Does God have a sense of humor???

If you’ve ever wonder that for yourself think no more, the answer is yes.  As our Ministry is moving through the One Month To Live Challenge I’ve had the joy of speaking on some great subjects.  Living a life with no regrets and pursuing our passions in life, I have those principles down and practice them regularly.  But this Sunday was a little different.  And how was it different?  The best way to explain that would be for me to explain how I know God has a sense of humor.

• I was at a Church on Sunday.
• I was the one doing all the talking.
• I was delivering a lesson on “How to Love Completely”

To anyone that’s met me in the last couple of years that might not seem like a big stretch.  But if you were to look back in the not too distance past, the man I was wouldn’t do most of what I enjoy doing now.

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Matthew 19:26

I couldn’t sum it up better.  Operating in and drawing strength from myself usually led to failure and most often disappointment.  But by looking to the cross and the power we all have available to us in Christ, I can do anything God wants me to do.  And I believe God wants me to talk about Him to everyone I get the chance to spend time with.  And it just so happens I have a great passion for doing that.  What an awesome blessing for God’s will and my desires to overlap in this area.  Without God in my life none of this would be possible, not a chance.

I’ve seen what God can do in the lives of people who choose to place their faith in Him over and over, time and time again.  I’ve seen people change and things move in their lives that can’t be explained outside of divine intervention.  So the fact that I’m a Bible Teacher isn’t what makes me believe God has a sense of humor.  Where the humor is found was Sunday’s topic – How To Love Completely.  And a lesson on that topic delivered by a 40-something single guy with a fear of commitment; proves God has a sense of humor.

But even if God has a sense of humor, His sense of purpose isn’t in question.  Simply put, a sovereign God has a reason for everything.  I could spend hours and hours talking with anyone who can bear to listen about the things I’m passionate about.  Love…  Now that’s a different story, I’m not so good at love. 

I have no problem loving people in my life and even showing that love openly.  But to revisit the ideas around loving in a relationship environment wasn’t the easiest thing to do based on my not so stellar track record.  God used his sense of humor to remind me that what He has in store for my future has nothing to do with the past.  His future is so much more than I could ever do on my own and it is all based on a simple directive…

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

John 13:35-36

God wants us to love, that's the future.  The past has nothing to do with the future God wants for us, He’s only concerned with giving us something better.  I’m glad I was reminded of that even though that wasn’t my intention when I wrote my lesson on love, but apparently it was His plan all along.  A lesson on how to love completely has reminded me that God not only loves us completely, he forgives us completely as well.  God doesn’t look in the rear view mirror because that’s not where our potential is.

We get so wrapped up sometimes in what WE want in our lives we forget that God has offered to take care of that for us, if we’ll let Him.  If we just follow His will.  But somehow we make that too difficult and make God’s will out to be this mystic journey and we have to hunt for clues to find it.  Not so.  The will of God isn’t that hard we just make it that way.

Are you willing to surrender your life - today?

Are you willing to trust Him and obey Him one step at a time - today?

The will of God is not so much what were going to do 10 years from now, but what will we do today?  What can you do to please God today?  

If we start there God will get the rest for us.

Grace and peace my friends,

Jeff

30 days to a life with no regrets

God knew what He was doing when he inspired the men who wrote the Bible. I believe that every answer to every question we can pose can be found in its pages. God tells us through many different scriptures that our time in this world is precious and He wants it to be filled with great things. The following passage has some very direct meaning but can also be related to time….

Do not have two differing weights in your bag - one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house - one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. For the Lord your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly

Deuteronomy 25:13-16

God is telling us not to have a double standard in anything we do, including what we do with our time everyday. You don’t really know how much time you have, only God does, every minute of everyday has value and meaning.

We started the “One Month To Live, 30 days to a life with no regrets” challenge at Church and it is proving to be an amazing experience. I had the opportunity to take part in this study as a participant and it had a profound impact on me. What a blessing it is for me to now again be re-visiting the 30 day challenge from a leadership role and hear the effects it is having on others. Many of you reading this are included in that group and I hope you are taking an active part in the study. And in the weeks to come I hope to share some examples of individuals different experiences in our present endeavor.  The premise of the study is simple:

If you found out today that you only had 30 days to live, what would you do?

While we can’t really re-create what happens to individuals that get this news it is an interesting exercise. When you look at what you did last week, would you have done all the things you did if you only had 30 days left to live? Probably not. Most of us have put schedules together that are just too busy. And too often those schedules are based on what others tell us is important or must be done; our needs and desires become secondary. And the two areas that most begin to make compromise?

Health and Spirituality, two large factors in our relationship with Christ.

We stop exercising and eating right. That’s hard to do when you work so many hours or have made so many commitments to get our kids to different activities. It’s just easier to swing through the drive thru and get a burger than put the effort into something healthy.

Church and the activity that surrounds it becomes “flex time”, time we determine that we can be done later to make up for missing. Truth is we seldom make up the time we take away from the Lord, He won’t mind… Will He?

We live in such a performance based society that downtime and rest is looked at as laziness by some. I’ve been around discussions in the business world where schedules are compared to see who does the most so full of pride that one could only assume there was a trophy for the winner. Does anyone really win in that competition?

We all have to dates in our lives we have no control over, a start and an end. The day we were born is set and determined we use this as a cause for celebration every year. But the day we’re all going to die is something with very few exceptions, we just don’t know. We’ve all heard stories about the super healthy guy that had a heart attack while jogging. And conversely some people live into their 90’s and even clear a 100 all while smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. We just don’t know.

Every tombstone in a cemetery has three things in common, the day they were born and the day they died and the dash mark between the two dates. And while we have no control over the two dates, we do have complete control over how we use the dash mark between them. That little dash mark between the day we were born and the day we died is the summation of the life we lived. How are you living your dash?

For the next month or so the writing you find on this site will be dedicated to my experience and thoughts that surround the One Month To Live, 30 day challenge. Every week we look at some principles designed to help us look at what is really important in life, things worth the value the Lord has assigned to time. If you aren’t a member of Green Acres or don’t happen to live in Tyler, TX you can still join us. Just ask yourself the question...

What would you do if you only had 30 days to live?

Grace and peace,

Jeff

Are you ready?

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Psalm 51:10

We just started the One Month To Live Challenge at my Church and the initial reaction is really amazing.  I had the opportunity to take part in this study when I was at Prestonwood and it had a profound effect on the way I viewed things.  Now, leading others through the challenge has really opened my eyes to how precious each day we have really is.

If you aren’t familiar with it, the One Month To Live Challenge is fairly self-explanatory.  What would you do if today, you found out you had one month to live?  You start to identify what is and what isn’t important and you also quickly think about some of the things you do that you could easily do without.  Looking towards the future with a limited time available allows us to see things very differently.  Your thoughts turn from “someday, I’m going to _____” to “I have to get _______ done right now”.  But more importantly it lets us see that many of our daily routines and habit just aren’t really that important.

If you had One Month To Live, how much of the next 30 days would you:

·      Spend watching TV

·      Gossiping with your Co-workers
·      Trying to find a party or place to “hang” with your friends

I would guess very little would be the answer that most would give to those questions.  And why is that, because they just aren’t that important.  Not important but how much time did you dedicate to those things in the last 30 days?

In Ephesians Paul says that we are to live a life worthy of the gift we have received.  Our gift is salvation and eternal life and there just isn’t anything else you can receive that comes close to comparison.  I have seen so many receive Christ in their lives and find the joy and passion of that union.  They are on fire for God and have a passion that lights up a room when they enter.  Then a few months later that same person just blends into crowd the radiance is not so evident. 

So what happened?  They came down with a bad case of the “Someday’s”.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.  1 Peter 5:8

As a Christian our ultimate goal should is to find the will of God and how we can be of use to Him.  How our worship of Him can be complete.  And while Peter paints a very dramatic picture of Satan in the above verse, the world paints one quite a bit different.  The world tells us we have all the time we ever need.  The world tells us “why do today what you can put off until tomorrow”.  The truth is the world we live in is charged by the king of the air to do just that.  The Bible tells us the devil has dominion over the world we live in and that becomes more evident as you attempt to look through the eyes of Christ.

Once you ask Christ into your life, he will never leave you nor forsake you.  The life of a Christian can be one of unparallel joy or one that is very average.  Satan can’t take salvation away from you but he can sure try and keep you from doing anything with it.  And the number one way he does this?  By convincing us that we have all the time in the world.  Do it later.

Life can change in the blink of any eye.  It’s a little after 6am as I write this and I have an idea of how my day is going to unfold but it could be drastically different, we can’t really know these things.  It could be significantly better or worse that I predict.  But as the saying goes “That’s why we play the game”.  And in any game we make a plan and a good plan includes offense and defense.

Jesus said the end will come like a thief in the night, in other words we aren’t going to be expecting it.  So are you ready?

Grace and peace,


Jeff


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Explain God

This was written by an 8 year old, Danny Dutton of Chula Vista, CA, for his third grade homework assignment. The assignment was to explain God. Wonder if any of us could do as well?

One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die, so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth.

He doesn't make grown-ups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way He doesn't have to take up His valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to mothers and fathers.

God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times beside bedtime. God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because He hears everything, there must be a terrible lot of noise in His ears, unless He has thought of a way to turn it off.

God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting His time by going over your Mom and Dad's head asking for something they said you couldn't have.

Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are any in Chula Vista. At least there aren't any who come to our church.

Jesus is God's Son. He used to do all the hard work like walking on water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn't want to learn about God. They finally got tired of Him preaching to them and they crucified Him. But He was good and kind, like His Father and He told His Father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive them and God said O.K.

His Dad (God) appreciated everything that He had done and all His hard work on earth so He told Him He didn't have to go out on the road anymore. He could stay in heaven. So He did. And now He helps His Dad out by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones He can take care of Himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary, only more important.

You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to help you because they've got it worked out so that one of them is on duty all the time.

You should always go to church on Sunday because it makes God happy, and if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God. Don't skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach. This is wrong. And besides the sun doesn't come out at the beach until noon anyway.

If you don't believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you, like to camp, but God can. It is good to know He's around you when you're scared in the dark or when you can't swim and you get thrown into real deep water by big kids.

But...you shouldn't just always think of what God can do for you. I figure God put me here and He can take me back anytime He pleases.

And...that's why I believe in God.

Merry Christmas

Wishing you all the best and a Merry Christmas.

May you receive all that God has in store for you in 2010.

Grace and peace,

Jeff

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I asked God

I asked God to take away my habit.

God said, No.

It’s not for me to take away, but for you to give up.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole.

God said, No.

His spirit is whole, his body is only temporary.

I asked God to grant me patience.

God said, No.

I give you blessings; Happiness is up to you.

I asked God to spare me pain.

God said, No.

Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares and brings you closer to Me.

I asked God to make my spirit grow.

God said, No.

You must grow on your own!  But I will prune you to make you fruitful.

I asked God for all things that I might enjoy life.

God said, No.

I will give you life, so that may enjoy all things.

I asked God to help me LOVE others, as much as he loves me.

God said…Ahhhh, finally you have the idea!

Author Unknown 

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Get your plan ready for 2010!

With the new year approaching and the inevitable "New Years Resolutions" pending, I'd like you to consider reading the Bible in it's entirety in 2010 if you haven't done so.  Click on the link below for a great printable plan that will fold nicely and store in the cover of your Bible.

Free Bible Reading Plan eChart Download

One of the most enriching tasks a Christian can take on is to read God's Word completely.   One of the biggest hurdles to doing so for most, is the question of where to start and how much to read every day.  A good plan that you can keep with you is imperative to making good progress towards this goal.  The link is only good through Sunday December 27, 2009 so hurry up!

Grace and peace,

Jeff

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It's a Spirit thing

I was interviewed recently and as happens frequently, I was asked about how long I’ve been sober.  I have a patented response for that question and with little or no thought those dates rolled off my lips.  That date is equally impressive and unimpressive at the same time.  Impressive in that it is quite an achievement to refrain from the use of any substance or behavior that is destructive to ones life for any period, but stopping a behavior doesn’t really signify a change.   I’ve thought a lot about the timeframe of my sobriety and while I’m proud of the accomplishment and the date associated with it, it really only tells part of the story.

I believe that growth as a Christian and the accompanying walk with Christ is progressive.   I also believe that we individually are the only roadblock to living a life that God wants for us.  The full life in Christ we have available to us won’t happen overnight and like anything else in life of value, we must work for it.

PHASE 1

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Romans 10:9 NLT

I believe the Bible is the inerrant and perfect Word of God.  As I make that claim I can say that I completed Phase 1 of Christian living a long time ago.  Heaven I believe will be filled with a lot of people that stopped right there.  So many reach the point in life that they accept Christ and believe in their hearts that he was raised from the dead but never bother to take the steps that follow.  The Bible says this is all that’s required for salvation and I believe the vast majority of our neighbors in heaven will have stopped at phase 1 never fully realizing the joy of the life God wanted for them in this world.  This a lot like waiting in line to buy tickets to a movie then getting drinks, popcorn and candy and the going back to your car and driving home.

PHASE 2

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV

Upon accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is that little voice in the back of our head that tells us when things are right and good but more importantly convicts us of our sin, encouraging us to live a life pleasing to God.  The King James Version uses the phase “old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new”.  Old things are “passed” and new things “become” give indication that this is a process, not an instant transformation.   Christian life is not a destination, it’s a journey and how we fare on the trip is a choice for us to make.   As we acknowledge the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and allow the changes He will make to happen, a small glimpse of the life God wants for us start to come into focus.

Phase 2 is a great place to be.  A life lived after giving Christ an invitation into it can be fulfilling and have much joy. 

But there is more… 

So much more…

“Life’s best is stored behind a door, it’s threshold crossed only by faith”.

Chris Coppernoll

PHASE 3

Dear friends, God is good. So I beg you to offer your bodies to him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing. That's the most sensible way to serve God. Don't be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him. 


Romans 12:1-2 CEV

Christ wants to be invited into your life but that’s just a starting point.  God doesn’t just want to be invited to the party; He wants to be the host!  Faith in God is not a sometimes thing, its an all the time thing.  We are to become a living sacrifice to God’s will and to live for His pleasure, not our own.  The step across the threshold to life’s best isn’t a difficult one to make but it is impossible to make on your own.

Phase 3 can only be achieved when the Holy Spirit goes beyond concept and idea and become reality, the living 3^rd person of the Trinity. 

The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

John 14:17 NKJV

To fully engaged The Holy Spirit, to fully know Christ and to ultimately please God you must look beyond the borders of this world and enter the spiritual one.  Too often people think that the idea of entering the spiritual realm is something only “those weirdo’s do” when the truth is that those who truly engage the Spirit are some of the most practical folks I’ve ever met.  Paul expands on this thought in his letter to Timothy when discussing the gift of the Holy Spirit

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:7 KJV

Let God orchestrate your life by allowing the Holy Spirit the freedom to show you God’s power and love.
Grace and peace,

Jeff

Put Christ back in the classroom

This is awesome, please share with others!

Where do you get your strength?

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Philippians 4:13 KJV

That was one of the first pieces of scripture I committed to memory after I was saved. As a freshly minted Christian I used that verse often as a prayer through difficult times. Whenever the heat in life got turned up a bit I would find myself repeating those words over and over in my mind. I took comfort in those words often and after time I became a little more “spiritually mature”, a deeper prayer life began and new verses took my attention and developed meaning for me. It wasn’t until I went through some trials and found my way back up, out a valley or two before I really took grasp of the meaning of this scripture.

It’s effortless to cry out for help in troubled times, and just as easy to forget where help came from when things turn around. The Israelites wandered the desert for 40 years and had no choice but to place their faith in God during that time. God provided their food daily in the form of manna and they followed a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, trusting their direction to the Lord. And just as they were on the border of the Promised Land, able to see the “land of milk and honey”, God issued a warning...

“Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them”.

Deuteronomy 4:9 NIV

God knew that it would be easy for the Israelites to forget how difficult things had been given the relative luxury they would soon have. In an act of supernatural wisdom He gave them the advice, don’t forget where you came from and make sure your children know how tough it was. But history and the Bible both show us that they did indeed forget to honor God, lost everything but eventually turned to Him again. More than once.

And that brings me back to Philippians 4:13, which when taken into the proper context, closely resembles the advice given in Deuteronomy. Paul didn’t offer the exhortation of strength in Christ as a plea for strength it was a definitive statement. In J. Vernon McGee’s Thru the Bible Commentary Vol. V, he states the following:

“When Paul says all things, does he literally mean all things? Does it mean you can go outside and jump over your house? Of course not. Paul says, “I can do all things in Christ”—that is, in the context of the will of Christ for your life. Whatever Christ has for you to do, He will supply the power. Whatever gift He gives you, He will give the power to exercise that gift. A gift is a manifestation of the Spirit of God in the life of the believer. As long as you function in Christ, you will have power...Now Paul is not saying that we can do all things. I can’t jump like a grasshopper can jump. When I was in school I was the high jumper, but I can’t jump anymore. You see, I can’t do all things, but I can do all things which God has for me to do from the time He saved me to the time He will take me out of this world." (McGee, J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Nashville: Thomas Nelson)

While the verse sounds and looks good on a James Avery bracelet, Philippians 4:13 is a statement of fact we should strive to make ourselves, after rejoicing in Christ through all the seasons of our life. If you find yourself struggling to find the strength you need in Christ, may I suggest the following?

Dear friends, God is good. So I beg you to offer your bodies to him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing. That's the most sensible way to serve God. Don't be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him. 


Romans 12:1-2 CEV

Living the Christian life isn’t easy; it’s impossible in our own power. Seek God in a way to secure the fact of Philippians 4:13 in your life!

Be blessed today,

Jeff