Focus and Run

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Hebrews 12:1-2 (NLT)

What slows you down? Seriously. Is it a co-worker that just doesn’t work fast enough? Is it a family member that maybe cannot keep up? Or are there things in your life that if you let them go, you’d be able to run?

You know, things like intentional sin. At this point a lot of us check the box and say “Nope, I don’t do that.” But, maybe that’s not true. I don’t think I have intentional sin in my life either but every time I do something that I have felt convicted not to do, that’s intentional sin.

On the outside it can look really innocent. And all of our stuff looks different. What I am being convicted of is very different than what you are being convicted of. And I am going to make a bold statement; each and every one of us is being convicted about something.

Maybe the Holy Spirit is whispering that you spend too much time on social media or watching TV. Maybe he’s whispering about your diet or health. He could be talking about the worry you carry around or the need to be in control. He may be asking you to be kind to others and less critical. The list could go on and on.

God is talking to us all the time. He wants us to strip off, let go, drop the things that are keeping us from a deeper walk with him. At first glance, these things may not seem like such a big deal but he knows our hearts. He knows what trips us up. And he knows that if we would just let it go, we’d be able to run like the wind.

How do we go about doing this? Keep our eyes on Jesus. We can’t change or be changed by looking at the very thing that snares us. We have to look at Jesus. When we focus on him, suddenly our perspective changes and there is a clarity.

So focus. Focus on Jesus and keep your eyes glued to him. When you look back at your life, you’ll see how he changed you from the inside out.

Live A Questionable Life

And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.  But do this in a gentle and respectful way. 1 Peter 3:15-16 (NLT)

This Bible text is interesting. “If someone asks you about your hope as a believer.” When was the last time that happened to you? I’m not talking about when we go up to people and try to tell them that we believe in Jesus. I’m talking about when someone comes up and because of the life we live asks us sincerely, why are we different.

You know why I don’t think people ask? Because we, as Christians, don’t look and act differently than everyone else around us. We don’t stand out.

We buy similar houses.
We do our jobs the same way everyone else does.
We drive similar cars and do the same things as all the other people.
We donate to charities and serve in the community the same way as folks who don’t believe in Jesus.

I’m not saying there is anything wrong with these things but I do think we are called to be different. Not separate, different. We are supposed to be part of the world we live in but when people look at our lives, there is supposed to be something that stands out.

Something that would make them ask questions about what motivates us.

The early church did weird things for their day. They fed strangers, helped people they didn’t know, they shared their resources with others. This made other people ask “What is it with those people?” And when folks asked, they could tell them about Jesus. And more and more people learned of Jesus’ love.

Today, let’s live our lives differently. Let’s live lives that are questionable so then we can (gently and respectfully) tell others about who motivates us to be different..

Praying Small

And all of this, all of these are the mere edges of His capabilities.
        We are privy to only a whisper of His power.
        Who then dares to claim understanding of His thunderous might? Job 26:14 (VOICE)

Not too long ago I spent an evening in the Emergency Room which led to a stint in the Intensive Care Unit. I was then moved to a hospital room and finally, discharge. When I left, I received instructions to follow up with a specialist. I did. During that visit she said, “This could be as easy as a quick procedure and the problem will be gone but I won’t know until we do more tests.”

So, I went home and started praying for the “quick fix procedure.” As I prayed (and asked other people to pray), I realized I was being short-sighted. Why was I praying this little, tiny prayer when God could do so much more? Why was I limiting the God of the Universe like that? What would make me pray so small?

As I pondered this, I realize that I (we) do this all the time. We pray small. We limit God with our human size thinking. Really, no one can actually limit God but we minimize who he is. We minimize his power and his answers by only looking for him in small ways.

God is so much bigger than we can think. He is so much more powerful than we can imagine.

So, I started praying for complete healing. And there it was, maybe this was the reason we don’t pray big. Maybe we pray small because we are afraid God won’t come through in a big way. What if he doesn’t answer our big, audacious prayers? Does that make him less capable; less caring? Nope. It just means that is not the way he decided to answer.

He didn’t answer my prayer for complete healing. There is more to this journey. But I’m OK with the answer. I’m OK with it because I know, and the Bible says, that there is nothing God won’t do for my good. There is no place he won’t go to save me. Sure, I don’t like this journey so much but I do trust the God that is leading. And because of that, I am going to pray really, big audacious prayers from now on! No little, wimpy prayers for me. I’m claiming the power that I don’t really understand. Nothing is impossible with God.

What's Your Favorite Fruit?

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

The fruit that the Holy Spirit grows in our lives is:

love
joy
peace
patience
kindness
goodness
faithfulness
gentleness and
self-control

Which three of these would you like to see more of in your life?
Why?

How do these become more evident in your life?

Hint: Relationship

A Minute In It - What Are You Hiding From?

A minute in God’s Word will change your life. Take a moment to read the texts below and then ponder the questions at the bottom of the post.

11 Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”

13 “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”

14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”

15 “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”

16 The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.” Judges 6:11-16 (NLT)

Where was Gideon when the angel found him?
What was he doing?
What was he hiding from?
What did the angel call Gideon?
What did the Lord tell Gideon to do? What was he supposed to go with?
What was Gideon’s response?
What was God’s reply?
What in your life are you not doing that you are supposed to be doing?
What would be God’s reply to you?

Just For One

Two shepherds were getting ready to bed down for the night. As per their usual routine, they started counting the sheep.

Shepherd 1 (S1): 97, 98, 99….uh oh
Shepherd 2 (S2): What?
S1: One’s missing
S2: Are you kidding? I bet it’s that same sheep that is always exploring new fields. I’ll go look for it.
S1: Why?:That sheep causes trouble. Just let it go.
S2: No. I bet it wandered off not realizing it was getting too far from me. It is somewhere out there alone in the darkness. I am sure it is not even aware of the dangers all around. And besides, I love the little fella!
S1: How are you going to find it?
S2: I’m going to go out to the last place I saw it and call it. Maybe, when it hears my voice it will move closer to me so I can save it. And when I find it, I’m going to hug it and kiss it and carry it home.
Extrapolation from Luke 15:3-7

You know, Jesus did this. He didn’t hang on the cross for the masses. He hung on the cross for just one. That one was you. That one is me. He hung there in hopes that when we wandered off to the dark places and we are lost, we will remember. We will remember his voice, we will remember how much we are loved and we will move closer to him. To Jesus, each one is important. Each one is dearly loved.

No Limits

28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’

31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’” Luke 15:28-32 (NLT)

In the story of the prodigal son, the son goes off on an adventure to basically please himself. He does whatever he wants, even things he knows are not in his best interest, until one day he wakes up and realizes he has nothing. He reaches rock bottom. At that point, he decides he needs to go home.

When he arrives, his father runs to him and embraces him and welcomes him home. He is restored as a son and the celebrations begins.

His older brother however, is not happy. He stays away from the celebration not willing to go in and embrace his returned brother. Why? He feels that all his years of service should have amounted to some sort of reward. He complained because he didn’t feel his commitment was recognized. And why in the world would the father welcome in the person who did all of those wrong things?

The sad thing is we often behave in this same way. We see ourselves as good Christians and we judge whoever wants to come in. Do they measure up? Have they behaved in a way that fits our standard? What about me? These are the questions we ask (even if we wouldn’t admit it.)

As Christ-followers, these are never question we should ask. Right? Shouldn’t we be standing out front of the celebration yelling “Come on in! You are welcome and loved! We want to get to know you!”

The really neat thing about this story is that the father says “All that I have is yours.” Jesus is saying that to us too. But unlike the limited inheritance of the father in the story, there is no limit to what Jesus has to share. There is plenty to go around. We can welcome in every single person that ever lived and our inheritance as children of God will never run out.

So get out there. Invite people in. Love on them like there is no limit. Because there isn’t.

"God-Normal"

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
    “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so my ways are higher than your ways
    and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

When someone says to you “Is that normal?” my response is almost always “Whatever that is!” Each of us has our own normal. My normal may look super chaotic to some and their normal may not be something I would embrace.

What does that mean? Normal. The definition is “conforming to a standard, usual, typical or expected.” And that is where God is not normal. He never conforms and he never does anything in a typical or expected way.

Recently, I’d been praying for something. I wasn’t sure what it would look like when God answered and honestly, I had no pre-conceived notion of how God would answer. And then he did. A week or two passed and I got a call. Someone was asking to meet. I said yes because when you get a random call out of the blue, you have to go see if it’s God calling.

I attended the meeting and sure enough, it was God calling!

The next day I was talking to God about it and it was then I realized he’d answered my prayer. Want to hear something funny? He answered it totally outside of anything I would have thought. He showed up as only he could. The way all the pieces fit together, the story that went along with the meeting and the prayer I had been praying, only God could orchestrate that.

When God shows up in my life I have two reactions. I want to dance around the room in celebration and then I want to drop to my knees and worship (all at the same time.) You see, there is no normal for God. He doesn’t do anything the way we expect and even if we don’t have any expectations, what he does is so outside the realm of what we’d ever imagine! And in my experience, he doesn’t do the same thing twice. Wrap your mind around that!

I don’t know about you but I’ll take God’s “normal” any day of the week. It’s so much more fun to follow a God that isn’t standard, usual or typical. Don’t you think?