When Things Don’t Change
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In my 38 (almost 39)years on this Earth, I have seen so many things change. I have seen myself get older, my children transform before my eyes and become teens, and my career path change quite a few times. Change is inevitable.
The New Year has begun and for many it is a new start. It is a new opportunity to make some changes in our lives that maybe we didn’t have the gumption to do before. The types and quantity of resolutions are endless.
The problem is when things don’t change.
You’re still the same weight. Your marriage is still a mess. Your kids still hate your guts. Your finances are still a wreck. You still hate your job.
The blame game begins on the things that didn’t change. Despair and disappointment set in and you’re done.
The year comes to a close again, and you resolve to make “the next year”, the “year” everything changes, and the cycle continues on. The failure to see change continues.
The following reasons things don’t change sometimes are things that I have come to understand about myself and still walk through and wrestle with all the time. I don’t claim to have mastered them, but I believe they will help you.
1) We don’t see the change in the circumstances around us is because of our failure to see the change that needs to take place inside of us.
Many times things need to change inside of us in order for things to change before things can change in the outside world. We have attitudes, mindsets, and ways of thinking that need to change. Perhaps you are filled with pride or you lack mercy, or you lack character. If the way we think or see things doesn’t change, we would doom everything we want to accomplish. Left to our own devices, because of the sinful, fallen nature we have, we would mess it all up. We may see this as God torturing us or denying us what we want but this is His mercy on us that He doesn’t gives us what we want, when we want it. This is definitely a tough pill to swallow. No doubt.
2) We don’t see change because we are looking for something outside of Christ that can only be found in Him alone.
This one is huge. Many of the things we desire for ourselves are merely a substitute for something we can find in Christ alone. Whether it’s security, love, acceptance, or provision, God wants to fill all of these things in our lives. All too often we turn to our jobs, our spouses, our kids, or even doing good things to fill the longing of our hearts. The problem is that they never bring lasting joy to our lives. God is jealous for our hearts and He will not let anything bring true fulfillment outside of Him and what Jesus did on the cross.
I have no doubt that all of you wrestle with these things in varying degrees. There may some of you that this may be an eye-opener for you. My prayer for you (and me) is that we will have ears to hear, eyes to see, and teachable heart to allow God to reveal us those things we need to learn. That we would be able to look back on the previous year, and see how far God has brought us all.
The one thing I am grateful for that doesn’t change is how much Jesus loves you and me.
God bless your New Year
Kevin
The Day After Advent
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The Advent season seems to be more meaningful every year as God reveals more and more the wonder of what He did in coming to this fallen, corrupted, and doomed world. Becoming a man, lived a life of total obedience to the Father’s will in sinless perfection, and lived to be a perfect sacrifice to redeem this world. In paticular, He came and revealed Himself to me; a fallen, sinful, doomed soul and chose to save me despite the fact that by my actions I could merit no favor.
I can’t imagine the splendor of the heavenly hosts that the sheperds saw. The wonder of wise men who travelled from the East to a small town, to a stable where they would behold the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and pay homage. These things are beyond my minds eye can fathom.
I was just sitting here thinking: “What about the day after Advent?”
The angels are no longer lighting up the heavens, the sound of angel song ceases, and now all that the sheperds hear is the bleating of sheep.
The wise men begin their trip back home, but their thoughts travel back to a stable in Bethlehem and questions of: “Did we truly see the King of the Jews? Did we follow the right star? Why is a king lying in a manger?” begin to dance in their heads.
Did Advent come and open your heart and mind with wonder and fill your heart with hope? What about the day after Advent? Once you were feeling the joy of spending time with family and now you are saying goodbye and going back to “the same ole same old ”. Songs of His glorious birth are replaced by the honking of horns on your morning commute to work. The trees that held under its branches items things you really wanted, is now empty and your heart still yearns for something more.
The day after Advent is more important than the day of. This is the day that you have to truly experience the joy of His coming.
You will face the trials and tribulations of life. You will have to go to work. You will have to face the same people that you had a problem with. Life doesn’t stop because of Advent, it begins!
Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Jesus didn’t come to remove you from your life. He came that He might live His life in you and through you! His Advent gives us hope that tomorrow will be better than yesterday. Because He lives in you and me we can face tomorrow. His coming was not just into a manger, but because He came, He now dwells in the hearts of His people!
So this day forward, we are no longer lost, but we have been found. We no longer have to live our lives to appease an angry God, but His sacrifice covers and clothes us in His righteousness. We have more reason to celebrate Advent today than we did on Christmas so let us declare His greatness each and every day, knowing His Advent brought us eternal life!
Kevin
It’s All His
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Psalm 24
1 The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein
I’ve been meditating on this passage of scripture last night and this morning. If we don’t meditate on the scripture, we can lose a lot of meaning from God’s Word.
We say “Yeah, the Earth is the Lord’s. That’s kind of a given isn’t it”? Not really.
If we start looking at our lives in relation to the Gospel, we don’t live like the Earth is the Lord’s. If we are honest, we live like our lives our ours to choose to live how we want, we spend our money like it is ours and we can do what we want, and we pick scripture that we choose to follow and others we choose to “not listen to”.
That phrase “and the fullness thereof ” accentuates the fact that everything truly belongs to Him and Him alone. From the oxygen you breath, your family, to the things that you worship and give a greater place to than Him. It is all His!
Do we (includes me) act like our lives are truly His? Do our actions reflect a life submitted to Christ? I’m sure everyone can say there is something they are struggling to trust and give God control of. This is why we need His grace so terribly. Our need reflects our inadequacy. Our struggle for control reveals our powerlessness.
Jesus does allow us to experience failure, loss, hunger, frustration, poverty. It is not out of anger that God does this because has already paid the full penalty for our sins and transgressions. He took the consequenses for disobedience, the shame of our failures, and the punishment for our transgressions. What didn’t God do that allows me to go through these things? Why do we suffer? We suffer to bring Him glory, that in these weak, disobedient, wicked shells that will one day pass away, His glory can be made manifest. I am no longer being punished for my sin. I may be disciplined, but I am never rejected. We are His children, and the Father disciplines those He loves. I may go through difficult times but the Father will never leave or forsake us. EVER. We experience suffering because our hearts wander, we lack trust in Him, or we try to find our needs met outside of Christ.
Why do we struggle financially? It is because we do not trust God to provide so we strive, stress, and look for any other way under the sun to find security and sustenance. He will allow us to continue to struggle financially not as a punishment, but that we may through that suffering come to the understanding that He is our provider. Why do people struggle to find peace and turn to drugs and alcohol? It is because they do not find peace in the cross of Christ and do not allow God to bear the weight of our cares. God allows us to experience this lack of peace till we understand where we are to find true peace.
The Lord contends for our hearts. His Spirit works in our lives to make us aware of our need for Him, and reminds us that everything belongs to Him.
Kevin
The Power of a Wastebasket
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I order supplies for my department at work. This time when I made my order, I ordered new wastebaskets for everyone. The ones everyone had were so bad that the garbage bag in the wastebasket was holding the wastebasket together! We got the wastebaskets in today and as I passing them out and taking the old one out, everyone is talking about wastebaskets and you could sense an air of excitement and happiness as a result of getting the new wastebasket.
It seems like such a simple thing, and most of the people didn’t think about the fact that their wastebasket falling apart, but were so happy to have the new one which only helped to show the dilapidated shape of the ones they had. It also gave people some hope, because we have had quite a few people laid off in our department and seeing that the company is still investing in our area gave some people hope that there is a future for them.
It’s kinda like what the gospel does. God takes the old life that we have made a mess of, that is falling apart, and barely holding together, and seems useless, and replaces it with something so much greater, and new and gives us focus and purpose for our lives. We don’t even realize how out of control and a mess we are until we get a grasp of the gospel and realize how lost we truly were without Him.
We carry that power of hope within us by His Holy Spirit, and we have the opportunity to share that with others. If giving someone a wastebasket can bring some joy, imagine the joy of a person who hears the gospel and believes!
The power is yours, what will you do with it?
Kevin
Emptiness of Medicating Ourselves
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Lamentations 1:
18 “The LORD is in the right,
for I have rebelled against his word;
but hear, all you peoples,
and see my suffering;
my young women and my young men
have gone into captivity.
19“I called to my lovers,
but they deceived me;
my priests and elders
perished in the city,
while they sought food
to revive their strength.
20“Look, O LORD, for I am in distress;
my stomach churns;
my heart is wrung within me,
because I have been very rebellious.
In the street the sword bereaves;
in the house it is like death.
21“They heard my groaning,
yet there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble;
they are glad that you have done it.
You have brought the day you announced;
now let them be as I am.
Anytime we look for comfort, security, affirmation, peace, or joy aside from Christ, we will find ourselves sorely lacking and sorely disappointed.
Are you disappointed with God over something? Are you angry that He is not “changing you fast enough”? This is one that I have dealt with a lot. Are you disappointed that other people are being blessed and you are constantly in need or want? If yes is your answer to questions like these, you may be looking to “another lover” for something that only God can give, only God can fill or provide.
Is it tv you look for solace? Maybe it’s that big bowl of ice cream, or maybe it’s exercise, work, or even some sort of religious activity that gives you a sense of comfort or right standing with God. At some point, those lovers will fail to deliver, and you will be left scrambling for something else to find comfort in. It’s not until we become still and come to Him, not as a spoiled child who doesn’t like what they are having for dinner, but in true brokenness and humility. There’s something about true humility and brokenness that moves the heart of God. Medicating ourselves with things other than God fills us with pride that we “handled” the situation. Don’t be fooled. Only God can bring true, lasting change, joy, peace, and deliverence.
Will you continue to medicate the problem, or will you turn to Him in true repentance and humility?
Kevin
Emotions and Faith
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I was really challenged by this post by John Piper yesterday. The message is still ringing in my brain.
I was brought up in a Penecostal/Charismatic church background. Dancing, shouting, clapping were the norm. I saw a lot of people putting on a show to get attention, to get others to think they are “more spiritual”. LOTS of hype, lots of excess, lots of fakeness.
Now before you think I’m on a Charismatic bashfest, read on. In the past ten years I have seen the pendulum swing in the opposite direction for a lot of people who were a part of these churches who left for the reasons I raised a few sentences ago. Those who once exhibitted so much passion are now some of the most stoic, unemotional people I have seen. I raise this question:
Is there a disconnect between our emotion and our worship and walk with God?
My belief is yes. How do I know this?
When you sin, does it grieve you to the point of tears? Probably not. We have programmed ourselves to deflect that. Any negative emotion is bad, right? We work really hard to shut out sorrow and conviction. We are quick to label any negative emotion as condemnation and shut it out. What if, I mean really, what if we truly felt Godly sorrow that led to true repentance? What if we came together and repented of our sin because we have taken the sacrifice Christ made on the cross for granted?
Should we walk in condemnation? No, but if our sin does not break our heart because we are breaking the heart of God, then why change? Why bother? We spend a lot of time medicating ourselves with things (idols) to help us escape the stresses of life, but what if we are medicating ourselves at the cost of tuning the Holy Spirit out and tuning our emotions out so we don’t see that the stresses that we face are because we are walking in disobedience and God is trying to show us things in our lives that we need to repent of so we can walk in the joy God has for us?
When you disconnect emotion from repentance you have empty confessions of sin that you have no intention or conviction of doing anything about.
When you think of what God has delivered you from and how He has changed your life, does it truly fill your heart with thanksgiving? We know in our head that we should be grateful, but how do you exhibit that gratefulness? Let me ask, “how can you exhibit true gratefulness without emotion?”
Imagine if you gave your spouse or child something that you knew they wanted more than anything and they looked at you straight faced, hands in their pockets and said “thank you, I am so grateful” in a completely monotone voice. Is that reaction worthy of such a fantastic gift? Can you really do that? If your answer is “no”, then why do we go into church on Sunday, stank-face, put our hands on the seat in front of us and refuse (and I do mean refuse) to take 15-20 minutes of your precious weekend to praise God who is worthy and has done so much for us, who are unworthy, with all of our might? We should leave church tired cause we worshipped our God with everything we have! We spend so much emotional energy on things that seek to drain us of our joy. Why not use that energy to praise our God with a heart of thanksgiving? How big will those problems be when we exalt the name of Jesus over those things?
When you disconnect emotion from your worship, you cannot have true worship.
God made us in His image. (Genesis 1:26-27) God has emotions. God loves (John 3:16) and God can be grieved (Genesis 6:6). Too often we connect our emotions to things other than God and it’s that desire for those things that make it so difficult for us to connect with God. Just like we can’t love our wife and a mistress we cannot set our affections and passions on other things and expect to have a passion for God and His kingdom. Until we identify these things we will struggle in our worship, struggle in our prayer life, struggle in sharing Christ with others.
Where our heart is, our emotions will follow. that is why we get upset when someone starts messing with our idols. That is why we are crabby when our luxuries and pleasures are removed from us. That’s why we grumble when we have Ramen to eat and you really want a steak. Our emotions are attached to things and people rather than the person of Christ. The things that would upset you most if they were taken away are normally the biggest idol in your life.
Emotions are a gift from God. We should use them to draw closer to Him. Let’s glorify our God with them. I pray that we would all truly repent of the things that are keeping us from worshipping Him the way He truly deserves.
Kevin
Paying the Price
Haggai 1
1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2“Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.” 3Then the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? 5Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.
7“Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. 8Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD. 9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. 10Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”
I was looking at this passage today and it kinda hit hard.
I know a lot of folks use this passage to talk about giving. I think we are missing a lot when we take a scripture and apply a label to it.
Read the passage again. God is talking about rebuilding the temple of God. In a New Testament context, the building of stone and wood has been replaced by a temple of flesh and blood.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
God is talking about how we devote so much to what returns so little. We build our houses (look to satisfy our desires) while we neglect the temple (our spirit man). I used to wonder why we don’t see the kind of miracles and wonders of the bible in this present day. The fact is we don’t want to pay the price that is required to see God do those kind of things in and through us.
Matthew 20:20-23
Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. 21And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” 22Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” 23He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”
Its really bad how we want to see revival, we want to see people healed and transformed by the gospel, we want God to do so many things, but we don’t want to pay the price to see those things happen. We want everything handed to us on a silver platter and no sweat off our brow. We don’t want to study, we don’t want to pray, we don’t want to fast, we don’t want to volunteer “too much of our time”,we don’t want to take too much focus off ourselves for too long to see God do anything significant in our lives, our church, our community, our city, state, country, or world. As long as we are good in our own little world, we are content. This my friends, is not the gospel.
Those who make the biggest difference make the biggest sacrifices. The gospel will not be manifest in our lives until we deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. The “cup’ He would have us drink is not kool-aid folks. It is hard. It is a sacrifice. It is a lot of self-denial. I was just told by my doctor a week ago that my blood sugar is way too high. I have had to make some changes in what and how I eat. Many things that I enjoyed are now things that I can no longer enjoy. It is hard to give up things that you enjoy. It has been a struggle for me at times, but I understand that if I do not make those changes, I may die or have serious health issues when I get older. Same thing with our spirit lives. If we neglect what our spirit needs to grow and develop, we produce lives deficient of fruit the of the Spirit. Many times we struggle with the same things in our lives because we neglect our spirit man.
Do you want a closer relationship with God?
Do you want to see others come to know the grace that God shown to you?
Do you want to know what God says the situations you are facing in your life?
Do you want to be free from addiction?
Do you want to be able to worship God with passion and reckless abandon?
This will not happen doing the same ole thing you are used to doing. This will only happen when you step out of your comfort zone, deny yourself, volunteer to do something in your church, make time for His Word and prayer, and when you mess up, get up and keep going.
Will you pay the price?
Kevin
Taking a Shot
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I remember when I was a kid, my big brother used to punch the mess out me. Thats what boys do. They wrestle, play slaps, arm wrestle, bloody knuckles, you name it. Playing these games would get you bruised up and occasionally bloody, but they were a right-of-passage and showed you how tough you were and how you gained respect by the other boys.
As we move into adulthood, the shots we take are much less physical, take on other forms, and can be a lot more serious. Whether it’s a crazy co-worker that hasn’t had their coffee, or it could be a bad diagnosis from a doctor. The way we take these shots reveals our character and in whom in we trust. Check out what Paul went though:
2 Corinthians 11:24-28
24Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
As Christ-Followers, we are going to take shots. We are going to get bad news, we are going to have disagreements with our spouses, we are going to experience various trials and tribulations. Some things are just going to bust you right in the chops.
As a Christ-Follower, can you take a hit? Can you turn your cheek when your co-worker tries to run you down to your boss? Can you declare the Lord is your healer when you are diagnosed with some disease? Do you rest on His strong right arm when it seems there is no way out of your circumstance?
The Bible declares that we will have trials, tribulations and turmoil. Will you take the shot and keep moving forward or will you shrink back? Will you walk in faith or will you allow the enemy and this world to run all over you and steal your joy and peace? It’s time to move forward in faith in Christ. It’s time to start preaching the gospel to yourself and to your circumstances instead of listening to them and allowing them to dictate how much joy and happiness you experience in your life.
2 Corinthians 4:7-11
7But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
Are you ready to take a shot?
Kevin
Just Being
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One thing I enjoy very much is dates with my wife. I enjoy being with her. It’s not necessarily what we are doing, it’s just being together. It’s during these times that I get to remind myself how wonderful she is and why I fell in love with her.
Why would this not be the same with our relationship with God? Sometimes we need to “just be” with Him.
Psalm 16:11 (English Standard Version)
11You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
If there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore, why would we not make the time to be with Him? What are we doing that is more important? There is a gospel balance in having relationship with Him and “serving Him”.
Matthew 7
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Jesus spoke some very important words here. He was explaining how important relationship is over works. The problem most of us run into is that we get so caught up trying to things for God, that we forget to “be with Him”. This passage shows that we can do things in His name and have God tell us that He never knew us. Most of us feel like if we are not doing something for Him, we are not loved by Him and it is because of our good deeds we are loved. The gospel teaches us that we ARE ALREADY LOVED and accepted by Him, before we knew Him,and it because of THAT love that we are free to love Him with no strings attached and no services we must render to deserve that love. So when I mess up with my wife or kids, or blow it some other way, HE LOVES ME NO LESS! His love is complete and unalterable, meaning it does not change, nor can it be changed!
That’s the gospel.
He’s waiting on you. Will you quiet the chaos that is your life for a little while and “just be” with Him? Enjoy His presence, and take the time to remember why you were drawn to Him in the first place. Find the joy that you have been looking for for so long. You will not miss whatever it is that you think is so much more inportant than spending time with Him.
Just Be
Kevin
1Samuel 15 (Part 4)
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We are continuing in our study in 1 Samuel 15:
12And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.”
I’ve been studying this passage out for a little bit, and it has some interesting lessons to learn. As we know from the previous scriptures we have looked over, Saul was commanded to completely annihilate the Amalekites. Reluctantly, and not completely, Saul goes out and after waiting for a time, attacks and puts a hurting on the Amalekites. He did not carry out the command to wipe out everyone including animals. Not only does he show off the spoils of “his victory”, he decides he is going to set up a monument to himself in the city of Carmel.
I looked up what the word Carmel means. It means: a garden planted with fruit trees, herbs, corn, ect; a fruitful place. In the context of what this means to you and me, we get a picture of when idols are created more often than not: in the fruitful times in our lives. Just like Saul was feeling pretty big in his britches, we tend to create our idols in the midst of our greatest triumphs and victories. We get to thinking we are all that and a bag of chips and start to think that somehow, someway we had something to do with why anything good happens in our lives.
‘”I worked hard for that promotion”~ You may have but the sciptures say that God raises up and casts down. So you working hard is good, but how many people have you seen that didn’t work hard that have received promotions and posiitons?
“I nailed that talk! Look at how the people are responding!”~ you may have delivered a fantastic talk but remember who has called you and anointed you. Remember outside of God’s grace we can do no good. The Holy Spirit draws those He calls to Himself, so you don’t know what circumstances had led someone to be there to hear you that day so you could say the right thing at the right time.
James 4
6But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
I have heard it many times and and it still holds true, that the time we need to guard our hearts the most is when God gives us a breakthrough or blessing or we are in a fruitful time of ministry. There are many men who God blessed their ministry tremendously but they setup monuments of their leadership and ability and God has brought them low. Many thought they could do whatever they wanted and God would bless them, just like Saul. A lot of those men are not in minstry anymore because they became their own god and though it was ok to disobey God’s word and make up their own rules, just like Adam and Eve. There are also great men of God who knew whom they belonged to. Men who knew that God was and is their source of grace and strength. Men who remained humble despite the fact that so many admired and respected and revered them. Men who were open about their struggle with sin and knew it was only by the grace of God that they even knew God. These type of men have legacies that have long outlasted their lives and people still admire them because God has chosen to exalt these men despite the fact they are no longer with us.
Will people remember you by things you did “for God” or by how you loved God with all your heart, mind, and strength?
Big difference.
To be continued…
Kevin
1 Samuel 15 (Part 2)
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This is a continuation of our study of 1 Samuel 15. Hope you got a lot out of the last post. Let’s dive right into the text:
4So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand men on foot, and ten thousand men of Judah. 5And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. 6Then Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart; go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. 7 And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.
A critical view of Saul could be that after receiving the Word of the Lord he numbered his troops, showing his faith in the strength of men rather than faith that no matter how many men he had, God would give them victory. I won’t go there right now.
This is some conjecture on my part but you can almost see Sauls hesitation to obey the voice of God in verse 5 :
5And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley.
God commanded Saul to kill all the Amalekites, not just some of them, including the animals. We see that the Kenites were dwelling with Amalekites, yet he gave them the opportunity to leave, even though they were living with and supporting the enemies of Israel. It would seem that Saul kinda hung around a little bit, perhaps hesitating. You can begin to see a string of compromise in Saul. The thing that really stands out is verse 9:
9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them.
When it says “all that was good” it’s talking through the eyes of Saul, not God. This is a principle for you and me as Christ-Followers: Not everything that looks good is a God thing. Saul decided to disobey God’s commandment and spare Agag and “all that was good”. There are things we can value that are good, but when they are not put in their rightful place, they become idols and take the place of God in our lives. Example, I am called to love my wife and children, that is a good thing. If I allow my wife to persuede me to not take my family to church to spend more family time on a regular basis, that is placing your family as god.(If you are not spending any time with your family, you are out of balance as well) Our first service is to God. If we allow any other thing to take His place, as preeminent in our lives, everything else in our lives will be out of balance. A job is a great, but if you put your career before your relationship with God, it makes that great thing evil because anything that brings us more joy or fulfillment than Christ alone is an idol.
When we reinterpret God’s word to us to suit ourselves, we are on a very slippery slope. We risk setting up a different religion in our own image and likeness. When look at things in our lives through our eyes, we can easily decieve ourselves into believing a lie. We no longer see the things we think are good as enemies of God’s work in our lives. We embrace the deception as truth and live in a religious system that we have created and built for ourselves. When we embrace God’s Word and His truth that He is trying to speak to us, He gives us so much more than we ever would have had serving our idols and doing what is good in our own eyes.
This is why it is so hard for us to change. We don’t allow God’s truth to reveal the idols in our lives. We fight and struggle with God rather than letting Him do the work He is trying to do in our lives. Sometimes we struggle for years with the same thing because we refuse to accept His word as truth and choose to go on decieving ourselves.
Lord, help us to see your truth and walk in it. Let us not deceive ourselves, but give us the strength to let go of those things that we value more than you. Tear down the religions we have made with our own hands and might. Let them crumble before a God that has so much better for us than we could ever create in and of ourselves. Amen
To Be Continued…
Kevin
Some Thoughts I Wanted to Share
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I was praying this morning, and God started showing me some more idols in my life that I have. It’s funny how sometimes our prayers will reveal them very quickly if we are paying attention.
We think we can bargain with God to get Him to do stuff for us because we are doing certain things, but it really doesn’t really work that way. There are some things we can have faith that He will do because He promises us in scripture that He will do certain things if we are obedient, but it’s ultimately His grace.
Our problem is our lack of understanding of what grace really is. His grace is not dependent on our prayers, our goodness, or any other thing that we think we can “hold over His head” to get Him to do what we want. He doesn’t need our talents, gifts, degrees, our muscle, or our “amazing” intellect.
I hate to say this, but He is God. His grace is so much greater than all these things. In defiance of our misconceptions, He uses the weak, the broken, the fearful, the untalented, the most unlikely, to accomplish His purposes.
I read this great post by Jim Thornber today. An excellent reminder of how great God is, despite our abilities (which are God’s anyway). I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Thank you God for loving me enough to remind me how great You are.
Kevin
Testing…Testing….
Proverbs 27:21 (English Standard Version)
21 The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold,
and a man is tested by his praise.
I have been having a really good time reading through Pslams and Proverbs. During today’s reading, this scripture stood out to me more than any other.
I have said it many times and many others have said it too: How you react during times of testing and adversity will reveal your character. How you act in your moments of weakness will show you a lot of things about yourself.
Praise is a by-product of His unimaginable grace and love and forgiveness. Praise is not singing a fast song, or our volume, or anything to do with our ability to sing. The Bible says that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45). Proverbs says that we are tested by our praise. Our praise has to do with the condition of our heart. We are (our heart) tested by our praise.
Can you praise Him when it seems like you are losing everything?
Can you praise Him when God doesn’t do what you want Him to do?
Are you carrying bitterness or unforgiveness?
Does the thought of your sinful condition cause you to draw nearer to God? Or pull away?
I have had to ask myself these questions and more at times in my life. Especially when I did not feel like praising Him. The conclusion I normally came to was there was something I was dealing with, such as bitterness, rejection, disappointment. These things will corrupt your heart and shut down your praise more than anything else. This is why we must constantly come back to the cross and repent. Repentance brings us back into right standing with God and shows us His everlasting love, forgiveness and deliverance. Repentance will wash away unforgiveness because we know we are forgiven much. He is not disappointed because He loved us before we knew Him; and because of Jesus’ sacrifice we are not rejected but we are accepted! Thank you God!
You may be in the midst of a test today. You may be dealing with more than one thing at a time. You may be in a situation you see no way out. Others may be watching to see what you are going to do. How will you react?
This is a test of your praise. Testing……Testing……
Will you?
Kevin
No Matter What it Takes
Image by Werner Kunz (werkunz1) via Flickr
I’ve used the above line before.
I’ve meant it when I said it.
At least I thought I did at the time.
It is funny how the gospel will redefine and change every aspect of your life. It not only refines your character, it redefines your life too. What I mean by redefine is that it will change everything. including the very meaning of your words and what they apply to your life from a gospel-centered perspective.
Ten months ago, I thought I would do anything for God and I truly thought I was. During this time, God exposed my heart and showed me how much I hold back from Him. He showed me that I would do whatever it takes for His kingdom ”except”…….. I had a few (and who knows what God will reveal in the future), but I’m sure you could come up with a few yourself.
What I’m finding is that as God works in my life and yours, “No Matter What it Takes” takes on a new meaning. “Worship” takes on a whole new meaning. “Giving”, ”Community”, ‘Love”, “Forgiveness”; all these things mean something so much greater and deeper than they used to. They are redefined in the light of the gospel and will continue to change as the Holy Spirit continues to open our eyes to what the gospel means in our lives.
“No Matter What it Takes” Jesus, let the light of your face shine into the darkness and reveal those things that are hidden from our understanding, so we can serve you, and love You more and more that we can do whatever it takes to see Your kingdom come and will be done on this Earth as it is in heaven.
Kevin
Two Churches in One Building
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I’m not talking about two churches that rent or use the same building.
Yesterday, I was talking to my wife about reaching more people that are hurting and broken, and later on I had a vision of two churches in one building. One group was dressed in white robes, the other was dressed in black, kind of gothic looking.
I thought this is kind of weird, and I didn’t understand this and then God spoke to me:
Those dressed in black represent the broken, addicted, wounded, afflicted, harrassed by the demonic. They represent a part of My body that most people don’t want to see or deal with. They are people that a prayer and a hug won’t help solve their problems. They have come out of dark circumstances that even now seek to ensnare and swallow them right back to where they were. They are struggling in their faith and knowledge of God on a daily basis. They desperately want to know Me, but like sheep without a sheperd they wander, they’re afraid, they’re disillusioned, they’re hungry (physically and spiritually), and they’re lonely.
Those dressed in white are the people the world and “those who have it together” want to see. They stay huddled together. They have great lives. They have everything they need. They have each other so they really have no need to seek friendship from outside those in white. They are happy and content to live thier lives undisturbed by the things that are going on in the world. They keep their robes from getting dirtied by the people in black and certainly don’t have much time outside of their happy lives to help them. Drama is forbidden by these in white so they never connect with those in black, but they are glad they come, cause “they need it”.
We have two churches in many buildings today. We know we have hurt and broken people around us out in the world, but don’t know about the one sitting next to us in church. Or what’s even worse is we know about the ones sitting next to us but we don’t want to be bothered by them. Worse than that is that those in white are just as messed up but hide in good deeds and religious cliches and worthless drivel. Here’s what we know about those in black. They are stubborn. They don’t want to serve in church. They don’t come to church regularly. They don’t listen to our counsel. They take way too much time and energy to invest in. This is true in a lot of cases. What’s also the truth is that there are those in white who would much rather hang out with those people who “have it all together” or feel like we can help with minimal effort so we can look like we are fulfilling our “biblical obligations”. Where is the character of Jesus in either?
Am I striking a nerve? I hope so.
Which church are you a part of? God wants to confront those in white, the self-righteous, and bring them to a state of brokenness and repentance and He wants to bring the rebellious and broken to a place of healing, salvation, and restoration.
The cross is here for both. It here for the rebellious, hurting, broken, lost and the forgotten, but it is also here for the stubborn, self-righteous, arrogant, prideful, and the apathetic. There is only one church when we come to the cross. It is here for all and it’s power alone can truly make us one.
Kevin
No Other Gods
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There is a lot talk in the media today about these “pastors” who are staging these protests against Islam by burning the Koran. I am deeply saddened by the sensationalism that these people who claim to be Christ’s followers will go to such lengths to get attention.
We spend so much time waging a war of flesh and blood, philosophies and ideals, and religion and politics when the true war is in our hearts:
1 And God spoke all these words, saying,
2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
God is constantly after our hearts. He longs to be our source of life, fulfillment, peace, joy, and security and more! The scriptures say “I am a jealous God”. We don’t take that as seriously as we ought to. The reason why we struggle with so many issues and problems stems from the idols in our lives.
Self- esteem issues, depression, anxiety and these type of things are not clinical, psychological, and most of the time not chemical. We have made ourselves, circumstances, and situations an idol in our lives. We then turn to other idols (drugs, alcohol, food, compulsive behaviors) to help us escape the fact that those things are bigger than God in our lives. Then, those idols become bigger than those idols cause we need them to be more powerful than other idols in our lives.
All the while, God stands at our heart’s door and knocks and speaks into our Spirit. “I am here. I am all you need.” and yet we turn away. We try to figure out things ourselves with our ready-made idols and we can be good with them for a while, but He is a jealous God, and He will have no other god before Him. He will come and turn over the tables of the money changers that are in our temple that are desecrating our hearts cause He longs for us to be a house of prayer and fellowship with Him.
Luke 19
45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”
We turn our hearts into a den of robbers when we allow our idols to take the place in our hearts that only He should have.
What are your idols? Acceptance of man? Validation that you are a good parent, employee, Christian, pastor? Perhaps it is your pleasures, your pursuit of fun, your need to be the life of the party. Maybe it’s alcohol, drugs, porn, or sex?
God is a jealous God. he will never allow these things to bring you the fulfillment you need. He is the only One who can fulfill the deepest longing of your heart. He love us so much that He came and died, and rose again that we might be free to pursue Him and have relationship with the very source of our life.
It’s time to confront the idols and tear them down. Will you join me?
Kevin
Walking in Truth
My writing has been a lot more sporadic lately. I’ve gone weeks without a post. For those of you who keep checking in, I am so very grateful for it. There is definitely a method to my madness which I kind of hope to explain. Not to explain why in an apologetic slant, but in a way to make you step back and think about motives and condition of the heart.
God has revealed Himself to me in so many ways I don’t know if this blog could hold them all. He is so good and the depth and breadth of who is cannot be measured. He has opened up scriptures to me and shown me that there is so much depth to them that you could spend a lifetime reading them and still find something new that you have never seen before.
Something He has shown me is that some truths can’t be explained or taught, some have to be walked out. We can speak the truth, but are we walking in the truth? Are we walking in the truth that God has revealed to us or are we learning about the truth for sake of saying we know it?
James 1:26-27 (English Standard Version)
26)If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 27) Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
I think we can be a lot better at telling people how to live than living the Truth and we need to shut up and live it. That’s what I get from this scripture. That’s my message to you and me.
Some truth is meant to be revealed, some is meant to be walked through, wrestled with, and toiled in.
Are you walking in the Truth?
Kevin
Lost Touch?
Everyone has people that they knew for a long time and have lost touch. We were close to know thier quirks, habits, likes and dislikes. We remember the good and bad times shared together. We were close to those people, but somehow, we just lost touch.
I wonder as Christ-Followers if we have lost touch with our “old-selves” or the person we were before Christ found us. I think it is critical to ”keep in touch”. You may wonder why we should want to remember our “old-selves”. Let me ask you a few questions:
Are you moved to compassion when you hear someone else’s struggles?
Do you feel empathy or disgust when someone shares a weakness you once posessed in your “old life”?
Is your first reaction when someone confesses a hidden sin to you that you are glad “you don’t have that problem”?
When someone asks you for help is the first thing you do is figure out how you can pawn it off on someone else?
Are you emotionally unavailable to those closest to you?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you have lost touch.
What you have gone through, where you have failed, the pain you suffered, the wounds you have received, the wounds you are still healing from, are not a thing of just the past.
God allowed you and I to experience these things for a purpose. Not as things we need to forget, or hide, or as a self-righteous “before and after” picture. Just as we are healed by the wounds Christ bore upon His body, so our wounds are ordained for the healing of others. Our failures should help keep us and others from slipping into self-righteousness. The pain we suffered should move us to compassion to show the love and mercy of Christ. They were not meant to be discarded or concealed.
We are broken people who have been drawn to the arms of love, healing, and mercy. We have the ability, with one decision, to wreck our whole lives! We are not so righteous that we can forget that we have an old nature that is at constant war the nature of Christ that compels us to sin?
We can hide our weaknesses, we can cover our wounds with religion. We can cover those things with a number of things that may seem good, admirable, even righteous, but in doing so, we cut off those things that drove us into His arms to begin with and into the bed of self-righteousness and cold dead religion.
Have you lost touch?
Does it matter to you?
Kevin
Almost Saved?
In my life I wrestled with this, and sometimes still do to an extent. Being raised in the church, I learned a lot about “what not to do”.
Don’t drink
Don’t smoke
Don’t do drugs
Don’t have sex (ever)
Don’t ever mess up, cause “you never know when Christ will return and you will be left behind”.
Don’t see “R” movies
I also learned about the things I “should do”.
Read your bible
Pray
Go to church
Give your tithe
Serve in some area of the church
I lived a miserable life. If I wasn’t happy cause I couldn’t do anything “cause I was a Christian”, I was unhappy cause I struggled constantly with the things I was supposed to do that I was not doing. I didn’t make a good sinner or saint! That depressed me too!!
It finally sank in my thick skull that I was totally guilty (100% sinner) and totally lost, no matter how much “good” I did, and I realized Christ received the punishment for every sin, every hurt I caused someone, every time I disobeyed Him, every time I fell short of what I or anyone else thought I “should” be doing, that I was able to experience the freedom and the joy that I longed for so much!
The idea of being loved with no stipulations, no catches, no God waiting to zap me if I fail, still boggles my fallen fleshly brain. It fills me with so much peace to know that I am saved, not “almost saved” depending on certain conditions that I must fulfill. His grace was freely given before I had a clue about what grace even was!
That love is so powerful, it compels us to do even greater things than we tried to do in our own strength to gain His approval! His radical love compells us to action for the sake of love, not obligation or religion. It goes beyond our “self” to the end that we lay down our lives if necessary.
That is the gospel for church folk like me. It is even more amazing than the day I accepted Him into my heart.
Kevin
The Most Important Thing
1 Corinthians 15 (English Standard Version)
1) Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2)and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain.
3)For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,…….
We live in an information age. If you have a question on almost anything, you can plug it into Google or any other search engine and get an answer. In the Christian world, there are millions of sites and blogs (like this one) where you can find teaching on more topics than you could ever study out in a lifetime.
The issue with so much information available, it is so easy to get swept away by the deluge of information that we forget the most important thing.
When Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, he reminded them to hold fast to the things that Paul taught them. He knew that there were so many things people would be distracted by, that would draw their attention away from the most important thing.
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,…….”
The gospel is the most important thing! Paul didn’t say “that Christ died so I could speak in tongues” or “that Christ died that I may prophesy”. He said “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures…”. Prophesy and speaking in Tongues are not bad in and of themselves, but when they become the focus, we are no longer preaching the gospel.
John 3:16
16)“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
As a young person growing up in church, I heard many people say “that message wasn’t deep enough for me” and “we need to move on from the cross and get into deeper things.”
The Father showed His ultimate act of love by sending His only Son to die for us. His heart was revealed and displayed for the whole world to see. When we “move past the cross” we move away from His heart. When we move away from His heart, we are no longer preaching the gospel.
The gospel is what our lives should be centered around. It should be the determining factor that every decision should be based on. Imagine with me for one second, how the world and the church would look if we made every decision centered around the gospel of Jesus Christ? How would our workplaces, our families, or schools look? How would we look at our finances? The things we spend our money on? The things we do with our “free” time? Think about that.
Let’s not forget the most important thing.
Kevin
Controlled by His Love
1 Corinthians 5:13) For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14) For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15) and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
This passage of scripture has challenged me a lot in the past few days. I was getting ready to leave the house on Sunday to go to pre-service practice, and God brought me to this scripture.
God asked me “are you controlled by My love this morning, or are you going through “the motions”.
Are your motivations pure?
Do you love Me so much that you are truly willing to do anything I may ask you to do today?
You don’t have to preach, or lead worship, or teach a Sunday school class to answer this question. We face it everyday. In our cars, our jobs, our homes we have the opportunity to surrender our lives to Him. The opportunity to have His life pour in us, and through us, till it overflows and touches the lives of others.
I know more often than not we choose the latter, but I’m not here today to beat you up. I am here to show you the opportunity that God has placed before all of us today. We have the opportunity to proclaim the gospel of Christ to others. We may not stand on a street corner and preach, but our actions will preach more to people than anything.
Even if you answered “no” to all the questions, grace gives us the opportunity to change. We no longer have to live for ourselves. We are free to live the life that God has given us to the fullest for Him. His death gave us a life that all the pleasures of this life couldn’t hold a candle to.
Let His love come into your hearts and fill you till you are so consumed by His love, you are forced to do something about it.
Kevin
Digging Deep
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation 6and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
7Deep calls to deep 
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
8By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9I say to God, my rock:
”Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
”Where is your God?”
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
Sometimes life can be tough. Real tough. From families losing loved ones, people losing jobs or facing the possibility, or those facing life threatening physical conditions. These can be hard situations to deal with. Sometimes the unknown of what is going to happen can leave people feeling very lost and alone. Maybe there are those who are reading this right now, and you don’t know what you are going to do and the circumstances present a “no-win scenerio”.
David went through more than one of these situations as well as many of you out there. The words of David hold many keys to dealing with hard times and suffering. In my own life, I am facing some pretty steep odds that are not in my favor. I am a pretty smart guy, but even with all the intellect and intelligence I have, my ability to reason, and plan, and figure out things is of no use. It is when we are at the end of ourselves is where we find God. It is where we must trust Him, completely, cause there is no other way or option.
I look at David and I see a guy who isn’t afraid of a fight. I see a real man, a man’s man. A guy who overcame overwhelming odds who in the end made it to where he was destined. once you start reading the Psalms, that perception quickly fades. You see a guy who faced despair, depression, times of lack, and times when he was corrected. You see a guy who learned that his strength was not in his fighting prowess and skill, but it was in the art of surrender.
I’m not going to lie to you. It’s not the place where I want to be, nor I’m sure, most of you. Having to trust God goes against everything we are taught growing up. It goes against logic to simply wait on the Lord. If you are a go-getter and an achievement oriented type person, surrender is never an option. ”There’s always a way” you think, but sometimes there really isn’t and our own lack of surrender is what is holding back our greatest victory.
I was watching an episode of “Band of Brothers” not too long ago. These soldiers were in the woods, and they had dug foxholes. The commander in charge was constantly telling them to stay in or near their foxholes. All of a sudden, the German troops would open fire on these woods with artillery and the soldiers would jump into their foxholes, and most of the time they were safe. There were guys who wandered around to talk to guys in other foxholes, but didn’t stay in their own, and when the shelling started, most of those guys met their deaths.
Sometimes you have to dig deep and stay where you are. Sometimes there is no comfort in the mouths of others. Surrender requires absolute submission. When to go and when to stay are no longer your choice. It is the choice of the One you are submitted to. The desire to run is not an option. This option will lead to greater hurt, greater pain, and even death. Surrender is not a option, it is the only option.
David talks about how God’s love is steadfast and His song is with him in the night. While those who would destroy him ask “where is his God?”, he tells God what they are saying and allows God to answer in His might and power. God did not fail Him, and he was delivered from his enemies. How much more, we His children, heirs of salvation and eternal life will we overcome? It will come when we surrender. When, like Jesus, we stand in our garden of Gethsemane declare “not my will, but Yours be done. It was after this we see the angel of the Lord came to Jesus and ministered to Him. He was completely surrendered to the will of the Father. There at the point of complete surrender. There at the place of death to our self, He will meet us there. He will deliver. He will heal. He will be our strength and our salvation, but not until then.
Kevin
In You (Jesus)
Easter went by so fast yesterday. There is always so much anticipation and preparation that goes into Easter, that it kinda reminds me of Christmas. We so look forward to it and it is over just as fast.
The one big thing I take away from Easter is summed up in one word: submission. Jesus lived a life that was completely submitted and focused on doing the will of God the Father. His heart was completely in tune with the Father’s to where Jesus said He earnestly desired to eat the passover with His disciples. He knew the suffering He was about to face, but He faced the greatest onslaught of temptation probably ever known to man to where it caused Jesus to sweat blood, yet He did not waiver.
God wants us to willingly give our hearts wholly to Him, but I think that people don’t think they get anything in return. In reality, we receive the greatest gift of all. We receive Him. I wrote this poem this morning that expresses what I receive by giving myself wholly to Him:
In You
In Your Presence there is peace
In Your Praise there is joy
In Your Word there is power
In Your Love there is forgiveness
In Your Mercy there is a second chance
In Your Eyes there is a burning passion for Your people
In Your Hands there is provision
In Your Feet there is a firm foundation
In Your Arms there is comfort
In Your Nostrils is the Breath of Life
In Your Shadow there is rest
In You I find what I need.
In You is the answer to every prayer.
In You is the hope of every dream.
In You is my acceptance, validation, and confirmation.
In You are the beginning and ending of my days.
In You is the song I so desperately want to sing.
In You is a love I find so hard to put into words.
In You is the truth that stands through the test of time
In You is the strength to climb every mountain
In You
Kevin
The Escapism Mentality
escapism 1. the state of having wandering and imaginative thoughts in order to escape from reality. — escapist, n., adj.
2. the practice of engaging in activities that enable one to avoid having to deal with reality, as the persistent attendance at science-fiction films, reading of fantasy literature, etc.
Life can be tough sometimes. No doubt.
Life can be unfair. Yes, this is true.
Sometimes we need a break, a sabbath time of rest from our labors where we can recharge our mental, physical, and spiritual batteries.
People have come up with a myriad of ways to escape from the constant stresses and struggles of everyday life. Some folks go mountain biking, some play games online, some veg out in front of the tv. Everyone has their “thing”. All these things can be beneficial when done in moderation.
This is not the kind of escapism I want to talk about today. I’m not even talking about the excesses that many indulge in today. The kind of escapism I am talking about is one of a different kind. A “spiritual” kind. This one can be just as dangerous as any other excess that people are involved in.
Please follow me closely, cause I do not want to misunderstood here.
In times of trouble, (hopefully when things are good too) we draw closer to God. As God’s children, we should draw near to Him because we want relationship with Him. This is good.
The problem is when we get ourselves in a bad situation and we have the escapism mentality that God will pull our butts out of the fire.
I know the scriptures you may quote at me about God delivering people out of various situations in the Bible. I believe He still delivers us out of situations of our own making. The problem is when we expect there to be no consequences for our actions. We treat God like our “get out of jail free” card in the board game Monopoly. We throw down the “god” card and everything will be ok. We coat some Jesus over our problems and act like they don’t exist. This is escapism at it’s most dangerous.
God set forth the law of sowing and reaping ( Galatians 6:3-10). If you sow kindness, you will reap kindness. If you sow seeds of unforgiveness, you will reap bitterness. If you give, it will be given back to you. So on and so forth.
I have reaped the fruit of a lot of bad decisions in my life. He has delivered me from some situations that seemed impossible, but certainly not all of them. Does that make God bad? Heck no!! Does it mean He doesn’t love me? If you think that way, then you don’t know God at all and you need to read your Bible.
Did God heal David and Bath-Sheba’s baby even though David repented of adultery? No. Did Moses get to enter the promised land even though he did everything right except one act of disobedience? No, he didn’t get to enter. Was this harsh of God to act in this way? No. This was the law of sowing and reaping. When you sow seeds of sin or folly, they will return to you.
God may not deliver you so you are forced to make changes that you never would have made if God bailed you out.
Whether God delivers you or not, our hearts should constantly be drawn to Him. Not because we want God to help us, but so we might have the grace and strength to face whatever life throws at us, or we throw at ourselves because of our bad choices. He is always good. Always.
Kevin
