sisters.  There are deep hurts that we all have in our lives, some things that can only be dealt with through God's help.  Some hurts may take longer to work through than others.  We do have to realize that carrying unforgiveness will rob us of our lives.  Sometimes the wrongs that we have experienced by others are all we think about, we keep replaying that one act over and over and over and over, not realizing how much of our lives we are giving away.  The longer we carry unforgiveness the more of our life we give away.  Christ wants you to lighten your load, He wants you to let the hurts go so that you can live your life in Him and He can live His life through you.       

Finding the Will of God

Too many times Christians walk around without purpose.  The getting saved part was easy enough but now it seems like we have to go at it and really prove ourselves.  Many times we join every group in our church and sign up to help everywhere we "see a need".  By running around frantically we think we are doing God's work, and granted there are those in the church who are called to be where they are at, doing exactly what they are doing; but many of us are just doing stuff in an effort to prove we can be the top Christian.  We go to work to what the church calls our "worldly jobs" and then the real work is supposedly supposed to be inside the church.  In an effort to produce the idea that we are close to God we keep up the works related mentallity that in order to stay saved we need to stay busy.  While on the outside we may look like we have it all together by being on the church softball team, and a sunday school teacher, and in the choir, oh and don't forget being the church janitor, inside we are crying out to know God's will.  The bible has many answers to many of the problems that we face as a church today.  God's will for our lives is summed up in three verses, thats right three very short verses.  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NASB  (16)  Rejoice always;  (17)  pray without ceasing;  (18)  in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.  God's will in scripture seems too simple for us; rejoice, pray and give thanks, that can't be right, where is the part about being the missionary to Estonia, or tithing all of the time, am I missing something here.  You can start at verse (12) of the chapter and learn a little more about Christian conduct, but these three scriptures wrap up the will of God very nicely.  No matter what happens God wants our focus always on the work of Christ.  It is only when our entire life is centered on the finished work of Christ on the cross and the New life that He lives inside of us through the ressurection that we can truly live God's will.  Understanding that we are to look through our circumstances with the lens of faith will lead us in the will of God.  Even when we think things look bad, we must simply rejoice, pray and give thanks because we know that whatever God is bringing us through is always for our good and the for the Glory of His son.