Re-Introduction

Well, I think it is about time to reintroduce myself to all of you. I took a few months off as my wife and I tried to figure out what God was wanting us to do.

 

Large pill to swallow – to say the least.

 

We felt enormously confident that God had called us to Florida to plant One Church. We were even planning on moving down there the first week of November 2011. However, God did not open any doors. My heart is to serve God wherever He wants me to be and ultimately we still feel a huge call to church plant

 

Just not right now.

 

I still do not have a job, but God seems to continue supplying. I feel almost like the woman that Elijah came to and asked for bread. “We have just enough for one more cake, then my son and I will go and die.” The woman said. She decided to do what Elijah asked and her food supply never ran dry. God keeps giving.

 

We fasted and prayed about what we need to do with church here. “Should we stay at Momentum or does God want us somewhere else?” It was unanimous with no hesitation that we will stay and fight. We will invest as much time and energy as possible into a church that is itching to blow up. Our Pastor is making right decisions behind the scenes that are going to bring about life and increase within the next couple of months and we will be there to help any way possible.

 

Continue to pray for my family and me as I continue to hunt for the job God has ordained. My hope gets lost at times as I fill out countless applications with no response. But, I know God is working and He will provide. He has not removed His mighty right Hand from our lives. No. He has pressed into us when we deserved it the least and has chosen to shape us into unmatched servants for His sake. For His purpose we choose to press on into Him and the Joy the Holy Spirit brings.

The Waiting

Right before Jesus ascended to Heaven, He told His disciples to go and wait for something. It has been a few weeks since I have posted because I have just been waiting. God has told me to “Be still and know that I (He) am God.” Honestly, I have been doing just that. I have not really been blogging or tweeting or much facebooking because I have really been trying to remove distractions. As I have been being still it is easiest to not do any of that. Generally, when I blog or tweet it is to speak my mind and attract followers. However, right now – I’m waiting. I’m not leaving the blog, tweet or facebook world…I just need to wait.

You can be praying for me though, because I found out yesterday, through a sense of entitlement I have been kind of angry at God. I desperately want to hear His voice and what is next in my life. I have grown frustrated with waiting, because I am a doer. I like to plan and get things done.

But God doesn’t want that for me right now.

He wants me to wait.

I can’t help wondering if the disciples, as they waited on the Holy Spirit to arrive, got frustrated with waiting. This is but a ripple in the infinite mind of God, but it feels like an eternity here on earth. Pray that my heart will be strengthened as I follow in obedience to the word of the Lord and that when He speaks – that He would speak loudly and clearly.

I shall return, but not until I have direction and timing from My God.

2 Sam 22

Copied from biblegateway.com I love this passage.

¹ And David spoke the words of this song to the LORD in the day that the LORD delivered him from the ^[a]hand of all his enemies and from the ^[b]hand of Saul. ²He said,

“The LORD is my ^[c]rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
^{3 [d]}My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge;
My savior, You save me from violence.
⁴ “I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
And I am saved from my enemies.
⁵ “For the waves of death encompassed me;
The torrents of ^[e]destruction ^[f]overwhelmed me;
⁶ The cords of ^[g]Sheol surrounded me;
The snares of death confronted me.
⁷ “In my distress I called upon the LORD,
Yes, I ^[h]cried to my God;
And from His temple He heard my voice,
And my cry for help came into His ears.
⁸ “Then the earth shook and quaked,
The foundations of heaven were trembling
And were shaken, because He was angry.
⁹ “Smoke went up ^[i]out of His nostrils,
Fire from His mouth devoured;
Coals were kindled by it.
¹⁰ “He bowed the heavens also, and came down
With thick darkness under His feet.
¹¹ “And He rode on a cherub and flew;
And He ^[j]appeared on the wings of the wind.
¹² “And He made darkness ^[k]canopies around Him,
A mass of waters, thick clouds of the sky.
¹³ “From the brightness before Him
Coals of fire were kindled.
¹⁴ “The LORD thundered from heaven,
And the Most High uttered His voice.
¹⁵ “And He sent out arrows, and scattered them,
Lightning, and ^[l]routed them.
¹⁶ “Then the channels of the sea appeared,
The foundations of the world were ^[m]laid bare
By the rebuke of the LORD,
At the blast of the breath of His nostrils.
¹⁷ “He sent from on high, He took me;
He drew me out of many waters.
¹⁸ “He delivered me from my strong enemy,
From those who hated me, for they were too strong for me.
¹⁹ “They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
But the LORD was my support.
²⁰ “He also brought me forth into a broad place;
He rescued me, because He delighted in me.
²¹ “The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.
²² “For I have kept the ways of the LORD,
And have not acted wickedly against my God.
²³ “For all His ordinances were before me,
And as for His statutes, I did not depart from ^[n]them.
²⁴ “I was also ^[o]blameless toward Him,
And I kept myself from my iniquity.
²⁵ “Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
According to my cleanness before His eyes.
²⁶ “With the ^[p]kind You show Yourself ^[q]kind,
With the ^[r]blameless You show Yourself ^[s]blameless;
²⁷ With the pure You show Yourself pure,
And with the perverted You show Yourself ^[t]astute.
²⁸ “And You save an afflicted people;
But Your eyes are on the haughty whom You abase.
²⁹ “For You are my lamp, O LORD;
And the LORD illumines my darkness.
³⁰ “For by You I can ^[u]run upon a troop;
By my God I can leap over a wall.
³¹ “As for God, His way is ^[v]blameless;
The word of the LORD is tested;
He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.
³² “For who is God, besides the LORD?
And who is a rock, besides our God?
³³ “God is my strong fortress;
And He ^[w]sets the ^[x]blameless in ^[y]His way.
³⁴ “He makes ^[z]my feet like hinds’ feet,
And sets me on my high places.
³⁵ “He trains my hands for battle,
So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
³⁶ “You have also given me the shield of Your salvation,
And Your ^[aa]help makes me great.
³⁷ “You enlarge my steps under me,
And my ^[ab]feet have not slipped.
³⁸ “I pursued my enemies and destroyed them,
And I did not turn back until they were consumed.
³⁹ “And I have devoured them and shattered them, so that they did not rise;
And they fell under my feet.
⁴⁰ “For You have girded me with strength for battle;
You have ^[ac]subdued under me those who rose up against me.
⁴¹ “You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me,
And I ^[ad]destroyed those who hated me.
⁴² “They looked, but there was none to save;
Even to the LORD, but He did not answer them.
⁴³ “Then I pulverized them as the dust of the earth;
I crushed and stamped them as the mire of the streets.
⁴⁴ “You have also delivered me from the contentions of my people;
You have kept me as head of the nations;
A people whom I have not known serve me.
⁴⁵ “Foreigners pretend obedience to me;
As soon as they hear, they obey me.
⁴⁶ “Foreigners ^[ae]lose heart,
And ^[af]come trembling out of their ^[ag]fortresses.
⁴⁷ “The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock;
And exalted be ^[ah]God, the rock of my salvation,
⁴⁸ The God who executes vengeance for me,
And brings down peoples under me,
⁴⁹ Who also brings me out from my enemies;
You even lift me above those who rise up against me;
You rescue me from the violent man.
⁵⁰ “Therefore I will give thanks to You, O LORD, among the nations,
And I will sing praises to Your name.
⁵¹ “He is a tower of ^[ai]deliverance to His king,
And shows lovingkindness to His anointed,
To David and his ^[aj]descendants forever.”

Be Still

Really been trying to seek God’s voice the past …long while. I feel like we are about to hear from God, but the verse that just keeps plaguing my mind is “Be still and KNOW that I am God.”

 

As you look through the Old Testament, time and time again God has to remind Israel who He is. It is almost as if He has to reintroduce Himself over and over. I don’t think they forgot who God was, but I think they had lost who God is in that very moment. They knew what he had done before, but it seems as though God needed to take a minute to whisper and remind them, “Hey, I am God. Just in case you forgot who you were dealing with.”

 

I can get so caught up in my own time frame, and how I think things should happen. Maybe God just wants to take some time to reintroduce Himself to me. Maybe I have been to focused on what I think. We have prayed our prayers and now I need to figure out how to “be still and know that (He is) God.”

Top 5 Reasons Spiders Are From The Devil

These are the reasons I know spiders were sent from the devil:

1. They set traps for you.

2. They wait for the right time to attack you.

3. When you walk into their traps, they make you look like an idiot.

4. They are poisonous.

5. They want to kill you.

I hate spiders. You cannot tell me they are good. They are good for nothing.

Escape

Now that you have taken control of the situation, it is time to escape. I am not known for being long winded but this topic needs even less explanation. We have walked through the ideas of shifting your way of thinking, examine the options and take control. You now have control of the situation and you have recognized the fact you have the ability to walk away from the sin.

 

Be like Nike – just do it.

 

Escape.

 

Run Away.

 

Do whatever it takes to get as far away from your sin as possible.

Control

To this point, your sin has been in control. The sin of your life has been the one who has had a grip on you, but you have chosen to shift your way of thinking, examine your other options and now you must choose to take control.

 

A friend of mine bought a foreclosed house. His intention was to buy it cheap, remodel it and live in it debt free. After several months of work on it, he had not made much progress. About the time he realized not much progress had been made was about the time I lost my job, so he hired me.

 

One of the things he needed to do was till his front yard so he could put new grass down. The largest problem with this was we live in Georgia and have hard red clay. This stuff was about 2% softer than a rock and he wanted to help. When we cranked that tiller and he pulled the trigger –

 

He went wherever it wanted to take him. This thing started to pull him all over the yard like a two year old carrying his blanket around the house.

 

After he let go, I told him he had to stand firm, lean back, get a strong grip on the tiller and take control. Once he took control of the tiller, then he was able to do what he needed to do. It was still difficult, but he was able to no longer let the tiller tell him what to do.

 

We cannot allow the sin in our life pull us all over the place. We need to dig our heels in, lean back and get a good grip on the situation and our emotions so that we can take control of the circumstances instead of letting them dictate what we are going to do.

The Option Key

Has temptation ever been so overwhelming for you, you feel like you have no other option?

 

I’ve been there – several times.

 

Here is the keyboard button we will focus on today: the “Option” key. I know, in the moment it is hard to believe it, but when temptation arises – you always have the ability to choose between two options.

 

The first option is obvious and is the strongest pulling option. This option is to give into the sin. It’s easy to choose this, because – well, you have almost always taken this option when it comes to these circumstances (whatever “these” circumstances are for you). Every time you get stressed or angry you run into this security blanket no matter how wrong it may be. You justify it by saying, “this comforts me and AT LEAST I am not _______________.” None-the-less, because you have chosen this security blanket time and time again, it feels like you have no other option. Right?

 

Well, you do have another option.

 

This is where you had to “shift” your frame of mind in yesterday’s blog. Identify the fact that there is another option. Whatever your sin situation is, run away from it. If it is alcohol, stay away from anything and anyone that will lead you there. If it is a convenience store or a computer, don’t go to it.

 

Sounds simple enough.

 

But it’s not.

 

I know.

 

Before you get into the next sin situation or stressful situation, identify your other option and how you can do that other option that leads you away from the sin. It is important to identify an action plan before you are in the situation, because it will be quite easy to not think logically when you are in the middle of choice time.

 

Shift your way of thinking now and identify your options.

Shift

The shift key. It is the first thing you push when typing anything. Right? There is something that takes place in your mind as you sit down at your computer that helps you realize one important fact. Currently, your keyboard is set to operate in lower case letters. However, if you desire to change that current mode of operation, you must press the shift key to create the capitalization function.

 

As we dive into the idea of making changes to better follow the mind of Christ, our first step is to shift the way we think. Currently, we have been operating in lower case actions. It is what we were set to at the fall of man in Genesis, but our desire as Christ-Followers is to make a change. Deep inside, we really want to live like Jesus wants us to live and put on the new self that Colossians 3:10 talks about (“¹⁰ and [you] have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created [you].”).

 

Let me offer some relief. Just like you cannot change the mode of operation to capitalize without the use of your shift button (I guess you could if you used “caps lock” but nobody does that.), you cannot change your current sinful mode of operation without shifting the current way you are thinking. We have the ability through the name of Jesus to take “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,” (2 Corinth 10:5).

 

How do we shift our thoughts?

 

Choose to pray about it in the moment.

 

Then, choose to think about something else. It will take effort on your part, but then God will come along side of you to help with that boost to keep your mind on track. The biggest mistake you can make in this process is to think that God is just going to take over all your thoughts.

 

It simply won’t happen.

 

YOU choose to shift your thinking. God just affirms and helps that decision.

Recovering

My wife had our little girl just a few days ago and things have been a little hectic “trying to find the new normal” (my wife’s quote). Therefore, I have not been blogging the past few days, BUT and it is a HUGE BUT tomorrow we start a series on the “Keyboard Called ‘Life.’” It will be a 5 day blog series and here are the titles of each day.

1. Shift your way of thinking
2. Examine the options
3. Take control
4. Escape the paradigm
5. Delete the old self

It is really going to be a great teaching on the idea the book of Colossians  brings up of putting on a new self. How do we do that? Tune in tomorrow for the first of the series!