Video Blog

 

 

my first video blog attempt...

 

 

I know not what I do

Most of us can remember when we where children doing something we knew better than to do, and then being questioned by our parents:  why did you do that?  answer:  I don't know.

Why did you break the window, I don't know
Why did you not do your homework, I don't know
Why did you hit your sister, I don't know
Why did you break curfew, I don't know

The list could go on and on... my father used to say he should have named one of his children "I don't know" that we he could have known who did it.

We knew the rules, we broke the rules; however the real answer as to why we did is simple, I don't know why.  Maybe curiosity.  I've never really thought myself as a rebellious child.  I don't think I ever intentionally broke rules just to tick my parents off.  I really don't know why I did the things I did.

Things don't change much in adulthood.  I find myself Identifying with Paul when he wrote:

 ^15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. (Ro 7:15., NIV)

I find everything within me wanting to do the things Christ wants me to do.  I want to be His representative, I want to be His role model.  I want to be a great pastor, leader, husband, father, friend, and brother.  But yet, I'm constantly not understanding myself.  I want to do the right things, I want to be that Godly leader, and yet I keep finding myself doing the things I get mad at others for.

Sounds like hypocrisy doesn't it.  I guess in a way it is.  The difference is, I feel bad about it.  Knowing the things I should do and not, and doing the things I shouldn't doesn't make us hypocrites, it makes us human.

What makes us hypocrites, is knowing the difference and NOT doing anything about it.

We know what we are supposed to do, we strive to do what we are supposed to do, but yet we still fail.  We know what the law says, we know what Christ says, but yet we still find ourselves doing what we know better than.  We are a work in progress, we are on a journey and on this journey we find our selves admitting this:

Hello, my name is Chris and I know not what I do...

attached to strings

^19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. ^20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. ^21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! ^22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ^23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Ro 6:19-23., NIV)

Trapped

Controlled

tied up

forced

Confined

Enclosed

What our sin does to us.

Masters us, controls us, traps us.

^14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. (Ro 6:14., NIV)

God's answer.  Grace.

I don't like the feeling of being trapped.  I don't like feeling controlled by sin.  Sometimes I don't like who I am.  I don't like feeling numb.  

When I'm in control it's not good; when God is in control I make progress.

Either attached to sin or attached to God, that's what we are.

Attached to sin leads to death, attached to God leads to life.

This is a daily process.  None of us are going to get it right daily.  We are all attached to strings.  Sometimes we have strings that are attached to sin that are pulling us in one direction, and God has the strings pulling us in the other direction.  We are in this battle every single day of our lives.  Somedays Sin wins and somedays God wins.  In this journey of life that we are on the idea is that each day we should be getting closer to God and each day we should find ourselves with God willing the battle more.  His strings lead to freedom.  Sounds strange doesn't it.  Our image of Him controlling us makes it seem like maybe He is our puppet master.  Not so, He cuts the strings that are attached to sin, and gives us freedom.  Freedom to follow Him.  You choose, you decide.

Every day that sin wins we die a little inside.  Every day that God wins we learn to live better, to live life to the fullest.

So who wins today?

Is it real or is it...........?

I read one writer recently who said, “Today in so many Christian circles I fear if the Holy Spirit left, most of what we do would continue.” 

I have wondered this often in 10 years of ministry.  The church has more finances, people, and meeting places than the church in the New Testament, but yet we have less power, much less power.  Now I realize that I am making a hugely unfair blanket statement, and that there are Protestant Bible believing churches that God’s Spirit is moving in a mighty way.  However, for the most part our churches are lacking in that power. 

So then the question is why?  We know God is the same God that He has always been, because He is eternal.  We know Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  We know that He promised us that He had to leave so that His Spirit could come along side us.  Obviously then the problem doesn’t lie with God, therefore it must lie with us.

¹⁶ And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; (John 14:16)

 Of course we know who the “Comforter” is, the Holy Spirit (παράκλητος [parakletos /par·ak·lay·tos/]), and then in verse 17 of John referred to as “Spirit” of truth (πνεῦμα [pneuma /pnyoo·mah/]).  The first reference refers to the Spirit as someone who “comes along side of”, and the second refers to “a movement of air” or to put it simply “a movement”.  I get that, I understand that.  When you think of the Spirit working we understand Him as “moving” or a spiritual “movement”.

Finally getting to my point, this is that the church of today has tried to replicate the movement of God through emotions.   Think about it this way; when you are in a service and the Spirit is moving you feel Him, you just know it is Him.  The Spirit moving is like a breath of fresh air rushing through your body and the congregation.  Churches today have tried to replicate that through toying with our emotions.  They sing a song to try to pull on our heart strings, some may use a sad story or illustration, or do whatever it takes to force a movement.

Don’t misunderstand me.  I firmly believe God’s Spirit can use a song, an illustration, and a good sermon, but it has to come naturally through Him and not us forcing the movement.

 

Chris

Trying to stay "on task"

Tell me has this happened to you?

You have a deadline, a project or paper is due.  Your diligently working on it and the next thing you know your desk surfing and imagining your in Hawaii battling the waves in the Hawaiian Surfing Classic, with a shark approaching and time running out.

OK maybe that's a little bit of an exaggeration.

However, we have all taken a phone call, started another project, got sucked into social media, or started playing a game when we really needed to stay on task and finish what we started.

Nehemiah was a cup holder for the king, exiled from his home of Jerusalem.  Word had gotten back to him that his homeland was in ruins.  Nehemiah had a burden for his homeland and gained permission from the king to return to Jerusalem and begin the great task of rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem.  As Nehemiah began the task it was overwhelming how great a project it was going to be, and he was constantly having to deal with opposing countries trying to stop the work.  He had to deal with immediate danger, naysayers who said it couldn't be done, and a huge financial burden of the project.  God saw it through with him, all the way to the end.

^15 So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. ^16 When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God. (Neh 6:15-16, NIV)

Unbelievable, think about it, a fortified stronghold of a wall was built all the way around the great city of Jerusalem in 52 days.  God is the only explanation.

Here is my point.  God has a task for you, YES YOU!!  You will have a lot of people telling you that you can't, you will have people telling you that you are crazy, you will have people telling you that it is simply not possible, you will have people telling you to give up you are wasting your time, you will have people that may even physically or financially stop you, or your greatest enemy may even be not believing in yourself.

Listen to me, better yet listen to scripture:

^6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Php 1:6., NIV)

Be confident, be assured that God has called you for a specific purpose and HE will carry it on to completion.  You and I just have to stick with it.  You and I have to stay on task.

There are so many things out there to distract us, squirrel, so focus and stay with it.

I believe in you, God believes in you, now will you believe in you?

Chris

en-dur-ance

endurance:  the ability to withstand hardship or adversity; especially : the ability to sustain a prolonged stressful effort or activity

Inc Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary., Includes Index., 10th ed. (Springfield, Mass., U.S.A.: Merriam-Webster, 1996, c1993).

Endurance... Perseverance.... patience

 ^3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ^4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. ^5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

(Ro 5:3-5., NIV)

I never understood endurance until I began training for a half-marathon last year.  (note i never ran the half marathon, but that is a different story for a different day).  I can distinctly remember the day i hit 8 miles, the day I hit 9 miles, and then finally 10.  Every time during a training run once I got past 7 miles I felt like I was just in "endurance" mode.  The body is getting tired and your brain and muscles are yelling at you to quit, and yet in your mind you know you have a goal that you want to reach.  Finally the running ap says "10 miles", you slow your pace and walk for a minute or two thinking to yourself "wow I can't believe I actually did it".  The next time you run 10 it gets a little easier, then the next time even easier, and so on and so forth.  At the end of each run, my hips hurt, my muscles ache, and I feel completely spent, and yet I smile because I know I can now do it.

Life can seem a lot like this sometimes.  Our days are grinding and we find many challenges ahead of us.  There are days that our hearts are telling us to just quit, throw in the towel, and give it up.  Our minds and souls are screaming "NO".

Romans 5:3 tells us to "rejoice" in that suffering.  Understand this the word rejoice actually means to try to find joy in suffering even if you can't directly see it.  Let's face it I don't know of anyone who finds joy in tribulation, do you?  I seriously doubt it.  Here is what happens.  If you skip all the way to end of verse 4 and beginning of verse 5, you read that we get "hope, and hope does not disappoint us".  Every time we make it through a tribulation we gain hope.  Remembering that is what helps us to find joy in our sufferings, because we know it builds on the end result, that is hope.

Now I'm like you I would just as soon not deal with tribulation.  I would rather not have tough times in life.   I would definitely choose not to have stress, tears, and headaches.  I would prefer life to be smooth sailing.   Reality is that is not, nor will it ever be.  Every tough time we deal with builds us up for the next, and we enter the next time of tribulation with hope.

I hope this brought some light into your day,

Chris.

Spiritual Discipline

Turn the power on.... with Spiritual Discipline

^“45 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. “ (Luke 6:45, NIV)

 

I remember one of the first ever Southern Baptist Convention’s I ever went to,  Bobby Welch was newly elected and Baptists where on fire trying to get a “million saved and baptized”.  The concept was astounding and exciting.  Churches all over where trying to get people saved and baptized.  President Welch did a tremendous job of leading and rallying Southern Baptists.

 

There was just one downfall, and it wasn’t because we didn’t reach the million.  No, the problem was we converted and baptized but they disappeared.  We left out the part of discipleship.  We left out the part of Spiritual Formation. 

 

Spiritual formation in the life of the believer is huge.  It’s essential.  In Luke 6:45 we are told that we should bring out good stored in our heart, but not just good it speaks to the “overflow”.  Overflow is the assumption that you and I are spending time on our own personal spiritual development.  We are praying, preaching, teaching, and even witnessing out of the overflow of what God is doing in our own personal spiritual formation.

 

It’s virtually impossible to have an overflow, when there is little to nothing going in.  I would venture to say that far too often we treat our spiritual health the same way we treat our physical.  That is to ignore it, while we are taking care of others first.  Therefore, you and I must work on our own spiritual formation before we can help others.

Power up with Spiritual discipline

Chris