03.24.09
Posted in God Centered, God in general, Pain at 11:04 pm by Administrator
Have you ever been at the end of your rope facing such overwhelming odds or trials that you didn’t think you would overcome them? Just like a muscle is built up unless it is broken down through exercise, so is our faith. I have talked with many people about how they came to faith. Like myself, a lot of people talk about how it was a series of trials or traumatic events that rocked their words and pushed them towards God. Sometimes it can be things that just change our lives such as getting marriage or having kids. But sometimes it can be when the world that we have crafted around us comes crashing down upon us. That was my story. I actually wrote a poem about it called Soliloquy of a Broken Man. Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians.
We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 2 Corinthians 1:8-10
So could trauma and trial be ways that God helps us to not rely on ourselves but rather more fully on Him? In my experience, I would have to say yes. All the twelve step programs talk about how people admit that their problem was greater than themselves and that they had to seek a higher power to see them through. Trauma brings pain and we all know how pain has a way of getting people’s attention. So I will end with a thought from 1 Peter where Peter says in 1 Peter 1:6-7.
though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:6-7
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Posted in love, relationship at 1:49 pm by Administrator
How do you look at love? I think too many of us look at love as something we give to other and expect something in return. When the person we gave our love to doesn’t respond back in the way that we want, we get resentful and mad. Most of us know we should show love towards others but often we attach conditions and stipulations on the love that we share. We loan out our love expect it to be repaid with interest. We justify this by saying if I give of myself, then I should get something in return.
Did Jesus do this when he was called to give of himself? He gave everything, expecting nothing in return. His love was a gift with no strings attached. It wasn’t a loan because we didn’t have to do anything to deserve it.
I have messed this up so many times in my life, I have lost count. I learn every day that it is so much better to love people, just because. I have found that when I place expectations on how people should react to my generosity, loving act or words, it truly leads me down a path to resentment and sorrow. So if we give our love to people expecting nothing in return, life becomes such a joy when people do respond in kind.
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03.23.09
Posted in Communication, God Centered, relationship at 7:34 pm by Administrator
I hate to admit it but I really get mad when things don’t go my way. That is when most of us begin praying. We ask God that if he will only do _______ (Fill in the blank) then we will be _______ (Insert whatever religious, godly or pious action here). What are we trying to do here? I would submit to you that this is nothing better than a spiritual begging at best or a full blown spiritual fit at its worst.
What are we really trying to do here? I was reminded of what my true motive may be when I read a blog piece by a friend of mine named Patrick Oden. We try to force God to do our will. I do this way too often when I look at my own experience. Yet when I look at my life during various episodes of disappointment I realize I was bargaining with God. I got mad when I didn’t get what I wanted. Looking back, I am reminded of Garth Brooks’ song “Unanswered Prayers”. In the song, he thanks God for unanswered prayers because he ended up with something wonderful in the end despite not getting what he was asking for in his prayers at the time.
Recent events have made me realize that sometimes we have to just let go of what we want and just trust God to provide.
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03.01.09
Posted in Discipleship, God in general, relationship at 12:10 am by Administrator
Everyone worships some thing or things in their lives. What do you worship? Where does your time, money and attention go? That is probably what you worship. Many claim that they worship God but is that really true when we look at their checkbooks or see what they do with their time? So if people aren’t worshipping God what do they worship? Some people worship nature or reason. Recently I have been reading the Alcoholic’s Anonymous handbook because a friend of mine was trying to illustrate a point. I actually like what the book has to say about it so I will excerpt it here.
Without knowing it, had we not been brought to where we stood by a certain kind of faith? For did we not believe in our own reasoning? Did we not have confidence in our ability to think? What was that but a sort of faith? Yes, we had been faithful, abjectly faithful to the God of Reason. So, in one way or another, we discovered that faith had been involved all the time!
We found, too, that we had been worshippers. What a state of mental goose-flesh that used to bring on! Had we not worshipped people, sentiment, things, money and ourselves? p54 AA Big Book
2 Peter 2:19 says “ They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.
The quotation from the AA book really illustrates what Peter is talking about. It really got me thinking.
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