Mirror of God

In my prayer time today God gave me a fresh sight of what He means by us being salt and light. I have used the analogy before that we are like the moon, but wasn't able to personalize it enough. I see us better now as mirrors. There are 2 things that have to happen for a mirror to be used properly. First, it needs to be at the right angle to reflect the light or image. If I am living my life at my own pace, at my own whims and according to my own desires, the angle of that mirror is off. I am not reflecting God to this world but a hideous distortion of Him and myself. So my first issue is to get the mirror off of myself and angle it or point it towards God. The second issue to deal with is the reflectivity of the mirror. In other words, how clean and clear is the glass so that the image or light being portrayed is clear and perceivable. Have I let the world come up and dirty up the glass? Have I myself begun to not keep it up. We are told to work out our salvation with fear and trembling in Philippians 2. I see keeping this mirror clean as one of those items we need to work at. Again, with the mirror not clean, as with the bad angle, what is seen is distorted and confusing. Is that not a picture of this world today? Do they not have a distorted and confused view of the Christian community as a whole? Do they not then pass that on to their interpretation of God? Brothers and sisters, what are we reflecting in our lives and claiming "it's Jesus!"????????

Foe or friend

In my previous post I talked about being a friend of God and what that means in relation to heaven admittance. I now address the "foe" portion. Many people ask the question "If God is so loving, how can he send a person to hell" This is a question that is so often asked but I'm sad to say it isn't always well answered by many. The statement is flawed in many ways, let me address a few. Number one, God doesn't send a person to hell. Here's the deal, no matter what anyone believes (belief doesn't change an absolute - i.e. - if I jump off a building believing I will fly, I still splat on the ground) we have two choices for our eternal resting place. One being spending it with our creator, friend and most of all LORD. The second is in hell with our tempter, destroyer and lord. We spend our time in eternity with who we chose to follow in this life. If we choose to follow satan then we get to be with him, it's that simple. You say though, "I didn't choose satan." You didn't? Sure you did, if you didn't choose God, you chose satan. "Well that's narrow minded", you say. Is it? It may be but it's true. There are many many roads to take to get to satan, but only one to get to God. "See, you're being narrow minded again" Am I? If I said "To get to the south pole from Florida you have to go south" you would agree right? Right. You narrow minded person!!! I don't want to go south, not in any way, I want to go east and east alone. "You can't" you say. That's what you think! I think I can get there going east. "But you can't!" Yes I can. "How can you say that?" I feel like it's the way for me, you can go south if that works for you but I am going east. (See how stupid this sounds?) Think of it in a spiritual sense........................how many ways are there to heaven?

Friend or foe

When I get to heaven, my "admittance" to the glorious place of tales, of dreams and of truth won't be because I was a good person. It won't be because I said a prayer, or that I went to church and actually enjoyed it too. It won't be because I had a favorite bible verse or talked about God to other people. While all those things are evidences of the "ticket" to get admitted, they are not the ticket at all. My "ticket" to heaven is Him (Jesus) knowing me personally and I, Him. See, when I get to heavens gates and stand there before the Father, my best friends (Jesus) will say "Father, he's ours, come on in Joe" If he doesn't know me, why should I be let in, if some random person comes to your front door you don't let them in, you will turn them away. But if you knew them (say a long time friend or family member) you would immediately identify with them and let them in. Think of it this way, if you didn't think enough of God to pursue Him for a few short years on this earth, why would you want to spend eternity with Him doing the things you avoided for years upon years? You never wanted to read the bible, in heaven that same word is proclaimed all day every day. You disliked church for the most part, in heaven it's 24/7 ultra church. You didn't like most Christians, in fact the ones who were all into the bible and God you thought were fanatics, heaven will be loaded with fanatics (mediocrity doesn't exist in heaven) If you are sitting there reading this and say you are fine, you don't have to be some fanatic person to get into heaven I ask you this: What does it take to get into heaven then?

Relationship with God façade…don't you think he knows?

This is something that is so crazy that really hit me a few months back.....How much do we live our lives focused on trying to keep up our appearances with others? Too much most likely. I ask another question, how much do we live our relationship with God that way? We try to keep up appearances with Him. We try to trick Him into thinking that we are ok with Him, that we are so close and so blessed and so....you know the drill. Why do we do that? How stupid is it for us to try to front with the Creator of our lives and knower of our every thought and desire?

God and His grace

It's been a while since I posted here. The reason is, I had back surgery and have been playing catch up. I went to a place called Laser Spine Institute and had the work done. The staff were amazing and the whole experience was just awesome. As I sat in the pre-op room and was speaking with my surgeon he mentioned changing the procedure that was originally planned and what was so cool was that I had perfect peace when he was finished explaining the new procedure. I thank my family, friends and brothers and sisters unknown or unnamed for their prayers, God answered them in front of my eyes with the surgery change. I am convinced that if I had gotten the previously planned on surgery I would be in horrible pain still and would be going back. Over the past week I have felt some pains come back though, it sent me into some despair and depression that my back was going to return to normal. I wasn't praying much, more of just complaining. I had a friend call me this past Sunday evening and check on me and my post surgery status. I told him that I was a bit down and had some pains back. He then proceeded to tell me that it was completely normal because my nerves had been impacted and compressed for so long they have alot of damage that has to heal. I felt so much peace come over me from that. God in His grace and mercy chose to give that to me. I most assuredly didn't deserve it (even on our best day we don't deserve His grace and mercy) but He gave it. I will never understand why He does what He does, but I am thankful. God, I thank You for Your fully unmerited favor. I love You!

To seek and save the lost

Over the past week I have been challenged on my mindset on the lost (to be more specific, the people that are following satan to hell) I began to pray for my heart to be broken for them, for my eyes to see them as Jesus does. In those prayers and thoughts I really became frustrated with myself and the church as a whole. Brothers and sisters, we have failed. We (as His church) have taken the call of God to reach this world for Jesus and done very little with it. You may say, "you're wrong! we have missionaries, we have churches galore, etc etc" I say, "yes, and your neighbors are going to hell" That may be harsh, but that's how I deal with myself. Isn't it time we got our focus and our purpose back? Isn't it time we finally said that satan has enough?!?! Do you agree? As a church, we have failed this nation, we have given the role of changing lives over to legislation and court rulings. NO! It is OUR job! We are the world changers, not politicians. There never has been and never will be a politician that changes this world to what God intended. I ask brothers and sisters, check your heart today, ask God to break it for the lost. His heart is broken, aren't we to have the same heart that is in Christ Jesus?

To live for Christ or to die for Christ....

We all remember the shootings in Columbine, they were eerie and sad. For those of us that love Jesus we were even more affected. We remember that there was a key statement that permeated the whole event, it was a question asked by the shooter. "Do you believe in God?" In this case, there was an opportunity to die for Christ. What an honor to die for our precious Lord! But I ask of us all, would you die for Him? Most people who have a decent relationship with Jesus would say "YES!" and I believe them too. I now ask this question, would you live for Jesus? All those who said "YES!" still say the same thing, but do they know what that means? Living for Jesus means that all of my wants and desires are last, His are now first. I know, that is cliche, so let me put it this way. How many of you lower the volume on your stereo that is blasting a teaching or some worship when you get to a stop light? I mean, you don't want people who just don't understand it to hear right? I ask these questions of myself also. When you are talking to someone at work about your weekend, will you say church and friends and other things in a normal tone, but when you say bible or Jesus or God or Spirit you look to your side and say it with a hushed tone? What about when someone makes a statement that is against God or Jesus or christians, and they want you to defend it do you just blush and brush it off? What if a bum comes up to you asking for money with a really lame excuse as to why they are on hard times, do you give them money? Do you act really nice and buy them a meal? Do you share with them that there is a life of endless victory and peace? I am challenged by this, I fully believe that is is much harder to live for Christ than to die for Him. I challenge you today, live for Jesus, truly be that living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to the Lord. When you pray, ask for THY will to be done, not thy will. This is the day the Lord has made, Lord, what do you want me to do with it?

Abortion is murder..........

On my way home today, I drove by three people peacefully holding signs up that said "choice is murder" and "when a mother chooses abortion, she kills her child" and "abortion: america's holocaust". Signs with messages I fully agree with, I can think of many other things that are true pertaining to abortion. I really have no problem with that raw truth. I began to think about what they were doing though. In many ways I don't really see what they are trying to accomplish. Because stating raw fact is only part of the solution. I am all about telling someone what the problem is, but there is no point in that if you aren't stating the solution to that problem. I bet if you were to take a poll of the women who have had abortions, you wouldn't have to go too far into it to find that they truly knew what they were doing. Abortion is a selfish and fearful thing, there is no doubt about that but if you cover it with rationalization you have the recipe for one of the most accepted, heinous and delusional crimes committed in this country, the murder of a truly innocent child that God ordained to be conceived before time began. But you say, "she was raped and conceived, how could you make her look at the product of such a horrible event" Are you telling me that committing murder so you don't want to possibly deal with a bad memory? Continue on, and see that there is a solution to the root problem. These poor women are being lured into a false solution to a "problem" and are so lost, confused and fearful. They don't need a sign, they need a Saviour. They need to know that if they have aborted a baby (or few) they don't have to hold that guilt or that pain anymore, there is forgiveness, there is peace to remove the pain and weight of that choice. The women who haven't committed that abortion yet, they don't have to go through with it. God WILL provide, He always does, we just don't look for it or trust Him enough to ask. There are always some who may say "well the baby would probably be better off" that may be so, but who are we to decide that?! God has a perfect plan for each of His creations. And it is humanism that says we have the right to choose when our last breath is. Friends, if I still draw breath, God has a purpose for every atom in my lungs. The same is true for that life inside the scared and confused mother. I can name many people who were used powerfully and mightily by our awesome God who were illegitimate or abandoned. They never would have been had they been murdered in the safest place God designed, the womb. There are people in my church that I know are here today because the mother chose to trust God outside the abortion clinic. Sure, it was an overwhelming situation, an unwanted or unplanned for pregnancy, but God will provide. Reliant K says it so simply "don't ever underestimate my Jesus"

To those who have or are considering an abortion and don't know this God, know this, He is here for you and cares for you and for that life. Turn to Him and ask Him to give you peace and provide your needs. Follow Him today and begin to listen for His voice by talking with Him in prayer and reading His letter to us, the Bible.

Prayer methods....

Many of us have heard of the "prayer method" of "A.C.T.S." (you start with Adoration, then Confession, then Thanksgiving, then Supplication) But in my prayer time this morning I started out praying with C first. Not sure why, my heart was heavy and I wanted to give it all up to Jesus. I guess you could call it the C.A.T.S. method. It made sense actually, so many times I can't really get my heart right to adore God in prayer until later. As soon as my heart opened up confessing sins to Him, I really desired to adore Him. I then thought of:
Isaiah 59:1-2
1 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened,
That it cannot save;
Nor His ear heavy,
That it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
And your sins have hidden His face from you,
So that He will not hear.

And this method became much more clear to me, maybe we should try the C.A.T.S. method, obviously this isn't the only way to pray, but it's a great way to guide you sometimes.

THY will be done?

On my ride home from work today I was thinking about how I pray. Something struck me as odd when I was praying about the hurricanes in reference to God's will. We all pray "but Lord, Your will be done" what are we praying there? In most cases, when we pray that phrase we aren't referring to God's permissive will, we are referring to His divine, unquestionable, "gonna be done" will. So what should we really be praying then? Has that phrase become cliche with us now? I think a better statement that we can truly benefit from is "Lord, help me to submit to Your will and trust Your will in this matter" I think that gets the heart of the matter across more clear and honest than to use the phrase "Your will be done" I think that is to be our attitude in our heart, but that attitude can't happen if we don't first trust it and submit to it....

the humanism in me, the humanism in you..

I had the opportunity to listen to a teaching my dad sent me by Paris Reidhead, he was a pastor and missionary in the mid-1900's. The message was titled "10 Shekels and a shirt" (You can find it here) The scripture he read from was in Judges. He spoke with passion about how humanism has crept into every aspect of our life as Christians. Simply put, humanism is that the end for man is happiness and we see God as a means in our life and not the glorious end. Too much of this world is in us today, but yet we don't see it. In our life we let things in (we even let them reign) that would make the early church cringe, something that would make Paul write another "letter-to-the-galatians" to you, but nothing changes. I don't think we realize how holy God really is. If we did, we wouldn't watch the tv we watch, we wouldn't watch the movies we watch, we wouldn't speed that 5-over, we wouldn't roll past the stop signs; but not only because we are afraid to sin, but because we owe God so much, that a life striving towards His holiness is the least amount of love I can show...think about this in your life, I am thinking about it in mine. But some may say, oh, your so legalistic, we live in grace grace GRACE! If you believe that you can continue to sin so that the grace abounds, HEAVEN FORBID! Your Saviour, your LORD, your REDEEMER deserves your love, attention and obedience, it can not and should not be an option in our life. He lived AND died for me, the least I can do is live for Him. There will be choices, yes, but the choice must be easy. Love God? Love me?

Dinner with the Poteaus...

Tonight my family had the privilege to have Seige and Dinette Poteau (Seige is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Port-au-prince, Haiti) over for dinner tonight. They are visiting for a week and will be returning to Haiti this Friday (God willing) It was such a blessing to see Seige again and talk with him. I had the blessing of going to the church a few months ago and teaching the leaders with Pastor Dave from Calvary Chapel Melbourne here in Florida. We got to talk about what God is doing in the church there and catch up on what God is doing in each others lives. It was the highlight of the day being with them. To close the night out, we all sat together on the couch and all of my boys wanted to pray for them before they left and went back to Haiti. What a blessed father I already am. They hugged Seige and Dinette and saw them off. May God bless them!

I hate politics

With political battles looming, one question I have had for a long time is this: Why do churches choose to save money by being a non-profit entity (ie - tax-free) and give up their free speech rights? Should a church/pastor choose to pay taxes and speak freely from the pulpit? or not pay taxes and limit sermons? I some times think that the prior is a better option. Why? Because a pastor should have the ability to freely call out a candidate or party or something political and call it what it is (evil or good) At other times I think that people miss the boat by focusing so hard on politics and not enough on a heart change (we all know you can't legislate morality) Your thoughts?