Piggyback from an earlier blog as written by Os Hillman:
"How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?" (Ps 13:1-2).
Have you ever heard someone jokingly say, "It's not easy being me?" This expression is poking fun at their unique personality or challenges they face in life. Well, it wasn't easy being King David.
His life was a life of extreme highs and extreme lows. He was a shepherd, a political leader, a builder, a prophet, a businessman, a warrior, a lover, a giver, a murderer and a worshiper. He must have been criticized by others as being hypocritical in his early career. In each of these roles he achieved things for God but he also failed God on many occasions. He had a creative-type personality, which is often very passionate with many mood swings. We see this side of him when he unabashedly danced before the Lord in front of his subjects almost naked (2 Sam 6:14).
When David wrote his psalms he was honest about what he was feeling. When he feared his enemies he expressed it. When he could not understand why God was silent, he expressed it as in the psalm above.
However, David never stayed in the place of despair. He often ended his psalms like this one. "But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me" (Ps 13:5-6).
David chooses to focus on what God has done for him, not what He has not done. If you are waiting for a breakthrough with God, be honest with Him about your hopes and dreams. However, also affirm your faith and trust in Him to accomplish His purposes through your life. Be an overcomer.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
The Rudder
"My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness."
Ah yes, a line from one of those classic songs from the 1800's. Today especially I know first hand how tempting it can be to wallow in our circumstances. They say that 30% of the US is Under-employed or unemployed, in between jobs and struggling to make ends meet.
That one line points out my error. Many times, I try to build my hope on what I can do, what I can bring to the table. I tend to look at my circumstances, and think there is no way out. On my own, that is true. The song goes on to say, "On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand."
1 Peter 1:3-7 (The Message)
3-5What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you'll have it all—life healed and whole.
6-7I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.
Due to recent income challenges, I find myself on shifting ground, and my emotions are suffering from that strain. "Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven." That's a promise, and He's never gone back on His promises has He?
When I put my hope in Christ, and remember the promises he's made, the obstacles in my life don't seem as menacing. I know God stands with me through everything and my future is secure.
Are you in the middle of circumstances that make you feel weary, frustrated, and maybe even hopeless? Take time every day, maybe even every hour, to focus on your relationship with Christ and the hope he promises.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
The Pontiac Silverdome
Built in 1975 for $55 million ($220 million in 2009 dollars) Site of Superbowl XVI, Wrestlemania, Detroit Pistons and Detroit Lions. The world economy spares no one; it just sold at auction for $580,000!
Detroit is one of many places now where you can own a home for a third to a twentieth of the cost to rent the same home. Neighborhoods that used to be hundreds of thousands of dollars back when the auto industry was alive, now can't even bring the $1000 minimum bid prices at auction. To put that in perspective, a new mortgage on that house would be less than $7 a month...If you wanted to live in Detroit with the crime, industry stacks spewing out whatever, the weather etc. Just by collecting cans and bottles, I'm sure it would be paid off in a year. Wouldn't it be great to know you could spend all your time effort and even money on a much more worthwhile place? Especially if it was a priceless gift to you?
Matt 6 Teaching about Money and Possessions
19 “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. Our home is not here on this earth...
I'm not trying to pick on Detroit, it's just that I wouldn't want to live there. Compared to Heaven, life here is the pits-Detroitesque, don't you think?
Built in 1975 for $55 million ($220 million in 2009 dollars) Site of Superbowl XVI, Wrestlemania, Detroit Pistons and Detroit Lions. The world economy spares no one; it just sold at auction for $580,000!
Detroit is one of many places now where you can own a home for a third to a twentieth of the cost to rent the same home. Neighborhoods that used to be hundreds of thousands of dollars back when the auto industry was alive, now can't even bring the $1000 minimum bid prices at auction. To put that in perspective, a new mortgage on that house would be less than $7 a month...If you wanted to live in Detroit with the crime, industry stacks spewing out whatever, the weather etc. Just by collecting cans and bottles, I'm sure it would be paid off in a year. Wouldn't it be great to know you could spend all your time effort and even money on a much more worthwhile place? Especially if it was a priceless gift to you?
Matt 6 Teaching about Money and Possessions
19 “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. Our home is not here on this earth...
I'm not trying to pick on Detroit, it's just that I wouldn't want to live there. Compared to Heaven, life here is the pits-Detroitesque, don't you think?
The Rudder
My wife has been on an extended business trip since Thanksgiving. I miss her very much.
Knowing another person intimately is surely one of life's great joys. But eventually, you may think you come to the point where you believe there is all there is to know about them. As ruts lay their trail, we settle into stagnation don't we? Think about a stagnant pond, how does it get that way? No new water enters as the old ceases movement. Pond scum chokes out life due to lack activity and oxygen, and then stinks up the area. Only when things get flowing again, does the stagnancy break up and dissipate.
Understand, this is fairly common in most, if not all relationships. How we respond is the key.
Time apart can serve us well as we put things in perspective. If, when we see them again, we allow ourselves to really observe them as we did when we first met. By doing that, those moment's of spark can reignite into a flame, as we travel down memory lane.
As you listen to this vid let the rain of God's floodgates flow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJVT5LJP7ck&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qttxhgc8d9E&feature=related
Knowing another person intimately is surely one of life's great joys. But eventually, you may think you come to the point where you believe there is all there is to know about them. As ruts lay their trail, we settle into stagnation don't we? Think about a stagnant pond, how does it get that way? No new water enters as the old ceases movement. Pond scum chokes out life due to lack activity and oxygen, and then stinks up the area. Only when things get flowing again, does the stagnancy break up and dissipate.
Understand, this is fairly common in most, if not all relationships. How we respond is the key.
Time apart can serve us well as we put things in perspective. If, when we see them again, we allow ourselves to really observe them as we did when we first met. By doing that, those moment's of spark can reignite into a flame, as we travel down memory lane.
As you listen to this vid let the rain of God's floodgates flow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJVT5LJP7ck&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qttxhgc8d9E&feature=related
Sunday, December 13, 2009
The Rudder
It's Sunday morning and I'm channel surfing while waiting for the house to stir. I see this guy talking about relationships in a rut and renewing the spark. He's trying his best to put a humor spin on a tough subject to broach.
A rut is by definition is a well worn path that makes change very difficult to get out of. Ruts are problematic enough that many times effort is lost by not even trying. Unfortunately, that train of thought, habit of response (or lack of), or pattern of behavior, by not examining right responses, shortchanges the most important relationships.
I'm sure you've heard different versions of the joke of the three levels of sex in a marriage; The three levels are; house sex, bedroom sex, and hall sex. House sex is the first few months of marriage where you have sex all over the house, the kitchen, the living room, on the couch etc. Bedroom sex is the next few years just in the bedroom and only certain times during the week, as you settle into a routine. Hall sex when you pass in the hall -"F-you."
Sorry for the F-bomb, but you get the just of the joke. When I worked for the Navy, one of the weekly courses I broadcast Navy-wide was Divorce Care. I don't think it's "Classified" so I can share. In more than 90% of the cases on exit interviews of divorcee's, once their sex life dropped off, for any number of reasons, divorce was the next step. As you know, more than 63% of everyone you sit next to in church this morning will divorce or already has. Pretty sad comentary on the church!
Sunday mornings, Satan's minions are alive and active stirring up arguments so getting to church can be a big deal, and thoughts can be so preoccupying that you don't hear what the Spirit is saying. So this guy closes his by saying "Get out of a rut, don't just have sex, lock the door, make some passionate love before church, and Sunday night!
The Bible says God made everything and called it "good. When he told man and woman to become one, he called sex "Very good."
A rut is by definition is a well worn path that makes change very difficult to get out of. Ruts are problematic enough that many times effort is lost by not even trying. Unfortunately, that train of thought, habit of response (or lack of), or pattern of behavior, by not examining right responses, shortchanges the most important relationships.
I'm sure you've heard different versions of the joke of the three levels of sex in a marriage; The three levels are; house sex, bedroom sex, and hall sex. House sex is the first few months of marriage where you have sex all over the house, the kitchen, the living room, on the couch etc. Bedroom sex is the next few years just in the bedroom and only certain times during the week, as you settle into a routine. Hall sex when you pass in the hall -"F-you."
Sorry for the F-bomb, but you get the just of the joke. When I worked for the Navy, one of the weekly courses I broadcast Navy-wide was Divorce Care. I don't think it's "Classified" so I can share. In more than 90% of the cases on exit interviews of divorcee's, once their sex life dropped off, for any number of reasons, divorce was the next step. As you know, more than 63% of everyone you sit next to in church this morning will divorce or already has. Pretty sad comentary on the church!
Sunday mornings, Satan's minions are alive and active stirring up arguments so getting to church can be a big deal, and thoughts can be so preoccupying that you don't hear what the Spirit is saying. So this guy closes his by saying "Get out of a rut, don't just have sex, lock the door, make some passionate love before church, and Sunday night!
The Bible says God made everything and called it "good. When he told man and woman to become one, he called sex "Very good."
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
The Rudder
$36,690
That's the monthly amount required by the lenders to pay back debt on a plan as proposed by Consumer Credit Counselors (CCCS) yesterday. That is the institution many lenders and crdit card companies require you to use for a five year payback plan.
When I heard that number I started laughing. She said "What a great attitude you have." I told her I can't worry about it because it is out of my control. "Well, obviously you are going through this to be an influence on others going through the same thing. So many people I council are in such despair."
In an earlier blog I commented how we go through stuff many times so we can relate and help others.
At this point I just need to live in God's economy. As I learn to seek Him as the object of my life's energy, my purpose, goals, ambition, and yes, significance, all need to line up with His will. This world will always be dynamic, changing and unstable. But God is the one constant, as many have witnessed in the past couple years, the world shifting like sand beneath our feet. People all over are experiencing a new level of insecurity because their hope was misplaced in things rather than in God. Fear of the future, despair, anxiety and restlesnes all linger just beneath the surface, when all that is seen is the tip of the iceberg.
"Be content with what God sent." When I am content with what I have today, I can rest in His promise that "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." God is basically saying that in man's economy I am vulnerable; everything can be swept away and forsaken...except Him.
As I am refined to place everything under His Lordship, my role as a steward becomes clear by being generous with all entrusted to me. Not so in man's economy where sucess is measured not in lives but in toys and accumulation of stuff.
That's the monthly amount required by the lenders to pay back debt on a plan as proposed by Consumer Credit Counselors (CCCS) yesterday. That is the institution many lenders and crdit card companies require you to use for a five year payback plan.
When I heard that number I started laughing. She said "What a great attitude you have." I told her I can't worry about it because it is out of my control. "Well, obviously you are going through this to be an influence on others going through the same thing. So many people I council are in such despair."
In an earlier blog I commented how we go through stuff many times so we can relate and help others.
At this point I just need to live in God's economy. As I learn to seek Him as the object of my life's energy, my purpose, goals, ambition, and yes, significance, all need to line up with His will. This world will always be dynamic, changing and unstable. But God is the one constant, as many have witnessed in the past couple years, the world shifting like sand beneath our feet. People all over are experiencing a new level of insecurity because their hope was misplaced in things rather than in God. Fear of the future, despair, anxiety and restlesnes all linger just beneath the surface, when all that is seen is the tip of the iceberg.
"Be content with what God sent." When I am content with what I have today, I can rest in His promise that "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." God is basically saying that in man's economy I am vulnerable; everything can be swept away and forsaken...except Him.
As I am refined to place everything under His Lordship, my role as a steward becomes clear by being generous with all entrusted to me. Not so in man's economy where sucess is measured not in lives but in toys and accumulation of stuff.
"Despair causes us to contract, pull in, give up."
Chris Canalas is a High School football player confined to a wheelchair as a result from breaking his neck on a tackle.
Chris fell into a deep depression and days at a time would lock himself in his room, refusing to eat and refusing to go to therapy. The reality had sunk in for Chris. He would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He would never run down a football field again.
In an effort to help cheer Chris up, his father decided to take him to a football game. While watching the game, one of the players made a tackle, went limp and was carted off the field. At that moment, Chris turned to his father and said, "We need to go to him and help him. I know what he is going to go through and you know what the family is going to go through." From that moment, Chris and his father started an organization to help football players with spinal cord injuries.
Chris found the strength and courage to move forward when presented with an opportunity to help others by sharing his experience. However, he did not do this alone. He had the support of his father who stood by him through this process.
At times we may wonder why we go through tough times, maybe not as tough as Chris's, but different; some financial, some relational.
John 14:33 says "In this life you will have troubles, but do not lose heart, I have overcome this world."
Chris Canalas is a High School football player confined to a wheelchair as a result from breaking his neck on a tackle.
Chris fell into a deep depression and days at a time would lock himself in his room, refusing to eat and refusing to go to therapy. The reality had sunk in for Chris. He would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He would never run down a football field again.
In an effort to help cheer Chris up, his father decided to take him to a football game. While watching the game, one of the players made a tackle, went limp and was carted off the field. At that moment, Chris turned to his father and said, "We need to go to him and help him. I know what he is going to go through and you know what the family is going to go through." From that moment, Chris and his father started an organization to help football players with spinal cord injuries.
Chris found the strength and courage to move forward when presented with an opportunity to help others by sharing his experience. However, he did not do this alone. He had the support of his father who stood by him through this process.
At times we may wonder why we go through tough times, maybe not as tough as Chris's, but different; some financial, some relational.
John 14:33 says "In this life you will have troubles, but do not lose heart, I have overcome this world."
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