Life- God's Story

Let your heart hurt.

Be honest. Expose your hurt. Denial has never turned out well for anyone.

Forgive often.

Others .…. and yourself. Chances are you’ve been deeply wounded by the errors of others in the place where a miracle is about to happen.

Believe the best of every circumstance.

It’s not crazy thinking to believe that God has good things for our life. Even the bad can be used for His good if we will believe…..afterall “God uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise”

Release the desire for a different story.

What you’ve allowed [or will allow] God to do through your pain is the best story you will ever tell. Don’t minimize the power of God working through your circumstances, no matter what they may seem to you.

This is the day that God begins to turn your problem into a miracle. Hang onto God, watch with awe and wonder …. He will do it.

Undeniably this will be God’s story, but you my friend get to tell it. …. I and many others would love to hear it.

No Room for Doubt

The Bible offers many accounts regarding doubt to warn us about this spiritual killer. Doubt will inevitably rob us of our spiritual growth and understanding of God’s divine purpose of our lives.

For example, have you ever wondered why people sometimes doubt God and their salvation? Perhaps you have experience your own doubts. The primary reason for such doubt is a failure to accept the fullness of God’s grace

 

 Too often, people think grace must be earned. Yet grace is a gift from the throne of God-no strings attached. Christ fully paid for our sins n Calvary’s cross. When you begin to truly think this way and accept who you are in Christ, you will see the doubts and fears fade away. You must trust and accept what Jesus Christ has already done for you!

Faith in Christ Alone. Just Jump!

A young girl wanted to get closer to God. One night God gave her a dream. In the dream she wanted to climb a high cliff to get to God at the top. She tried and tried but could not get to the top. Tired and sad, she was ready to give up and climb down. Then she noticed a trampoline at the bottom of the cliff. She let go and, bouncing off the trampoline, landed at the very top with God. How do we get close to God. Let Go, and jump!

John 14:5-⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you really know me, you will know^[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

⁸ Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

⁹ Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you really know me, you will know^[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

⁸ Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

⁹ Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

We can’t get to God by climbing up the cliff of our own moral and religious efforts. Jesus came to set us free from the lie that we can save ourselves. We can only get to God through the trampoline of Jesus and His death for our sins.

All the religions are just mere attempts to reach God. Buddhism has the Eightfold Path. Islam has the five laws. Hinduism has Karma. Judaism has the Torah. Although these religions offer elements of truth and beauty that should be cherished they wrongly assume that we can earn our way to God. They all hold out a ‘ladder’ to God

What makes Christianity unique? Although religion is humanity’s  attempt to reach God. Christianity is God’s attempt to reach humanity. 

Since we can’t get to Him through our efforts, He comes to us as we trust in His undeserved grace. Christ is a kind of ‘trampoline’ of grace. As we trust in Christ we can overcome troubled hearts, the fear of death, and the ignorance of who God really is. In Jesus alone, we find the way, the truth, real life, and a personal relationship with God as our Father. What Amazing Grace!

Have you stopped trusting in your own ability to earn God’s acceptance? Do you now trust in the trampoline of Jesus alone, and His undeserved Grace, for your acceptance with God? Is anything stopping you from jumping??

'At your own Risk'

Jesus is the supreme example of living without fear of being disappointed by others. “He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave….He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death- even to death on the cross” (Phil 2:7-8)

Disappointed people sometimes find it difficult to move out toward others. After all, people – even Christian people- can be rude- uncouth- obnoxious, and sometimes downright disgusting. I sometimes think it might be helpful if we put a sign outside some churches saying: Enter at your own risk” Forgive my cynicism, but I have lived long enough to know that Christians can hurt! What are we supposed to do when we know that to move toward another person in love exposes us to the risk of being disappointed? We move forward in love: easy to say, but more difficult to do. Making ourselves vulnerable to disappointments is frightening, but this has to happen if we are to love as we are loved.

Mature Christians are those who are willing to look fully into the face of disappointment and feel it, knowing that because they do, they will come to a deeper awareness that no one can comfort the heart like Jesus Christ. In the presence of such pain, one more easily sees the uselessness of every attempt to find solace in one’s own independent strategies. Facing and feeling the pain of disappointment underlies more than anything else the gripping truth that only in God we can trust

Father at times You purpose seem to run diametrically opposite to my interests, but the more I ponder on them, the more I see that You always have my interest at heart. Help me to trust You more and myself less, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth!

Two Basic Fears

Hebrews 2:¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Psychologists are at pains to point out that fear is different from anxiety. Fear has a specific object, whereas anxiety is a vague unspecified apprehension

What, I wonder, is your biggest fear? According to Social Science, there are two forms of fear, the fear of death and the fear of life. The fear of life is the fear of having to live as an isolated individual. The fear of death is the fear of losing individuality. Between these two fear possibilities, these poles of fear, the individual is thrown back and forth all his life.

The first fear- the fear of life- is vividly illustrated by a small boy’s comment: “I suppose the reason for twins is because little children don’t like to come in to the world alone”. The fear of life makes many  retreat into illness. It is a refuge from responsibility. Freud found the cause of neurosis in the past.

But with many, it is the fear of death that paralyzes them. The scripture reads, in speaking of Jesus, that He is able to “free those who held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death” (Heb 2:15). Is it necessary to live such servitude? Of course not. When Christ has all of you, then fear can have no part of you. It is that simple!

Father God I am so thankful that You have made it possible for me not to be enslaved by fear. I can be free, graciously free, now. Touch me in my deepest parts and set me free from all and every fear, in the name of Jesus!!