A Mighty Fortress

Whatever long dark nights you face, whatever giants of fear you are facing, know this; God is an ever-present help in times of trouble.

Psalms 46 says this. "God is our refuge and strength a very present help..."
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+46&version=NIV


The psalmist tells us that through all of the turbulence, God is with us. God is our refuge and strength when problems shake our world. He has such awesome power that the world actually melts at the sound of his voice. God is in control and will be exalted. How can you know morning without midnight?


let this passage remind you that God is ever-present, the morning will come, and the battle has already been won!

In the Blink of an Eye

Scary day today.

Top down, music blaring, enjoying the morning, and then, in a blink of an eye...Screech, clunk, squeal, thunk! Two cars in front of me crash as they run over and swerve to miss a car jack in the road. While I didn't crash, I did run it over and destroyed my wheels and tires.

"I'll embrace every moment I'm given. There's a reason I'm alive in a blink of an eye."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3YN3ojs9SE

Real and Spectactular

She's a desperate housewife.

She was Lois opposite of Dean Cain's character Clark. She was real and spectacular on a Seinfeld episode. She's worked with Sly Stallone, Kurt Russsell, had a GMC motorhome. A Bond girl, wife, and mother. I would always joke with my wife, if I weren't married, there's always...Teri Hatcher.

Just because I know about her does not equate to having a relationship with her does it? And no, I'm not a stalker. Here's the thing; for so many years, churches have been all about sitting in lines, learning about God, reading about Him, studying accounts of Him in the Bible...The primary focus has been teaching and discipleship, many times at a cost of the development of a personal and intimate relationship with God. This has resulted in a form of religion, but one without much power. I have known people who can quote a Bible verse as fluently as I can spout about Ms Hatcher.

In the early church, the rabbi was there primarily for quality control, not as the primary teacher and speaker. He did not even address the people from an elevated platform. The whole congregation was in a more circular format, each sharing what they believed God was saying. The focus was on the power of God working through each individual, to have a real and spectacular relationship with the God of the universe. Circles better than lines...I get that.

Hypocrites

Matthew 9:11-13

11 But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”
12 When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” 13 Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Sometimes when I invite people to visit the church I attend, the excuse comes back like-"why would I go there? They're all hypocrites!"Unfortunately, the impression that is portrayed all around us is that "Church folk" all sit around singing Cum-by-ya and condemning everyone else.

Well, consider the following from the Eastlake blog- "...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" and "...it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick."

I told my friend that lots of people show up at church every week in a broken spiritual condition, quite often of their own doing. Just as it's easy to be cynical about self-inflicted issues at the hospital--especially when the cure is already known, it's easy to be cynical about the spiritually broken--especially if we've already worked past a particular sin issue in our own lives.

Jesus purposely put himself in the midst of people for the purpose of saving them. As soon as I get the idea that broken people aren't worth my time because they're in deep messes of their own doing, I find myself way off base. There will never be a shortage of people making mistakes, and it's up to those of us who have been saved from sin by God's grace to point others toward a path of spiritual health and wholeness in Christ.

Snapshot

Kodak bankrupt.

Interesting that the company that was famous for one picture being worth a thousand words is no more. What can we gleen from it's demise? Well, for one, they didn't embrace fully the true business they were in. Huh? They still were into the yellow box film business when in reality, they were in the picture business. They didn't adjust to the speed of change around them. Know what business you’re in, so that you are free to innovate and explore, cast aside and add, embrace and enlarge. A great read is "Who Moved My Cheese."

IBM almost met the same demise a few years ago when it failed to realise that people were truly interested in a PC, notebook, netbook or tablet. In my business, real estate, it was just a few short years ago that everyone couldn't wait for the printed MLS books to come out. Many "oldtimers" dropped out of the business because they failed to recognise the importance of shelling out $5 grand for a laptop. It is far too easy to resist innovation and change because you don’t understand what business you are really in. As a result, you cling to old methods and programs by resisting change.

God will work out His calling upon our lives in many different and varied ways. Like Paul and the rest of the New Testament Christians, we are all called with the same glorious calling, yet, each of us has a different and unique outcome and application.

So today, take a snapshot, and ask yourself if you place the idea of calling too much on the thing we do, versus the One we are called to serve?