I cannot accept that just because I am an average guy that my life should be average...
// February 27th, 2010 // 4 Comments » // My Life
I discovered this video on a nice blog I have been following called “My Experience as Nick the Geek” This is one of those videos I wish I would have watched when I was younger… it might have saved me a lot of trouble! 
// February 22nd, 2010 // 3 Comments » // My Thoughts
God doesn't need to test us to prove our loyalty...
Why God Why!? How many times have we asked that question?
even Job asked God what he had done wrong to deserve such treatment.
We often get the wrong idea about personal trials… For some reason we truly believe God wants us to prove how serious we are about serving him… that we are truly committed and not just flakes holding on to an easy out. But when the trials get seriously difficult we begin to wonder if we are being punished somehow and we begin to question God’s purpose. Why is it that after ages of reading of the love of the Father for his children and how he wants to bless us and give us abundant lives… we still stoop to the tribal, primitive and downright heathen beliefs that God is a “Man in the sky” that rains down destruction, judgement, and “tests” of our faithfulness.
God knows our hearts inside and out… he doesn’t need to test us to prove our loyalty. But as a loving Father he wants to test us to expose who we really are to ourselves.
We often build up images of ourselves that are quite favorable and help us have great self-worth but what value is our self-worth if we establish it based on lies? God wants us to discover our true value from his perspective… the trials we endure are for our own good… and they make us stronger and more dependent on him. So if you find yourself in a tough place begin to look for what your situation is bringing out in you… what it is exposing… and deal with it… the sooner you do, the sooner you will move on and you will see the glory of God being revealed in your life!
Tags: Belief, Faith, financial problems, Tests, Trials, trouble with trouble// January 4th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // My Life, My Thoughts
What mean ye by these stones?
When I was young I remember my dad reading a passage from Joshua 4:5-7 that stuck firmly in my mind
5And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: 6That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying,
7Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.
As I matured I began to see the value in marking important events in my life… It all started when I realized that God was taking an active role in my life… I remember the first time that I decided to set stones as a remembrance… well I didn’t really pile up stones… but they are there… in my heart… The first time was the day I met my wife I realized then and there that God was undeniably acting in my life in a very specific and purposeful way… As my life began to change from that day forward I began gathering stones to mark the points in my life where God showed up and did something… I really had no idea where this was leading though…
Life throws itself at us with all it’s might… we experience great successes and great hardships… there is love and love lost, life… and death, courage… and fear, joy… and sadness, pleasure… and pain. All of it joins together in the amazing cacophony that we call life. But then there are times when the balance shifts and there is only hardship… and love lost.. and death… and fear… and sadness… and pain… and we wonder where it all went wrong… We feel abandoned and without hope… when we cry out the only answer we hear are the echos of our plea’s against the emptiness of our souls. Those times… are the times that we can look back… and see the piles of stones to mark the deliverance of God. The stones are the difference between faith and belief… between faith and hope… “Faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for…the evidence of things not seen” Hope will will wait to see what happens. Faith starts gathering stones to mark the site of deliverance.
Look back on your life and find where God has been faithful to rescue you… and mark those places… and when the pain is too great to bear… or sorrow threatens to swallow you whole… when you can’t go forward… look back… and see those stones…strengthen your faith that God will deliver you… and start gathering stones again… for his deliverance will be upon you at the perfect time…
Tags: depression, Faith, fear// June 19th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // My God, My Thoughts
The Pharisees were harsh and judgmental of anything that did not fit their ideology of righteousness. Yet Jesus Continually rebuked them and warned them that they would be judged accordingly. Isn’t is strange that so many Christians still insist on acting more like Pharisees and less like the Jesus that we claim to follow?
Someone very wise once said that cynicism, skepticism, and criticism are the opposites of faith, hope and love.
Harsh, Angry, Judgmental behavior is often more of an indicator of fear and lack of truth than anything else…If you are familiar with discerning truth you probably already know, Truth can stand up to challenging… without anger, without resentment, without fear.
It seems that I do not go very long these days without hearing fresh news of Christians who forget the Jesus that they follow and begin acting like the very brood of vipers that Jesus rebuked. Some would seem to believe that a position of leadership entitles them to such behavior, I would beg to differ and I beleive that I can safely say that regardless of your status as a leader, if you deal with your own brothers and sisters in Christ harshly, critizising, accusing, causing them pain, then you are a fool and you do not understand the message of the Gospel at all!
I say this very seriously and with great love in my heart for every person that reads this.
If you deal with others in a harsh, critical, judgmental manner, do you think that you will escape the judgment of God? Do not deceive yourself, such things bring shame on the church and the people of God.
My life is filled with people who have been hurt by religion and Christians in particular, and it fully angers me that these hurting people were never the ones that sat in their pews doing nothing, they were once passionate, and christlike, and hungry to serve. But some egotist made it their business to shut down the work of God. Again I tell you …. do you expect to escape his wrath?
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 1 Corinthians 10:12
PEOPLE! Give grace! love each other, be gentle with each other… LEADERS! Be kind, be compassionate, be merciful and nurturing!
If you insist on acting like a brood of vipers get out of the Church business!!! Wall Street needs you!!!
photo credit: nsaplayer
// June 2nd, 2009 // 1 Comment » // My Thoughts
The Idea of even having “rights” is a fabrication of ideas based on ownership and selfishness. In Christ we are neither slave, free, man, woman. this is bigger than rights! it involves realizing that you are actually a spiritual being that is free of these silly constraints and learning to exist in whatever state you find yourself in. Our faith becomes our reality, our hope becomes our future and our love becomes our identity. None of these things are anchored to the temporal world we live in. Ultimately we who are in the image of GOD become even more like GOD by embracing his very nature.
Giving up your rights is most definitely an exercise in semantics. Only when we free ourselves from the silly logical constructs of “perceived reality” we realize that rights can’t be given or taken truly! we always have choice, granted the choices that we perceive may change but regardless of anyone’s perception of “rights” everyone still maintains the ability to choose. To push this concept even further faith even allows us to make choices that are impossible based on “perception”
Tags: choice, choices, exercise, Faith, God, Love, perception, selfishness, semantics, spirit, spiritual being, temporal world// May 9th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // My God, My Thoughts
In the post “Finding Faith” I really wanted to introduce the concept of how faith is more of a perception of reality rather than a choice to make. The enormity of what faith really is goes far beyond perception. We rarely think of who God really is, what he does on a daily basis, and why he does what he does.
God is the crafter of reality as we know it… every moment in time and all of the possibilities in that moment are available to him to use as he sees fit. From God’s perspective the impossible is non-existent, It takes God no more effort to perform the impossible than it does to perform the possible. both are his creation – something… from nothing.
I daydreamed the other day that God was a painter, and he was also my father… and I was a little 5 year old. I imagined that my father had a cozy room that he painted in. I went into his painting room one day to watch him paint as I often did… I sat and talked to him as he painted an amazing picture that I could only dream of painting. But today was different… today my father asked me to come close… he put his arm around me and placed his paintbrush in my hand… and said, “Let’s paint together today” at first I was afraid, I didn’t want to mess up his beautiful picture; but he held my hand as we painted together, he allowed me to make the stroke but he guided my hand in the right direction. He also asked what I wanted in the picture… so I told him of my dreams and we painted them together. Finally the picture was done and it was amazing and beautiful.
Having faith is just that, holding the paintbrush of the Creator, he steadies our hand, directs the stroke, but nonetheless we are still holding and painting with the very brush that painted us…
Tags: choice, Faith, God, pain, Painting, perception, perspective
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