Jesus is coming to town

Jesus is coming to town.  I know that He has already come.  I understand that He is coming again to the earth, to make it the most wonderful creation that He planned.  But He is coming in a few days as we enter into the celebration of His life.

We can join God in His “outside of time” side as we live in time with a sense of His story (History).  We get to have a fresh revelation in our hearts as we celebrate Jesus coming to earth to light this place up.  I want this year for me to be a new beginning.  I want to start this year with Jesus as the one I must care for as He is the most valuable treasure the earth has known, yet packaged as a helpless child.  What a revelation of humility is that!

God came to get me is the reason for this season.  Not just the random personal identity of Jesus.  I mean not just the notion of another holiday, birthday or event.  I am longing to learn and learn again the wonder of life it's self.  I am seeking to know what it means to have a world filled with light.  Darkness (both the inside kinds and the outside kind) are fleeing as the one who is the light of the world came, comes and is coming again.

Do the nations of the world even know that life on earth is about everyone finding completeness in life as we live in harmony with the ruler of the world earth? Do I know that?  Come Lord Jesus and teach me to live!

Do you feel the excitement of a new year?  Not a new year on the calendar but a new year of life in Christ Jesus?  We get to experience again all that His heart desires for us.  The one who came to set me free is coming again today, right now to help me climb out of this pit I made.  Even now I can see those baby hands reaching to me.  They look weak, but are deceptively powerful as they hold all things together.

I think this year, instead of celebrating Christmas, I will celebrate Jesus.(presence included)

Push Back The Darkness

 

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
(Ephesians 6:10-13)

The problems and troubles of your life are not all your fault.  Sure we all have made choices that result in negative results.  And yes, we do reap what we sow.  But we should not think (ponder, consider, wonder, worry) that our life is not what it should be because of us.  If all we needed was “us” we would have no need for God. 

We need God because He is the only one and only way to overcome sin.  Sin is the trap of Satan, seeking for us to live in any other way than one in which honors our creator and redeemer.   Sin in darkness creeping into you.  Sin is loosing the battle of living your life in a way that gives and receives love.

We need to push back against Satan, evil and sin.  We need to resist the Devil after we have submitted to God.  We need to see and understand that believing in God is not enough.  Even the demons believe in God.  We need to act in harmony with God.  We need to do His will and push back the darkness.  We are in a fight.

Today when you are tempted to sin, tempted to act out in a fleshy way or to play in your mind judgments or critical thought of others, don’t.  Don’t let Satan have control of you.  Keep your freedom and promote the light.  Choose eternal life over the momentary pleasures of this world.  And come on, really, does the joy of anger, judgment, power, self-glory and self-promotion truly bring to you a better life?  Do you think just because people fear you or are intimidated by you that you are special? 

Satan wants us to think he has the best plan for our lives.  Evil seeks to trick us into joining in evil’s work under the pretense of having fun and being free.  But God is the only one who sets free, sin and evil trap us in bondage.  Just look at the reality.  Every follower of God is free to choose a path away from God.  Every follower of Satan or sin is trapped, they need to be set free before they can choose to walk in the light. 

 

The only way to not fear the dark is to be the light

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Everyone Counts

Everyday people live their lives.  Everyday they matter.  I know that there are a lot of teachers and motivators who want to make you believe that you only matter if you do great stuff, but that is not true.

The person who helps others is just as vital as the one who has reached the highest levels of status in life.  Christ Jesus taught us that 12 friends are enough to change the world.  In fact 11 friends and a few enemies are enough. 

I often tell people that Christianity will be a success when each one of us touches 12 others throughout the course of our lives.  These touches are most often through love, kindness and hope.  Many do much more, some do less.

Today, tomorrow, as you live your life, do your job, go to school; don’t listen to the accusations of Satan and the priorities of the world.  Don’t spend your life pondering and re-pondering your worth.  Allow the Holy Spirit to convict you of any short comings and don’t try to play God.

 

 

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The Most Radical Christians on Earth

The desire to be more like God often leads us in unexpected places. Over the past few decades I have read numerous stories about the people of God. Some of these saints are well known and others are hidden from the public. In a few cases it seemed like the individuals knew their destiny in Christ Jesus, but for the most, they found their life as they lived it with the Lord. It was this adventure and life fulfillment, mixed together, that was the most common path.

I have recently talked with people in the greater Peoria area about their life. We shared stories about the road we hoped for and the rode we are on. We expressed our opinions on the radical extreme passion of youth and the loving tenacity of faithfulness. In all, we started to see in others both the longing of their heart to be all God desired of them, and the reality that they mostly thought of themselves as “not making the mark”. It is a hard life when the one you love the most is also the one whom you feel is most displeased with you.

I cannot speak to many people, but let me share with those of you who are mostly loving and kind, daily live with some unfulfilled aspect of your life and mostly wondering, “God what am I doing”?

In a land far away and in a time forgotten, the God of heaven had a plan to transform all who sought after Him. In this plan of divine wisdom and grace, everyone mattered and success was determined more in terms of decade than days. People were called upon to spend their whole lives living out the wisdom and instruction of God. No world changing events were required. No simplicity of devotion, to small. It was enough, maybe even more than enough, that you touch your family and a dozen others with full passion and forgiveness for the Master.

So take a moment and add to your life a historical reflection. Do you love God and desire to love Him more, through obedience to His will? Do you forgive your family and openly love them as best you can, not pretending to be better than you are and not pretending to be worse? Do you have friendships over the course of your life in which you have played a part in another person’s love and obedience to God? Can you name them? Can you name 12 people whom you have helped in life?

Today you live in a world where followers of Jesus Christ have mostly told others how to live when we were to show them how to live. That showing mostly involved the simple wonders of everyday life. Faithfulness at work, love toward enemies and abusers, humility in the face of praise, devotion to God in the pressure to love this world; these are the truths of great saints.

The most radical people for Christ I have ever met never told anyone they were radical for Christ. But I watched as they loved those we neglect, give when they had no wealth, share when they longed to horde to themselves and share the story of God when it cost them jobs, friendships and family. Our Theology says we are to be like Jesus, but our desires are to have a bigger ministry, reputation and impact than He did. Allow your desire to be like God to lead you to a simple and powerful life.

Loving the living word

Princes persecute me without cause, But my heart stands in awe of Your words. I rejoice at Your word, As one who finds great spoil. I hate and despise falsehood, But I love Your law. Seven times a day I praise You, Because of Your righteous ordinances. Those who love Your law have great peace, And nothing causes them to stumble. I hope for Your salvation, O LORD, And do Your commandments. My soul keeps Your testimonies, And I love them exceedingly. I keep Your precepts and Your testimonies, For all my ways are before You.
(Psalms 119:161-168)

I do love the Bible, but wonder why at times it stands between me and Jesus. This great book of revelation and divine inspiration often is the closest I get to abiding in Christ Jesus. I want to be in fellowship with God and not just His written word.
In reading this passage I saw that I do not love Jesus as much as this author loved the law of God. It seems hard for me to see how anyone can love the law. I still see obedience more as a requirement than a blessing to my life. By this I mean obedience to things I do not what to do. Of course I love to do the things I love to do, but that is more selfishness than loving obedience in my life at this time.
That phrase “my soul keeps your testimonies” is a challenge too. I live in a time when most people think they cannot live a holy life let alone believe God can be testified in their thought life, emotions and will. How did this Old Testament Guy get so converted, so transformed? Do we need a little more legalism to smack us around some?
I think the answer of inner and outward transformation is all about living in a culture. The more we live in the culture of heaven, the more we live in the way our Father lives, the more we are transformed. In the Old Testament there was a city, a region and a nation that sought to live out the culture of heaven. Sure it failed often, yet is did exist. The world we live in has little authentic Christian culture. The best we have seems to be a culture of a church or community. These are great as far as they go, but they tend not to go into the world where we go the most.
I need friends, family and others to live the life Christ desire of me. I cannot do it alone. Sure I am responsible to live for God no matter what, but I forfeit the glory of God in my life to the degree that I walk out my life outside of His culture, His family. We stand in a world full of evil and darkness, yet we daily choose to partake of the tree of life. We are those who are living in this age of evil and yet turn our hearts to the good one, to the only good one.
If you want to build a transformed life, you need to build others and not just yourself. Sure I do think you can make it on your own, but why would you even try! Maybe there is a reason that the second command is to love your neighbor as yourself.

If I only lived better for God, my life would not have so many problems!

Have you ever though that way? Why? Why would it be in our mindset to connect living a Godly life and having an easy life? Do we assume or desire that Godliness is next to easiness?

I ask this and write this in a time of personal great pain. Right now it appears that much of the life I wanted, a life of activity and outdoors, of freedom of movement and the ability to build and create is over. Depression desire to rule my life and make me live as though God has abandoned me, has love wicked and evil people more than me. It is a time in my life when selfishness is at its most crafty ploy and self-love empowered by pain.

God desires for me, and everyone in the world, to live the best life possible.
God made us free, so that each one of us can choose to hurt ourselves, others and our offspring.

God gave us power and authority to sow and reap, to invest and harvest what was invested.

God empowers us to break the chains of sin and evil and release in the individual and the culture, new hope and new beginnings.

Today, like millions of people around the world, I am looking for the coming of the Christ. I need His activity in my life and the testimony of Him that I have, creates a tension of hope and reality that brings conflict on the deepest internal levels. I know that He heals, but will He heal me. I know that I have a part to play in His plan, but am I up to it. Will I fail on my part?

As we search the Bible and History we find a mixed bag of results. Great people like Moses, Paul, Job and Jeremiah lived for God and had rough lives. Others like Daniel and Ester lived in evil cultures and were blessed by the Lord. Then in Hebrews 11 we see the testimony of great saints of faith, some appear to have an easy life, others suffer and still others choose suffering as a better way. And there lies the key.

Those who suffer so that others have a better way, so that others have an opportunity to receive the promise, choose a path that so conflicts with the world system that it hurts. From the child who is murdered for Christ Jesus to the business man who loses He business because he would not deceive, from the women divorced because she would not join in immorality to the teen beaten because they would not join a gang, all these can be those who chose to identify with Christ at the cost of being beaten by the world.

But still the question remains, why would you choose that? Why would you wound your family so that other families could possibly be healed? Why would you give your life up to that level?

Writing somewhere around the 1900 a missionary, now seasoned by years of service, realized that the very people he went to help, did not want his help. These people did not want to receive the light and knowledge of God, they loved their ways and darkness more than the light. Having been driven by the need of this people group this man now questioned why God sent him. He struggled through the issue of being sent because of their need, for in themselves they had no need for God, they did not want Him. But it was God who had the need. It was for God, for the will of the Father that this man was sent. It was not a human need that compelled, but the heart God of the Father Himself. So all the sacrifice, all the cost, all the suffering, all the rejection; was not for the people, it was for the Father.

Don’t waste your suffering. Allow the ancient words of “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” to speak to you. Even if your lot in life is a life of fighting against mental illness, poverty, sexual abuse, hatred or sickness; do so not for humanity but for God. Let nothing separate you from Him. Do not be overly burdened by apparent success in the world, yet look daily for the affirmation of heaven. In your weakness reveal divine strength. In your poverty, demonstrate the riches of the resources of heaven. This involves a mental attitude, but transcends it. You do not want just the desire or thoughts, but the expressions and impressions.

Souls are being ready for harvest, so too are the saints. People of God are maturing and coming to the place of living fully for God. This growth and maturity involves people of God living in the world, but now of it. It involves being “light” and “salt” while releasing kingdom power and authority, even in their suffering.

Honoring Others

As we prepare for the trip to MI we are asking others to join us in intercession and giving even if they cannot go. I know there are literally thousands of Godly investments you can make. All these investments of time, money and prayer do make a difference. We are working together to build His kingdom and advance His will on the earth.
If you are directed please give and pray. It is great to feel Gods impressions. It is better (although much harder) to do them.
Prayer Points from Romans 12
• Believers in the area will worship God through living daily life well (12:1)
• Renewal of minds so that God’s will is know and done. (12:2)
• For many members of Christ body to come together and express Him. (12:3-5)
• For Faith, faith to work, pray, give, teach, feed, help and love (12:6-8)
• For all the “line items” in verses 9-20 resulting in the overcoming of evil with good.
Doing good in a Godly way is a weapon that overcomes evil! We are not victims of evil, if anything we are victims of the lack of good being lived out in our world. Living for ourselves has not produced in us or around us Godliness. Let’s try to live for Christ and others and see what the fruit of that looks like.

The only place to hide is in Christ Jesus, but He is in the world so you find yourself hiding in Christ in the world.