What’s Next God?

So….it’s been awhile since my last blog. Actually it’s been almost 3 months.

A lot has transpired since my last post. There’s been spiritual Hi’s and Low’s as in most people’s lives but upon reflection I believe this phrase of “Hi’s and Low’s” to be quite the cop-out.

In reality, I think that phrase best translates this way…

The Hi’s = “Things are going my way and I’m happy”

The Low’s = “Life Sucks, and I’m angry”

The reality is, it has absolutely nothing to do with my spiritual health, but rather my spiritual health suffers when life gets hard and things don’t go “my way”. Why? Because I get lazy, tired, closed off, ticked off and somewhere in the back of my twisted little mind I can justify being discontented and even angry at God for my situations.

I’m working on modifying my “reactions” to life AND taking God at his Word.

I keep asking the question “What’s next God?”…but then I refuse to listen when He answers.

-c

Sometimes pursuing direction in your own life means letting go of something. Even if it’s a good thing, even if it’s something you care deeply about and enjoy, even if it’s something that’s making a difference…

-c

⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

When I read this passage a few things really jumped out at me. “⁶But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt,” This phrase puzzled me. What is he talking about, doubt what? Doubt my faith? Doubt God?

 Well, I posed this question to a friend of mine on the journey and thought I’d share his response….

  “Doubt that He is God, doubt that He is good and doubt that He can be trusted to give wisdom. Doubt that His answer will be the answer. Doubt that what He says will work. Doubt that it is worth it to ask.”   “I love the picture of being double-minded. I also picture it as a tug-of-war. I think I’ll trust Him and then in the next breath I think I can only trust me. “

This was an interesting response because the other part of this passage that bugs me is, ⁸he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.”

I’ve felt this way a lot in my life, where everything I touch seems to be teetering on the edge of collapsing. It’s one thing to believe that what God gives in wisdom is good and perfect and wise…it’s a whole other thing to believe that it will work and act on it.

Guess I’ve played tug of war long enough…time to cut the rope and run to Jesus.

-c

Well, it’s taking me a while to work through this. I’ve read through James 4 or 5 times now, but keep backing up to certain passages.

Last week it was Chapter 1: Verses 5-8, I’ll blog a little more on those verses later. But to go in order….

This week I’ve been sitting on Chapter 1: Verses 2-4.

^“2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

Verses 2-3, I get. Been there done that. I had trouble with verse 4. “ 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

After praying over this, I think I might understand what he means. I think its as simple as, when your called to a place of perserverance…just ride it out. Don’t try to create short cut to get to the other side faster. Don’t  jump ship in the middle of it because its too hard. DON’T TRY TO FIX THE SITUATION!

Just know that “HE is God, HE is good and HE CAN be trusted. ( yes, it’s starting to sink in Tim).

I know for me, I’m the “Shortcut King”. Jumping here or jumping there and never letting God finish what he’s started. Somtimes I think when God is trying to get me to be still, it’s like He’s playing “Wack-A-Mole”…but I seem to duck back underground just in time.

My own personal proclamation…”I will not move from this place until God tells me too”. It’s the ONLY way I will ever be spiritually whole.

Feels pretty good, you should try it.

-c.

I mentioned in my last post that I got stuck on James 1:1.

Well if you don’t know what it says, here it is….

James 1 (New International Version)

 ¹James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
      To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:
      Greetings.

Seems like a simple introduction to the book right? Wrong…

Here’s where I got stuck…“James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”

Two things in this sentence caught my attention.

1: He differentiates himself as “a servant of God” as to say that those he’s writing to may not be a servant of God, or at least to clearly identify his Master.  At first I took offense to this, like who does he think he is? I’m a servant of God too!…right? I mean…aren’t I…wait a minute, am I??  You can see where my thought process got derailed. I had to stop and consider what/who exactly I am a servant of, and Sadly it’s not always God.

2: “of the Lord Jesus Christ”.   Let’s look at the word “Lord” for a minute. To Claim someone/something as “Lord” implies that it has Lordship over your life. One of Webster’s definitions of Lordship is,  “the territory under the jurisdiction of a lord”. CDB translation, God has say so over every area of our lives. EVERY part of our lives, not just the parts that people see on Sundays or at life group or any other time when we put on our God costumes and parade around like we’re “All That and a bag of God Chips”.

Let’s get real for once, we’re all big boys and girls. We ALL have those super secret areas of our lives that we REFUSE to allow God into so he can purge the gunk out and spray a little God Fabreeze. One of Gods best talents is playing cleanup man, if we just let him. No matter how small and insignificant of a piece you think it is that your holding back…if it’s sin, it’s creating separation between you and God.

I’ve underestimated this simple truth in the past. I’ve heard this truth a lot spoken into my life by two people. One is a friend on the journey and the other I’ll just refer as the brother.  You just can’t be whole…I mean really whole like the way God intended you to be until he has complete LORDSHIP over your life.

I am in no way there yet, but I’m starting to identify the areas where I’m holding back. If you’re ready to take that step, don’t do it alone. Engage someone you trust and I’m sure they would be honored to walk with you.

-c

No I’m not an advocate for Geico…but 15mins could save you a lot of headache and pain.

This past week our pastor issued a challenge to us to start spending at least 15mins a day reading the bible. Like he said, for some of us this may be in addition to what we’re already reading…or for some it may be the only time we spend in the text.

Well…I accept, and in turn I have challenged my life group to walk through this together.

I’ve chosen James as a starting point, Why? Because I heard wise man once say (from hence forth I’ll refer to him as “my friend on the journey”) that… “If you want to know how to be a Godly man…read James”.

I’ll be blogging about what I’m learning as we go.

And so…it begins, I started reading in James last night…didn’t get very far. James 1:1 to be exact, before I had to stop and rethink a few things that troubled me in that verse. I get this feeling that James and I are not going to get along very well.

More to come on James 1:1 a little later. For now, if you’re not engaging the text daily…just do it. If you take the smallest step toward God…you’ll find Him.

I’ll leave you with probably the most gut wrenching statement I’ve heard in a long time, made by my friend on the journey…I think he’s got a little bit of “James” in him.

“This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book. If you are not spending any time in the word of God, it’s not because you don’t have time…it’s simply because you are being disobedient to God, and sin is keeping you from this book”.

Lets just digest that for a little while…

-c

If you missed this past Sunday’s message, you can listen to it online at http://media.miamivalley.org

We all know pride comes before the fall, what most of us fail to realize is that pride hangs around after the fall to stomp your head into the mud and not let you up.

James 4:6

⁶But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
   “God opposes the proud
      but gives grace to the humble.”

Working on my pride…how ’bout you?

-c

  After reflecting on last night’s conversation for almost 24 hours now, I’m somewhat amazed at Gods patience with me. As I chatted with my friend, I was reminded of all the areas of my life where I do NOT make God a priority and how many times I fail him on a daily basis.

  THANKFULLY, our God has incredible patience, and why wouldn’t he? He loves his children more than anything we can imaging and wants only the best for us.

So much so that he sacrificed his Son for us…now there’s a phrase that we hear over and over again in the religious realm but sometimes I wonder just how much we comprehend the magnitude of that statement. It’s become almost a passing phrase, used to woo unbelievers into salvation. I got to believe that if we really really believed and grasp the connotations of that statement we would fall on faces daily before God and beg forgiveness for being so nonchalant with this incredible gift he has giving us.

  Sometimes it feels like faith can become somewhat mythical, what mean by that is it can become something that is just out there and intangible. Something we say we believe and maybe even live life by a certain set of rules according to our faith.

I am guilty of letting my faith become part of an everyday routine instead new exciting adventure every day.

  One thing that has helped me has been a series of messages being delivered every Sunday by our pastor Dr. Tim Cox. The series is called “Txt Messages” and focuses on breaking down scripture and setting a time line from beginning to end.

  Tim has a way of really bringing the text to life (thanks tim) and it’s helped me be to able to engage the bible in a different way. I’ll be honest, I struggle sometimes to focus or concentrate when I reading scripture. If you’re like me, then this series would be very beneficial. If you’re interested, we’ve recordered the entire series and you can find them on this site. http://media.miamivalley.org.

I’d encourage everyone to check it out…

-c

  I had a meeting tonight with one of my closest friends.  As we sat down and started to talk, the first words out of his mouth were “Do you trust me?” Without blinking an eye or skipping and breathe I immediately answered Yes.

 You see my friend had observed something in my life that was cause for concern and decided he needed to share it with me. His concern was the pace at which I have been running and the amount irons I have in the fire.

Although all things I’m involved in are all good things they can be detrimental if they are outside of what God has called me to be passionate about. What He wants me to poor my life into.

We talked for two and a half hours about this and other topics, we’re both passionate about ministry and shared with each other what we want to accomplish in ministry and bounced ideas off each other.

It was a great conversation, and good to just sit and chat with a friend.

There are so many lessons I walked away from that meeting with. I won’t go into all of them (more on these later) but for now two thoughts I want to share with you that resonated into this evening with me.

1: I’m glad I have people in my life that care enough to have hard conversations with me and keep me in check.

2: And this is the one that’s bugging me…I didn’t flinch in answering his question “Do you trust me?” I’ve been through the best and the worst with this guy and I know he cares and has my best interest at heart and I’m thankful for that. BUT I can’t help but be reminded of how many times God has ask me that exact same question…and I hesitate to answer.

Seems I have to ponder it, evaluate it and water it down to make sure it all makes since in my little pea sized brain…this is insane! The God of the universe, my creator and savior say’s I love you and I have the best possible plan for your life…that should be enough.

So where are you at? How quickly will you respond the next time God ask…”Do you trust me?”

-c 

For those of you that may not know, I have the awesome privilege of leading the youth every week at my church. (we have an pretty amazing bunch of teens).

This week we had a great discussion and as we parted I challenged the youth to spend some time daily reflecting on James 5:13-20. (The Message)

If you’re not familiar with it I encourage you to look it up.

It’s in these verses that I believe defines a lot of what we as follower of Christ are to be about. The challenge to the youth (to all of us) is to find where this scripture intersects our lives daily. There is always opportunity to forgive or be forgiven, pray for someone or be prayed for, to heal or help someone heal.

This is great stuff right…..WRONG!!!! Not two days after issuing this challenge to our youth, it hit me directly where I live. Isn’t that just like God to challenge me to “Practice what I preach”?

Well, I don’t like it one bit. The issue that has flared up in my personal life is the last thing in the world that I want to deal with…it’s hard and very painful. It is forcing me down a healing and forgiveness path that I ABSOLUTLEY REFUSE to go down.

So “Whats next?”…I honestly don’t know. I’d like to say I’ll be obedient to what Gods asking of me, but right now I don’t see it happening.

Disobedience = SIN, simple enough…but how do we move past fear, anger and pain to that self-forsaking place where we can be and do what Gods ask of us?

Not sure yet…but I believe a HUGE part of it starts with community, I have a few people in my life that I trust completely.

My pastor (one of my closest friends)

My brother (without whom I would have self destructed a long time ago)

My Life Group (you guys are awesome)

And my Wife (Gods personal gift to me)

I can’t imagine doing life without these people, and I’m sure they will all play a role in this part of my journey.

I hope you have similar people in your life that you can do life with…if you don’t, you really don’t know what you’re missing.

-trying to figure it out…

-c