It's NOT about me!

The flesh almost always seems to seek acceptance from our peers. I am no different in that area. The thing we have to remember is that it is not about our own acceptance but the acceptance of Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We will always have critics and people who sit back and try to "grade" our service. If we allow ourselves to be discouraged by those people then we will allow Satan to defeat us. It takes courage to step out of our comfort zone and step up to serve Him. When we step up He tells us that we will face persecution (John 15:20) but we forget that that even other followers will be the ones doing the persecuting, often without even realizing they are doing it. I want to encourage our leaders to keep serving Him the best that we can and keep doing so for His glory. The only thing that matters is would He find my service to be a worthy sacrifice. To answer that we have to ask ourselves a few questions.

1)Are we working to advance the Kingdom of God?
2)Are we working to bring Him glory (not ourselves)?
3)Are we giving Him our BEST?
4)Is it our goal to please Him?
5)Are serving Him with Biblical doctrine?

If we can answer yes to all of these questions then the persecution should be easier to take. The truth is that NONE of us are worthy of what God offers us but we are all accepted by Him. If we truly believe that the rejection we will face won't matter.

Focus and Prepare

Recently I have found myself working harder than ever for the Lord. I won't go in to all the things I have been doing because I don't want to give the impression that I am boasting. The reason I am telling you that is to tell you that I have found myself using my service to the Lord as an excuse to back off of my personal time with Him. I have found myself using my lesson preparation as my quite time and praying with others more than I pray alone. I realize that this goes against everything God requires of us but did not realize I had fallen into that trap until recently. I felt like I was in a funk and didn't know why so I ask what am I doing differently. God wants a personal relationship with us above anything else. He wants us to talk to Him one on One everyday and several times a day. He wants us to study His word everyday so that He can give us a very personal message. He wants us to seek Him everyday and all day. It is after we have done all of these things that He wants us to serve Him. We can not serve Him effectively if we don't first let Him prepare us for service. If we don't let Him prepare us it is the equivalent of signing up for the military but skipping basic training and going straight to war. We wouldn't last very long before we were taken out. The war that we as Christians have signed up for has far greater importance than any worldly war and our enemy is much more deadly than any leader we would face. Satan is prepared to battle us every day. He knows our weakness and he knows how to use it against us so we have to be more prepared than he is. Study, pray, seek His will, and then go into battle. If you have caught yourself making the same mistake slow down, be still and listen to God. Remember that it is about a personal relationship and then we are to serve. Okay I have to go pray now....

God Knew Everything About Me, Everything

Over the past week Psalm 139 has come up five times in either lessons or conversation with fellow believers so I feel led to write my thoughts about it. Psalm 139 is about God's Perfect Knowledge of Man. It tells us that God knows everything we think, do or say. He is present where ever we go. That is easy enough to grasp but there is more to it than that. Verse 16 says "Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me. When as yet there were none of them." That means that God knew all the days of my life before I was ever born. This is where my flesh can get in the way of God's message. I'll give you an example. My brother and I were abandoned by our parents when we were just babies, 18 months apart. We were left in a very abusive environment and in very poor conditions. My brother passed away when he was only eleven years old, I was ten. The minister who dedicated my brother sent me a letter trying to help me understand what had happened. In that letter he quoted this Psalm to let me know that God had a plan for me. The problem was, I was lost so I did not understand the Word of God.(that's another blog) When I read that God knew all the days of my life I became angry, thinking if God knew what my life would be then why did He even let me be born. I never mentioned that feeling to anyone, not even after I had received Jesus as my Savior. It was just a question I always carried with me. Finally one night while I was in prayer the question just popped out, God why! He answered very clearly, because I knew that I would carry you through it and I would use this experience to advance My kingdom. You see, we tend to get caught up in the why me train of thought. What we should focus on is that God is always with us and has a plan for us to be used by Him, even in our darkest hour. Today I speak to young people who are in similar situations at schools and the Y.C.C. I am able to tell them that I was where they are now and I made it through. I am able to tell them that God brought me through it and as I got closer to Him, He gave me peace and understanding. God didn't take my brother from me, He blessed me with him for a few years and I am grateful for that. He didn't take my parents from me, He put me where He needed me to be so that I would become the servant I am today. Yes, God knew everyday you would live, good and bad. Yes, He intended you to go through all of them so that you would draw closer to Him. If you are carrying some hurt from your past or if you went through something you don't understand, ask Him what He needs for you to learn from it or how He needs to use it. I promise you He will reveal it to you and give you the same peace He has given me. Lord, I thank you for allowing me to experience the things You have and for molding me the way You needed me to be.

What is your position?

It seems to me that in life we are overly worried about our position in the world. We want to be regarded as a person of importance or worth. People are always seeking the approval of those around them whether it's your family, friends, co-workers or just those in passing. We are consumed with how we look. Do I have the nicest car, cloths or gadgets? When people see me, do they see someone they want to be around and we will do almost anything for the answer to be yes, even if it compromises our testimony. Even in the church we can get caught up with "our position". We will ask questions like why isn't that my job or why wasn't I asked to attend that meeting? We want to be seen as a leader in the church, someone who people look up to. The realty is that there are only two positions in the life of a christian, Master and servant. None of us are the Master and ALL of us are the servants. Jesus is my Master and I want to serve Him no matter what He needs me to do. When I face Jesus on that final day I don't want Him to say, you lived a life of high position. I don't want Him to say, you were a person of high importance. I want Him to say "well done good and faithful servant!" I challenge you today to survey yourself. Do you really have a servants heart? Is there anything that Jesus could ask of you that would make you feel, that is beneath me or someone else can do that Lord. As for me, I will say here am I Lord, send me.

Intro

This will be a blog of thoughts, prayers, revelations, and how I have seen God move in my life and the lives of those around me. Often as I go through my day I get things that I believe are from God but don't always get a chance to share them. I will log those things here. It is my prayer that God will use me and this blog to reach people where they are, where ever that may be....