breaking point

Many of you may know this feeling.  If one more thing goes wrong, if I hear one more complaint, or if something good doesn't come together soon I am going to snap, explode, or implode.  You know you are at a critical point, you know you are at a breaking point.  You are at a point where fear and faith are colliding and you do not know which one is winning, and you feel like you are the one who is losing.

You pray and pray, and yet nothing seems to be working, in fact you don't think anyone is listening.

Life is a journey of discovery.  In part of the journey you discover what that breaking point is.  In fact we realize that every time we get close to that point we notice that we CAN take a little more.  In this discovery of the breaking point not only do we gain knowledge that we are stronger than we realize and that God is greater when we let go and let Him prove Himself.

^17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.

^18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. ^19 A

righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; ^20 he protects

all his bones, not one of them will be broken.  (Ps 34:17-20., NIV)

 

Couple of things to remember on the journey and when you feel like you are at that point, the breaking point:

1. He hears you (17a).  Sometimes we may not feel that way, we may even struggle with believing it to be true, but He does hear you.  You can rest assured that your prayers are being heard.  God is listening.
2. He will fix the problem (17b).  He delivers us from our troubles.  The catch here is that there is no timeline to the deliverance.  I personally don't like that answer.  He could deliver us in 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, 10 years, etc., we don't know.  What we do know is that eventually, in His time... HE WILL.
3. He remains close (18).  I have discovered this.  In my ugliness, in my heart brokenness, in my loneliness, in my darkest times, in my most painful times, in my confusion, in my exhaustion, in my helplessness, in my hopelessness, in my anger, in my resentment, in my emptiness, and wherever I am and whatever I am going through He is close.  In good times we know He is.  When everything is smooth we have no problem knowing God is there, its when things get tough our first inclination is to doubt He is there.  I promise you this.... He has always been, and will always be by my and your side.  Every moment of every day, in the good and the bad moments.
4. He will not let you break (20).  We feel like we are going to break, but He promises us that even though we may bend, we will not break.  Apart from God, we will.  Apart from God we don't stand a chance, the world will break us.

This is definitely a most incredible journey that you and I are on.  Through it we discover an enormous amount of joy and heartache.  We learn what it is to have much, and to lose much.  We find out how much we can handle, and how much more God can.

 

If you feel you are close to the breaking point read Psalm 34 and remind yourself that you are a Child of the most high God.  When you feel like you are about to break, God is on the verge of doing something unbelievable in your life, so hang on to what is left and keep going.

 

I have learned my breaking point and am watching God do some unbelievable things, glory to His Name!!!

 

Chris

For love or money?

What motivates us to accomplish things is it love or money?  is it recognition or peace of knowing we did the right thing?  do we want a pat on the back or peace in heart?  Do we want credit or sense of satisfaction?

What do you think God wants from you?  Your money?  Do you think that is His focus?  What do you think is our greatest responsibility towards the church, to God, and fellow man?  Your tithe?  Your gifts?

Maybe this verse will help:

^42 “Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone. (Lk 11:42., NIV)

This is Jesus speaking and He is speaking directly towards the Pharisees, or the religious leaders of their time.  He is giving them these "woes", or list of things they need to work on.  Well, lets face it you and I always have things that we can work on.  This one specifically had to do with giving and what God prefers.  The Pharisees where very dogmatic about what they do and how they lead.  When the focus goes from people to money there is a problem.

When there is a surplus no one in the church really worries about money, and the focus stays on people.  However in a recession, or depression, the focus goes from people to money.  Its a natural tendency.  Hence why we have to remind ourselves of such verses about focus.  During a recession or depression we are all about making sure we remind people that we give a tenth.  That's all well and good, but you can't do that and neglect people.  You can practice love, grace, AND giving.

The Bible teaches us that we are to give regularly and systematically.  It also teaches that we should give from a joyful heart.  Give regularly, systematically, and joyfully.  In doing that it should be something we WANT to do and not something we feel like we HAVE to do.

Giving is an essential part of we do, it's where your local church finds its funding to be a "light" in your community.  It CANT just be about the money, you and I need to do our part in giving, but we also have to do our part in showing grace and mercy towards people.  People are the focus and always should be.  Money is a necessary evil and love is just necessary.  Me must practice both.

Chris

wounded

We are at war.  Everyday we face the battle of good verses evil.  The battle we face is not a physical battle, though sometimes it may feel like it, but a spiritual one.  There is always a chance in battle that you will get wounded, and its not always by the enemy.  You can also get injured by friendly fire.  Regardless, if your wounded where will you get help from.

^30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ^31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ^32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ^33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ^34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. ^35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’  (Lk 10:30-35., NIV)

Jesus tells a parable about a man that was beaten within an inch of his life, and he desperately needed help.  The first man to come along after he is laying there bloody, beaten, and wounded is a "Priest", a leader in the church.  He sees him and purposely walks to the other side and keeps going.  Why?  We have to assume many things here.  Maybe he was afraid of getting attacked himself, so he scurries on, maybe he was late and couldn't afford to be held up, maybe he knew the guy and thought he deserved it, or maybe he just couldn't stand the sight of blood.  Who really knows, reason doesn't matter, point is a church priest left a wounded hurting man without offering any kind of help.

So the guy continues to lay there, vision blurred and going in and out of consciousness he sees the priest leave.  Oh but wait along comes another... yes, a Levite, a church person, a religious person.  The man blinks and hope begins to build back up.  But yet, the Levite does the same as the priest, goes to the other side and keeps going.  Why this one?  Again, its all assumption.  We don't really know why..... but once again, the man watches him walk away.

Some time passes by and this man wounded is probably given up hope, and has crossed over to unconsciousness.  Along comes a Samaritan, a cross breed of peoples, who has compassion on this man.  He bandaged him, he put him on his donkey and took him to safety, and then paid an inn-keeper to watch over him.  What made this one different, why did he have compassion and the others didn't.  Jesus' whole point in this parable was about loving his neighbor.

Our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our schools, and even our churches are full of wounded people.  Sometimes we are wounded by our own troubles, sometimes it is by the enemy, and sometimes we wound our own in our churches with what I call "friendly fire".  Regardless, how long will we continue to walk by and ignore our wounded.  How long are we going to walk past the ones that are searching for hope and not offer any help.  How long are we going to keep doing this.

When we are wounded sometimes we expect to get help from our spiritual leaders, but yet that doesn't always happen.  We often times get the help we need with our wounds from unlikely sources.

We pass people everyday that are wounded and the choice is always ours, are we going to help the wounded are not.

I hate hurdles

I remember the first time I ever tried to run hurdles, it did not begin or end well.  I have a new found appreciation and admiration for hurdle runners.  Since I have become a runner myself, I cannot even begin to imagine running AND jumping hurdles AND keeping a race pace.

I was visiting a friend of mine's church this morning and he was giving a message out of Isaiah 57 talking about building roads and many of the road blocks we deal with.  The three road blocks he dealt with are self, sin, and situations.  Was a great message, but the one that stuck with me the most was self.

Well, you know me, I relate most all things to running, so as I left and have thought about this much today I was comparing in my mind road blocks to hurdles.  In this race called life we have to deal with these hurdles a lot:  self, sin, and situations.  The one that I find the hardest to jump, the one that trips me the most, and the one that keeps reoccurring the most in my life is self.

^ And it will be said: “Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.” ^15 For this is what the high and lofty One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.  (Is 57:14-15., NIV)

 

I cause most, well the majority, of my own hurdles.  I am my own worst critic.  I rarely believe in myself.  I am not my own cheerleader.  I have trouble convincing myself.  I am my biggest problem. 

 

Some would say that is a good place to be in because it makes you humble.  Maybe or maybe not.  If I am the one who keeps causing myself to stumble, what do I need to do to get me out of the way.  How do I stop tripping myself up.  What do I need to do to stop me from being a hindrance, to well, me. 

 

We spend a majority of our time blaming other people for our problems.  I accept full responsibility for mine.  I know its me.

 

I have no real answer to my hurdle.  All I know to do is keep getting back up every time I trip of the hurdle of me.  Maybe that is the answer.  I get back up, nurse my wounds, and begin again.  Maybe that is it.  Eventually after falling enough over myself I can stop tripping myself up.  I guess with enough training eventually you learn to run and jump higher to clear the hurdles.

 

Well, I guess I will keep the training up, but the problem is:

 

I hate hurdles....

 

 

Chris