While Kim and I were on our way back from Nashville today I had a nice moment with God that I wanted to share with you. Kim was busy cooking up shirt orders with her vendor so I was just listening to the radio when "Alive Again" by Matt Maher came on. As Kim talked on the phone, I just drove and cried because of what God had done in me. This happens to me frequently while driving so I know other drivers think I must look pretty silly praising God and singing like I'm getting paid to do it. But I don't care.
Last Tuesday I wrote about the ups and the downs that we Christians experience. But what happens if we stay too long in the down period? Or worse, what if we turn our backs on God when we're in the down period? Before January of this year, I had allowed myself to reach an all new spiritual low. I had turned my back on God. I had turned so slowly, like the hands on a clock, that no one could see me turning. I had kept God in my rear-view mirror so that I could keep an eye on him to make myself feel better but I had definitely turned my back on Him. I was more or less spiritually dead and no one knew it.
In January of this year, Kim and I went away for a weekend (after a really big fight) to try to figure out what we were going to do. After a lot of soul searching and brutal honesty with each other I had to come to grip with the fact that the marriage problems we were having were because I wasn't where I needed to be with God. That weekend, God "shattered my darkness and washed away my blindness" so that now, I'm alive again.
I got so emotional today for two reasons. First, I was soooo happy that God "called and shouted and broke through my deafness" so that I'm alive again. Second, I was soooo sad that I let God down but more than that, that it took me so long to let Him make me alive again. I wasted so much time while taking so long to allow God to wake me up. This song is very dear to me because I can relate so well to being alive again and it always reminds me to "do what ever I have to to break through" to get into God's presence.
Have you ever had an experience like I had today? Where are you with God today, this very second? Can you go to bed every night knowing that everything you did during the day was witnessed by Jesus Himself and you have nothing to be ashamed of. If you did have something to be ashamed of, are you repenting? I hope so. If you haven't heard this song, you can visit the link above to listen.
God loves you and I do too!
Friday, December 9, 2011
Monday, December 5, 2011
Do you want to have a good day?
Do you want to have a good day today or maybe tomorrow? I don't think I've ever met anyone that would say "I don't want to have a good day tomorrow" and I'm sure you haven't either. OK, we've established that you would like to have a good day tomorrow but what can you do to either make sure that happens or at the very least, increase the likelihood that it happens?
Some people I know can't start their day until they have had a cup of coffee or their morning cigarette. Others I know can't start their day right until they have had breakfast. And there are still others that can't start their day without a chaotic morning filled with getting the kids fed and off to school. Do any of these things really get us off to a good day?
What is a good day to you?
I think that's an important question to answer before I give my advice. You should stop for a second and ponder what is a good day to you. What would make tomorrow a successful day or a happy day for you? Does it have anything to do with God? If things go your way tomorrow, what part does God play in it? Take your time, I'll wait.
At this point, if you are still on my blog, I will assume that God does play a role in you having a good day.
I fully believe that any good thing worth having is worth working for. I bet you've heard that before. I believe if you want to make good grades, you have to do homework. If want to keep your job, you have to go to work. If you have a garden and want good vegetables, you have to tend the garden. If you want a good day, you need to plan for it and you will need to do something to attain it.
My advice is very simple and probably quite predictable; I believe to have a good day tomorrow you should start it with a quiet time with God. For some, this is something you've never done and for others this is something you've known to do and don't. My good friend Jon Sweet gave some very good advice for those that don't know how to have a quiet time. He suggested that you simply make the very first thing you do when you wake up is to bow your knee and say the Lord's prayer. If you can't do this, I suggest you tune in some Christian music in your car and meditate on God while on your way to work or to take the kids to school.
How you choose to do it really doesn't matter, you just need to do it. It is so important to make an effort to spend time with God. Think about it, God is the most important thing in our lives and yet we probably sacrifice less for Him than anything. I dare you to spend some time with God in the morning. I promise it will make having a bad day a lot harder. Good luck!
God loves you and I do too!
Some people I know can't start their day until they have had a cup of coffee or their morning cigarette. Others I know can't start their day right until they have had breakfast. And there are still others that can't start their day without a chaotic morning filled with getting the kids fed and off to school. Do any of these things really get us off to a good day?
What is a good day to you?
I think that's an important question to answer before I give my advice. You should stop for a second and ponder what is a good day to you. What would make tomorrow a successful day or a happy day for you? Does it have anything to do with God? If things go your way tomorrow, what part does God play in it? Take your time, I'll wait.
At this point, if you are still on my blog, I will assume that God does play a role in you having a good day.
I fully believe that any good thing worth having is worth working for. I bet you've heard that before. I believe if you want to make good grades, you have to do homework. If want to keep your job, you have to go to work. If you have a garden and want good vegetables, you have to tend the garden. If you want a good day, you need to plan for it and you will need to do something to attain it.
My advice is very simple and probably quite predictable; I believe to have a good day tomorrow you should start it with a quiet time with God. For some, this is something you've never done and for others this is something you've known to do and don't. My good friend Jon Sweet gave some very good advice for those that don't know how to have a quiet time. He suggested that you simply make the very first thing you do when you wake up is to bow your knee and say the Lord's prayer. If you can't do this, I suggest you tune in some Christian music in your car and meditate on God while on your way to work or to take the kids to school.
How you choose to do it really doesn't matter, you just need to do it. It is so important to make an effort to spend time with God. Think about it, God is the most important thing in our lives and yet we probably sacrifice less for Him than anything. I dare you to spend some time with God in the morning. I promise it will make having a bad day a lot harder. Good luck!
God loves you and I do too!
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Needle in a Hay Stack Life
Kim's favorite band, Switchfoot, sings a song called "Needle in a hay stack life". As the title suggests, many of us are or have been leading a life where we are looking for something that is almost impossible to find. Are you? Am I? I can't answer for you but I can confidently answer a resounding NO for me. When I started this blog, I did it so I could share my faith and what's going on in my life at the moment. All of my posts have dealt with something that God had been dealing with me about. Today's is a little different. Today I want to share my blessings with you.
I would like to tell you that my "Needle in a hay stack life" ended when I got saved when I was 6 years old. Unfortunately for me it didn't. That was of no fault of anyone's but my own. Although I was saved, it was years before I really surrendered my life to Christ. I made bad decisions, really bad decisions along the way where I gave the devil strong holds in my life. Sound familiar to anyone? I would like to tell you that the best thing, besides Christ, that happened to me was a good decision I made on my own but I can't. I didn't decide to fall in love with Kim Blankenship, I had no choice. The instant that Kim and I spent time together I knew that she was the one that God intended me to be with and I was instantly in love with her. It was Kim that taught me how to love, how to love unconditionally, and what true Godly love is.
Needle in a hay stack life? Not me! I'm not searching for the impossible. I no longer have a God-shaped hole in my heart and I no longer have a Kim-shaped hole in my life. Has our relationship always been perfect? No. Will our relationship always be perfect? No. But the key for us is that when troubles come, we lean on God and we learn from them. We try to live our life by some simple advice. It's my job to make her happy, and it's her job to be happy when it's obvious that I'm trying to make her happy. That may be a good topic for a post right there!
A lot of people that I know that aren't content and are living that "Needle in a hay stack life" fail to be happy with what God has given them. They tend to focus on any negative aspect of what they have rather than all of the positive aspects. If they are saved, they already have found the needle. The problem is that they don't know how to use it along with the thread they have to sew and patch the holes in their life. Have you ever tried to sew a patch onto a hole without the needle? It would be futile. You must have the needle first. Christ is the answer, period. However, for real and practical living we need to know how to use him. Proverbs 3:5,6 tells us to "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all ways submit to him and he will make your path straight." You can't just put part of your trust in Him, you have to trust Him with "ALL" of your heart, not just part of it.
I want you to notice that He didn't tell us that we wouldn't have to travel the path and that the path wouldn't be hard sometimes. He just promised to make it straight.
I wish you all the happiness and blessings that God will allow you to receive.
God loves you and I do too!
I would like to tell you that my "Needle in a hay stack life" ended when I got saved when I was 6 years old. Unfortunately for me it didn't. That was of no fault of anyone's but my own. Although I was saved, it was years before I really surrendered my life to Christ. I made bad decisions, really bad decisions along the way where I gave the devil strong holds in my life. Sound familiar to anyone? I would like to tell you that the best thing, besides Christ, that happened to me was a good decision I made on my own but I can't. I didn't decide to fall in love with Kim Blankenship, I had no choice. The instant that Kim and I spent time together I knew that she was the one that God intended me to be with and I was instantly in love with her. It was Kim that taught me how to love, how to love unconditionally, and what true Godly love is.
Needle in a hay stack life? Not me! I'm not searching for the impossible. I no longer have a God-shaped hole in my heart and I no longer have a Kim-shaped hole in my life. Has our relationship always been perfect? No. Will our relationship always be perfect? No. But the key for us is that when troubles come, we lean on God and we learn from them. We try to live our life by some simple advice. It's my job to make her happy, and it's her job to be happy when it's obvious that I'm trying to make her happy. That may be a good topic for a post right there!
A lot of people that I know that aren't content and are living that "Needle in a hay stack life" fail to be happy with what God has given them. They tend to focus on any negative aspect of what they have rather than all of the positive aspects. If they are saved, they already have found the needle. The problem is that they don't know how to use it along with the thread they have to sew and patch the holes in their life. Have you ever tried to sew a patch onto a hole without the needle? It would be futile. You must have the needle first. Christ is the answer, period. However, for real and practical living we need to know how to use him. Proverbs 3:5,6 tells us to "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all ways submit to him and he will make your path straight." You can't just put part of your trust in Him, you have to trust Him with "ALL" of your heart, not just part of it.
I want you to notice that He didn't tell us that we wouldn't have to travel the path and that the path wouldn't be hard sometimes. He just promised to make it straight.
I wish you all the happiness and blessings that God will allow you to receive.
God loves you and I do too!
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Why do we try so hard to fit in when we were made to stand out?
I was listening to K-love today when I heard the DJ say that she heard a line in a movie that said "Why are you trying so hard to fit in when you were made to stand out?". In the movie, this was said to a girl that was a princess but didn't know it. It's obvious how this applies to our teenagers today. As adults, we tend to focus statements like this toward our teens because we don't want them to fall in with "the crowd". However, we adults are more than guilty of falling in with "the crowd" too.
How many times have you participated in a conversation that, when it was over, you just weren't proud. We give the devil so many tools and strong-holds to use against us that before we realize it, we are no where close to living the abundant life that Christ came to give us (John 10:10). Remember when your mom told you "if you don't have anything good to say about someone, don't say anything at all"? I do. There isn't much better advice than that but unfortunately, talking about people (gossip) has become so easy that we don't know we do it because we are fitting in. We adults have to be just as careful about wanting to fit in as our teens.
Peter said that we are a peculiar people (1 Pet 2:9). Webster defines peculiar as distinctive. To be distinctive is to stand out. If this is the case, why do we think it is so odd when a Tim Tebow gives thanks to the Lord on TV. Many of us are proud and think we would do the same think if we were given the opportunity, but don't we have the same opportunity every day? I find that most Christians enjoy talking about Jesus to each other but when they are around non-Christians or even luke warm Christians they tend to tone it down or stop talking about Jesus altogether. We can all come up with 10 good reasons why we don't witness to people. We can think of 10 good reasons why we don't tell someone that is hurting that God loves them. But isn't one reason to do it enough to overcome all the reasons not to? When we boil away all of our excuses as to why we aren't being a peculiar people, all that is left is fear. We are afraid to stand out, we are afraid of what people will think, we are afraid we won't know what to say....
The bottom line is that you can't mess up witnessing to someone until you first try it. Jesus said that if we are ashamed of him on earth, he will be ashamed of us (Luke 9:26). How awful it would be if after all of the sin that Jesus has forgiven us for, he is ashamed of us because we were ashamed of Him.
My challenge to you is, if you don't witness already, tell someone that you don't normally speak to about Jesus that He loves them. Be the peculiar people that he has called us to be and you will soon see what a positive impact that you can have on others.
God loves you and I do too!
How many times have you participated in a conversation that, when it was over, you just weren't proud. We give the devil so many tools and strong-holds to use against us that before we realize it, we are no where close to living the abundant life that Christ came to give us (John 10:10). Remember when your mom told you "if you don't have anything good to say about someone, don't say anything at all"? I do. There isn't much better advice than that but unfortunately, talking about people (gossip) has become so easy that we don't know we do it because we are fitting in. We adults have to be just as careful about wanting to fit in as our teens.
Peter said that we are a peculiar people (1 Pet 2:9). Webster defines peculiar as distinctive. To be distinctive is to stand out. If this is the case, why do we think it is so odd when a Tim Tebow gives thanks to the Lord on TV. Many of us are proud and think we would do the same think if we were given the opportunity, but don't we have the same opportunity every day? I find that most Christians enjoy talking about Jesus to each other but when they are around non-Christians or even luke warm Christians they tend to tone it down or stop talking about Jesus altogether. We can all come up with 10 good reasons why we don't witness to people. We can think of 10 good reasons why we don't tell someone that is hurting that God loves them. But isn't one reason to do it enough to overcome all the reasons not to? When we boil away all of our excuses as to why we aren't being a peculiar people, all that is left is fear. We are afraid to stand out, we are afraid of what people will think, we are afraid we won't know what to say....
The bottom line is that you can't mess up witnessing to someone until you first try it. Jesus said that if we are ashamed of him on earth, he will be ashamed of us (Luke 9:26). How awful it would be if after all of the sin that Jesus has forgiven us for, he is ashamed of us because we were ashamed of Him.
My challenge to you is, if you don't witness already, tell someone that you don't normally speak to about Jesus that He loves them. Be the peculiar people that he has called us to be and you will soon see what a positive impact that you can have on others.
God loves you and I do too!
Are you brave enough to be accountable?
I was talking to my dad tonight about my blog because he doesn't have a computer. I told him the main reason I do it is for personal accountability. I know that if I keep posting I must hold myself to a high standard (which is the smallest reason to hold myself to a higher standard). It really got me to thinking about how important it is to be strong enough to be able to admit our faults to a friend. Much to your surprise, your accountability partner probably should not be your spouse. The things that you need to be held accountable for may come across as hurtful to your spouse even though sin hasn't yet been produced. The bible says to confess our faults one to another (James 5:16). The purpose for this isn't for punishment, it's so we can be accountable.
Accountability helps keep temptation from growing into sin (James 1:14,15). Are you strong enough to admit your temptations to another? It's hard, I know, but the bible gives us specific instructions for a reason. Proverbs says "as iron sharpens iron, one man (woman) sharpens another (Prov 27:17). Being able to be open with a fellow Christian is important, in my opinion, to spiritual growth. We forget about the spiritual side of our faith and focus more on our deeds (John 4:24, James 2:14-26) but to get closer to our God, our Creator, we must have spiritual growth.
I challenge you this week to ask someone to be an your accountability partner and volunteer to be theirs. Being an accountability partner means listening without judging....good luck!
God loves you and I do too.
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