It's A Mistake

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, "Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners ?"  But when Jesus heard this, He said, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. "But go and learn what this means : 'I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,' for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."  Matthew 9:11-13

With only a couple of weeks into this new year and I have made my first big mistake at work of 2013.  I am certainly not proud or boasting here, just accepting the fact that I am only human and do make mistakes; in fact, I make a lot of them.

One of the most common misconception about Christians in that all believers should be perfect.  Many of us go to extremes to pretend that we have every facet of our lives in order, but the truth is that while we are all forgiven, we all  still have many shortcomings.

Salvation through Christ doesn't change the fact that sin is still present in our lives.  When we become believers, God forgives us and sees as righteous.  We must continue to renew ourselves and fight the ongoing battle against sin while we are on this earth.

We must be careful not to put up a facade and cover up our shortcomings so that we appear to be “good Christians” to the outside world.  Instead, we must recognize and confess to God, our sinfulness, so that we can be forgiven when we do screw up and fall short of his glory.

Desire

Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.  Luke 12:34

One of my high school teachers recently reminded me that we should learn to ‘bank’ on God during the good times as well as the bad.  I never thought of it like this before, but putting your trust in God on a daily basis is like making a deposit in the bank. 

When you need it, you will have money in your account.  The same thing applies with our faith-we must also store up our trust in God when life is easier and then we will be confident when turning to him during a crisis or difficult situation.

When God is the center of our lives, we make our relationship with him the highest priority.  We long to spend time with him, talk to him, listen for his direction and we think about him quite often.  

Let your heart yearn for him, after all it is our heart that really matters the most to God.

That Is Why

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 9:12

It is inevitable, but we will always face hardships while we are here on this earth.  Regardless, we must come to a place in our relationship with Christ where we can truly open our hearts and minds to receive all that He has in store for us.

Our youngest son, Elijah, threw the mother of all temper-tantrums the other night.  Despite our efforts to calm him down, he eventually calmed down when I picked him up and began to dance around the room with him.  Just like a child finding comfort in his/her parent's arms, we too must seek our Father with a child-like faith and determination.

We must also let our guards down and simply allow Jesus into our hearts to do the work only He can do.  Little by little, Jesus can turn our weaknesses into strengths through His transforming power and grace. 

Have peace knowing that there is absolutely nothing that can separate us from His presence!  

Born of Frustration

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Psalm 34:8

Our oldest son, Elliott, received several Lego sets for Christmas this past year.  The problem is that he is only five and many of the sets are made for children between the ages of 6-8 years of age.  Needless to say, I have been busy over the past few weeks helping Elliott build Lego(s).  He enjoys playing with them after I provided some assistance, but I know that he becomes easily frustrated that he cannot build the Lego sets on his own.

Much the same, I truly believe that the reason God allows us to experience trails and sorrow in our lives is so that we might learn that He has the power to sustain and provide for us all things that produce earthly blessings.  All of God’s children go through storms in their journeys through life.

We must remember that it is while we are in the “ going through” stages of any crisis or trial that God’s peace becomes clear to all.  Praise be to God!

I'll Be Good To You

God is waiting around to be gracious to you.  He's gathering strength to show mercy to you.  God takes time to do everything right-everything.  Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones.  Isaiah 30:18, The Message

I love the above passage of Scripture, particularly the beginning...."God is waiting around to be good to us." 

That means He's actually looking forward to opportunities to show His abundant goodness to us!  Our loving God wants to make every wrong right, but He can only be good to us if we believe his promises and we are patiently waiting on Him to be good to us.

The enemy will stop at nothing to drudge up our pasts and make us believe that our futures' look bleak. We must keep our hearts and minds focused upon Jesus Christ and choose to believe God. 

When we do so, we are prepared to face each day without thinking negatively and we are ready to receive all of the wonderful gifts and blessings that God is waiting to give us!

Wherever You Find It

 If you seek him, you will find him.  1 Corinthians 28:9

Sitting down to enjoy a meal together as a family sometimes proves to be quite difficult in our home.  The other night, we had begun eating dinner before any of us realized we had forgotten to bless our meal and give God thanks.

Life can become so fast-paced and hectic at times, it’s easy to forget that God is with us all day, every day, at all times, ready to listen to us talk about anything that comes up in every area of our lives, at any given time.

We must remember to seek him by sharing our thoughts, needs, and concerns with him through prayer.  The more we practice acknowledging his presence, the more we begin to gain the intimacy with God that we so desperately desire and need. 

Thanks be to God!

I Can See Clearly Now

I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me.  Psalm 57:2

Being so passionate about music, people often ask me why I never pursued a career in the industry.  For one, I can barely hold a tune.  Not to mention, I can’t read music and I am simply not proficient at playing an instrument.  I was a DJ at one time on an FM radio station I Alabama and enjoyed it very much, but there is more to it than sitting in a production booth and spinning tunes for a radio audience.  As only our Loving Father can work out, God has blessed me in profound ways that have intertwined both my love for music and my love for Jesus Christ.

Many years ago, I fulfilled a dream by becoming the bass player in a local band back in my small hometown in Alabama.  This would have never been possible if I was not serving as a youth minister at the West Point First United Methodist Church.  More recently, here in Knoxville, I am equally blessed to serve on the audio/video production team at Cokesbury Church's West Campus some Sundays.

You see, God has created all of us with both a general purpose and a specific purpose.  In a general sense, we are all to share the love of Christ with other people.  In specific terms, we have all been given unique Spiritual gifts that God wants us to use to make a worthwhile contribution while we are here on earth.

The more we fulfill God’s general purpose, the more clear our specific purposes become.