New Year's Resolutions

People make New Year resolutions as a way of verbalizing the changes that they want to make for the new year. Many people say they want to lose weight or spend more time with their families. They say so many things that many keep but a vast majority do not keep ...

I was thinking of this the other day. I was thinking that for many New Year's Resolutions is sort of like their walk with Christ. They start off saying that they want a change.. They want things to be different, yet many do the same things with their walk that they do with their Resolutions... They try to change the thing without making it a lifestyle change. They try to cut corners. This is why for many they cannot keep their Resolution past the first week in January. This is why for many they get frustrated in their walk with Christ and give up...

In order to keep up our walk with Christ, we have to make it apart of our life. We have to incorporate it in everything that we do. We cannot just say I want to change... and not change how we do things.

The scripture that comes to  mind initially is Ephesians 4:23: And be renewed in the spirit of your mind. There are many other places that talk about renewing your mind - changing your way of doing things. The entire Bible itself is based on changing the way we do things. It is a clear example of what to do when one way is not working. It was no longer working for the people not to have a Messiah. The people, however, would never be able to accept a Messiah if they could not change how they thought the Messiah should be and how the Messiah should come. Many did miss out because they couldn't let go of how things had been done, but for those who were able to let go.. They got to experience a peace that had not been experienced before. This allowed for them to be able to continue their walk with the same enthusiasm in which they started out their walk with. This is the thing that allows us to continue in our walk with Christ.

Many of us make New Year's Resolutions without incorporating it into our everyday life. Many of us cannot keep our Resolutions past the first week in January. My challenge to you is to whatever you decide to make as your New Year's Resolution that you make it apart of your life. I challenge you not to cut corners,  but to have it be an active part of your life. I challenge you to do the same thing in your walk with Christ. I challenge you to make Matthew 6:33 not just words you repeat, but that you actually Seek ye first the kingdom of God.... When you seek him first, you change how you do things........

Have a Happy New Year, and let's work to make 2014 a year in which we do not cut corners. Let's make it a year in which we work on changing our minds...

What is my Motivation?

During the Christmas season, we walk around being nice to people who any other time we may ignore. Why do we do it? What is our motivation?

It makes me wonder at times because it questions our motive. Are we doing it because of the season or because it is genuinely in our hearts.

I bring this up because it ties into why we choose to be Christians - is it for the fame, wealth and/or riches that we think we are going to get or is it out of genuine love and curiosity that we choose to be Christians?

The story of Abraham comes to mind. He is told by God to pack up, leave everything behind, and move to a new land. The covenant that God makes with Abraham is that if he does this, he will be the Father of many nations. This does make you think that his motivation for following God was to have a son and that was his only motivation. After Abraham gets his son, God then tells him to kill him. Abraham, while it pained him, was willing to kill his son - the son that God had promised to him...

I believe that God did this to see where Abraham's heart was. Abraham showed that his heart was with God, not just because he had promised him a son, but because he genuinely loved God... He showed this by being willing to "kill" that which he had been praying and praising God for.

Is that us? Do we follow God because we love him? Or is our motivation less than pure?

My challenge to you during this holiday season is to examine why you are a Christian. Take a look at why you have chosen to follow God. Take stock of what your motivation is...

Ask yourself:  What my Motivation?

Image is everything... or is it?

One of my favorite scriptures is 2 Samuel 6:20-21:

20: Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!

21: And David said unto Michal, It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel: therefore will I play before the Lord.

This came to mind the other day sitting in Church. It was during praise and worship and the praise team was trying to get people to actively participate in praise and worship. At my church, this is not usually a problem, however, while people participate, you can still see that people hold back.... 

Why is that? Why is it so hard to completely lose ourselves in praise and worship? Why do we look around the Church to see what others are doing and/or wearing?   Why is it so hard to just spend that time with God, especially when that is what we are supposed to be doing anyway... For most of us, the hardest thing is to lose ourselves and to lose control... Maybe that's it. Maybe we are not loosing ourselves in praise and worship because we cannot give up control. Is it that to us image is everything? Is it that we put on this persona that we don't want people to deviate from when they think of us?  Maybe it IS the idea that people might think we are foolish as to why we cannot lose ourselves in praise and worship?  

I believe that we should take a page out of David's book. Yes, he praised so hard that he did dance himself out of his clothes. While I am not saying that you dance yourself out of your clothes, I am saying that you when questioned and ridiculed about why you praise and worship with the intensity that you do, that you do what David did he told his wife flat out that because of all of the things God has done for me, I will praise him. This is where we should be. We should get to a point where it does not matter who sees us, but what matters is what God has done for us. Praise and Worship is not for us, it is for God. It is our way of showing God that we recognize where our strength comes from. We should be willing to let go of ourselves and praise God with everything... I mean, when he moves for us, he uses everything in his disposal so why can't we praise him with the same abandonment as David... Or is image everything?

What can you handle?

We ask for deliverance... We ask to be blessed...We ask for God to show up on our behalf... Yet when we ask for this, we want things to happen instantly.. We want it to be a snap of the fingers and it is done...

How much do we appreciate things when we are handed them? How much do we appreciate things that haven't been worked for?

This is why I believe that there are situations in which we have to fight; Claw, tooth and nail in order to achieve things. While God may not "honor" works, he does put us thorough tests...

These tests ultimately put us through our paces. It shows to us whether or not we can handle the very thing in which we are asking God for.

We wouldn't be able to handle that which God is giving us without these trials...

I think of it this way -

Adam and Eve were given the garden of Eden... We see what happened there.....
David had to survive in the wilderness; Scrape and be resourceful before he became king. Yes, he did mess up, but he is recorded as being a great king.

God knew David could handle being hunted by Saul.. God knew that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego could handle being thrown in the fiery furnace. He knew that Daniel could handle being thrown in the Lion's den and he knew Paul could handle writing to the Corinthians, the Romans, the Galatians, the Hebrews as well as teaching Timothy...

There are many more examples throughout the bible in which people had to work for and go through tribulations that they thought they could not handle, yet God knew that they could not only handle it, but that they would ultimately give him the glory....

With this I say, revel in the tribulations. Learn what it is that you have to learn in your season.. You never know what God has in store for you.

Understand this God never gives us more than we can handle...

So my question to you is this... What can you handle?

Forgivness

I was watching a movie today, and the main characters had so many things going on..
The thing that stuck out was that one of the main characters could not forgive.

It started to make me wonder - How many of the blessings in life do we block by being unforgiving?

The Our Father has a portion in it that says "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us".

Why would Jesus feel the need to put a line like that in what is to be our example of how to pray...?

It goes to show you the power of forgiveness.

We block what God can do for us by not forgiving those who have wronged us....

We block God, because we want from God what we are not willing to do in return....

God cannot move for us when we do not met him halfway. We meet him halfway by doing the very thing we ask of him - forgiving others the way we want to be forgiven...

My question to you is what doors in your life do you think will open up when you forgive everyone who has ever hurt you.....

Cleaning out the camp

Last we spoke we talked about your camp: making sure that your camp is supposed to be your camp and purging it of people who aren't supposed to be there.. Speaking of people who aren't supposed there - How do you know they aren't supposed to be there?

Now we can get all deep and spiritual about this and say the Spirit will reveal to you whose supposed to be there and who is not... That's all well and good... We do get to a point where the Spirit guides us and directs us. But how do we distinguish between us (our carnal selves) and the Spirit?

Firstly, we have to make sure that we know God's voice. We know his voice by reading and understanding his word. 2Timothy 2:15 Says: Study to show thyself approved. Now if you've grown up in the Church like I have, you are very familiar with this verse but may not understand it. On the surface it's very simple: Study means to devote time to acquiring knowledge. So the verse on the surface means to devote time to acquiring the knowledge to show thyself approved. Approved? Approved for what.... Approved to be able to teach others about God... You can argue that no formal education is needed in order to do this. But I present this to you If no formal education is needed, why did the Apostles, leave everything behind and travel with Jesus before they embarked on their own journeys? This is because they did not know all that they needed to just as we do not know.

Secondly, we have to make sure we have our own understanding of God's word. Many of us have grown up in or around the Church in some shape form or fashion. Me, I went to Catholic School. But it wasn't until I got older that I came to the realization that what I knew of God's word, is what others taught me based on Their understanding, but I didn't know it for myself. Not knowing it for myself, left me open to all types of interpretations of it. Some of it good, some of it bad, and some of it indifferent. There was no way for me to know what was truth and what wasn't. There are still things in which I do not know, but I have gained a better understanding of the Word by reading it and praying on it...

Thirdly, we have to constantly stay in the word. Just like with everything else, we go through stages in order to grow. We start off as babes, then grow in maturity until we become "Adults". *Disclaimer.. Age does not always mean you are an adult* Just like having been saved for 5+,10+, 15+ years does not mean you are a mature believer. A mature believer has studied the word and have an understanding for themselves, yet they understand that there are always things that they can learn. A mature believer understands that they have to read the word daily and meditate on it day and night. A mature believer understands that the things that they absorb through their senses directly affects their way of thinking which directly affects who they allow to be in their camp.

Our camp changes as we mature. This is because we by nature associate ourselves with people who think like us, act like us.  If we are operating on another level, those who are no longer on the level with us, nor who are willing to be pulled up by us and along with us, will be weeded out. Some of them will leave, but most we will have to let go.... Being able to do this all comes from the renewal of our minds ( Staying in the word, understanding the word, and hearing God's voice.)

Whose in your camp?

 Jacob means "Trickster" and he spent his life living up to it. He however, encountered a bigger trickster in his Uncle Laban. He tricked him into marrying Leah before Rachel even though all Jacob wanted was Rachel. Laban then tricked Jacob into working another 7 years for Rachel. When Jacob finally said enough is enough he had worked for Laban for 20 years. Jacob was ready to go. He was ready to pack up and leave. When he got ready to leave, he went to Laban and let him know he was leaving. Laban convinced him to stay. He offered him anything he wanted. Jacob recognized that Laban had all he had because he was connected to Jacob. When God blessed Jacob, Laban received a blessing as well.... Long story short, Jacob, in the middle of the night, packs up his wives, his children, his servants, and all of his possessions and left. When Laban realized he had left, he traveled after him. The reason that Laban was chasing after him was because one of Jacob's wives had gone into Laban's tent and stolen his gods. Jacob did not know that the gods were in his possession.(Genesis 31:15-49)

The reason I bring this particular story up is because it goes to show you that the actions of those in your camp affect the overall outcome of things as much as your actions do. We see this throughout the Bible. Adam went through it, Moses had to wander 40 years because of it, Joshua went through it... Even Jesus had to deal with betrayal in his own camp. Why do we keep finding examples of this throughout the Bible? We find it to let us know that not everyone who is connected to us has our best interests in heart. It is to let us know that we have to be very careful who is allowed to move with us. We have to be careful because as we see in the case of Jacob, a member of his own camp, his inner circle, brought with them foreign gods. They did this knowing that the God of his father Isaac and his grand-father Abraham was the only God that they served. They also did this without telling Jacob....

Jacob's story is a warning to us.... We may have people who are in our camp, in our inner circle, who have brought idols into the camp. Idols can be money, fame, power or even other gods. We may not even know that they are there and we wonder why things are not going the way that they should be. From time to time, we have to take stock of those around us.. We have to make sure that our camp is not with us just because of the blessings they are receiving, but that they are with us because they are supposed to be with us. We have to make sure that they are not bringing idols or false gods into the camp.  I have found in the reflection of my own camp that there are people who don't always have my best interest in mind and have had to be cut loose in order for me to move onto the next level. I have also found in my own camp that there are people in which I thought might not have had my best interests, but in reality, were just coming from a different experience.

My challenge to you is to pray on it, then take stock of your own camp. There may be people that have to be let go... And don't be afraid to do this from time to time....

Who God is to me....

The Lord is my shepherd my rock my salvation The reason why I smile even when having a rough day He is my example My light and when I can't go any more His is the wings on which I soar.

Faith is our Currency

Faith is a funny thing.... We can lose it just as easy as we gain it. When things are going rough, our faith has a tendency to dissolve.... But what if, just what if, when we lose our faith when we stop believing that it's like shredding our paycheck. What if when we lose our faith, its like throwing a million dollars into the ocean?

Matthew 17:20 says that if we have faith like a mustard seed that we can say to the mountain move and it will move... Luke 17:6 says the same thing but with a sycamine tree instead of a mountain... What did Jesus mean by this? In Matthew 17 the apostles were trying to drive out a demon from a kid, however they could not. No one could figure out why... Jesus explained that they had no faith; because they had no faith, they could not drive the demon out. They didn't have enough currency.... 

Whenever we believe, it's like depositing money in the bank. The more we deposit, the more we have to draw on. When we believe something is going to happen, it does.. Not necessarily in the manner in which we want it to, but it does happen. We have to be careful not to hit a point where we're only living pay check to paycheck i.e. living off of God's grace. God's grace is sufficient yes, but after some point you get tired of living paycheck to paycheck. You get tired of just barely making it.. You get tired of not having any extra for rough times.... After a point, you get tired and your faith starts to waiver... When you don't have faith, you don't have currency and when you don't have currency you cannot "buy" anything. God's hands become tied because if you feel as if he can't do something or won't do something then he will not/cannot do the thing is which you need.... Not that he won't move - but that it makes it harder for him to move...

How much Currency do you have? Do you have some saved up or are you living paycheck to paycheck? 

Have you lost faith?

I find that when things are the toughest that it's the easiest to lose faith. I know I can only speak for myself, but when God does not move as fast as what I want him to, I can at times develop this sense of discouragement. It is at this time I need to be reminded of where He's brought me and where he is bringing me. It is at this time I need to be reminded that God is God and everything happens with his time....

Speaking of his time, we are not the only ones that have had to wait on God's timing. David had to wait 40 years before becoming King... 40 years! In the meantime, there where things that God had to work out in David so that when he became king he would be a great king. If it hadn't taken 40 years we never would have had the Psalms. What's special about the Psalms, well the ones written by David, is that they are still relevant today. How you may ask? Well, Psalm 23 starts with "The Lord is my Shepard, I shall not want".. Have you ever noticed that when our eyes are focused on God and the things of him that things seem to be a bit more peaceful? Not that everything is going right - but that we have an extra strength to draw from so things appear to be easy.

What makes the story of David encouraging is that if God moved fro David, he will move for us. David - even in all of his trouble, never stopped relying out to God. Psalm 46:1-2 says "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. Psalm 18:2-3 says"
is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. 3 I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised... There are many more Psalms where David has said the Lord is his rock etc... David, while at times complained, he never lost his faith and even once he became King praised God so hard that he danced out of his clothes... (2 Samuel 6:14, 20-23)....

My question to you is that in all that life has dealt you, do you still believe that God is going to fulfill everything that he has promised? Do you still believe that he will never forsake you? Do you believe?

I encourage you to not lose faith even in the midst of terrible things. 

Where do you draw your strength?

There are those of us who have moments to draw strength from when things get dark. When the night seems the shortest, when everything goes wrong, we have personal experiences to draw our strength from. We've seen God move and work things out, but what about the people who have not seen God move... What about the people who don't know who he is... 

What do they have to draw on? Where is their faith? 

Do they place their faith in man, only to build up walls later on because so many people have left them who should have been with them through thick and thin? Do they place their faith in how much money they make.. only to have their world shattered when they lose that job or have to take a pay cut? Or do they place their faith in themselves, only to be limited by what they can do?

In your moment of utter chaos... Maybe not even utter chaos, but uncertainty.... Where do you go fro direction....? Where do you draw your strength?

Pain, Testimony, and Life's Lessons

We go through life running on fumes half the time. We get hurt, go through things, and then decide not to address them until things blow up in our faces and we are forced to face things. I wonder how many of us walk through life not addressing things that are bothering us?

I was thinking of this the other day. For some reason, Jesus in the Garden right before the Crucifixion popped into my head. He's knee bent, praying in the garden. The image we see is of him in great suffering. He knows what's getting ready to happen and he's petrified. He's hurt, and I'm willing to bet that this is the first time he has really had a chance to think about the pain he's about to experience. The thing that blows your mind is that he's been prepared for this his entire life. Everything he has every said, has ever done has led to this moment; but even Jesus did not address the thing that hurt him most until he had too - until he was ready. (Matthew 26:38) When he was ready, he got on his knees and prayed. He prayed for God the Father to help him through this pain. (Matthew 26:42) He acknowledged that he has to go through this pain, not for himself, not because he wanted it to, but because it was God's will. Once he acknowledged that it was God's will, he was able to finish his mission. He understood that while he was going through the pain, the lesson wasn't for him, but it was for the people coming after him.

We lose ourselves in the pain when we forget that our pain is our testimony. It is the thing that while we had to go through it, it is the example for someone else of what not to do or of what to do in the situation. We at too many times do not share our stories. The Early Church started because of everyone sharing their stories. Paul was always sharing what he was going through, what he had experienced. He did this to let people know that while he was Paul, this great leader, he was also human. He struggled with his flesh. Paul is famous for talking about his struggles with sin... "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do." (Romans 7:19) He was constantly using his pain and suffering as encouragement for people. This, I'm willing to bet, helped him come to terms with what he was feeling; the pain he was suffering.

To be honest, this post started off talking about needing to recharge batteries. It started off talking about how there are times in our life where we need to take the time to be by ourselves to recharge our batteries. Maybe the way I needed to recharge my batteries was to think about pain..... Actually sit and think about the stuff I've been going through lately. Pray on it, and figure out what the lesson is behind it.... and Maybe.. just maybe... I'm not the only one who needs to recharge their batteries this way....

Hardest thing about change....

The idea of transforming into a better person is great. I mean we all want to change; we all want to be better today than the day before. We all want to transform ourselves into something different. The hard part in the midst of it all is keeping faith.

Faith is the hardest thing about change. Faith is the hardest thing to maintain throughout because you don't know what's going on. It's as you change that things seem to get darker and darker and darker. It's as you start to transform that it seems as if the dark clouds just keep coming and coming. It's always darkest before the dawn. In writing this, I find myself thinking about David for a number of reasons.

David, even though he was a man after God's own heart, had some dark nights. He was being chased.Saul wanted to kill him. He was living in the wilderness away from his wife, his family, and his best friend. He had to sleep in trees and in caves. He had to wait for signals in order to know when it was safe or when it was not..... This is just to name a few of the things he had to go through on his way to being king. You could argue that he had help and that he did not have to go through what he did alone - that he had others to help him out... Truth be told he was by himself. Truth be told he spent more time alone than with other people. In the midst of this he prayed. He prayed..... He prayed...... He still kept seeking after God. He learned to rely on him more in the midst of this than at any other time in his life. This is the period of his life from which the majority of the book Psalms come. They are comprised of David's personal testimonies and his praise. He is one of the many examples of people who figured out what to do in the midst of a dark night. He realized that while things were dark, the one thing he had as a constant in his life was God. He recognized that no matter what happened, no matter what was going on, God was still in the midst of it all. God was his strength, his deliverer. God was the thing in which he could trust... It was God who saved him from his enemies. It was God who never failed him. (Psalm 18).

We have to remember that if God is for us who can be against us. There are going to be times in which we go through fire. It is the fire that strengthens us; that hardens us; that forces us to examine our lives. We have to go through the fire in order to get rid of things in which are not good for us. We have to go through the fire in order to no longer rely on our own understanding of things. It's the fire that pushes us closer to God. But we have to keep faith. We cannot give up just when things are getting rough. God is doing a new thing in us, but we can not get to where he needs us to be if we give up. Faith is the most important thing in the midst of change. It's the thing that will get us through, especially when it seems as if God is not hearing our prayers; when we think he's not moving. It's the thing that we need most and yet it is the hardest thing about change.

Working to Change

We've been talking about change... Changing our thoughts, changing our way of thinking, changing the people who we hang out with etc... Stirring things up a bit. But change does not come about because we sit here and think about it...

Change comes about because we're willing to work. Our situation changes because we put in the work to change.... We sit back and complain about our jobs, yet while we have that stability what are we doing to get away from that job. I know I have fallen into that way of thinking.... I have sat there and said "I hate my job.. They are driving me nuts." Yet day in and day out, I get up, shower, get dressed, and go to work.... The job that after a while I hated... Why did I start to hate it? Because I didn't feel like I was being used in a manner in which I could be most effective. The thing I failed to realize is that how could I be used if all I did was my job description. How could I be used if with the little I had I was not willing to put in the extra work - regardless of whether or not there would be instant gratification. So I started putting in the extra work. I started going above and beyond - I started using my talents to get out of the shadows a bit. I started to put in the work...

Not only that but I started taking classes, and paying attention to how what I was learning in class could be applied to what was going on at work. I took notes, became observant. I started "working". In working, I also was able to open my thoughts and change my way of thinking. So when I decided to start looking for another job - I was able to better evaluate my skills and my talents to apply for things I knew I was a shoo-in for. Didn't get some of the things I applied for, but it allowed me to get in front of a different group of people. It allowed me to broaden my horizons, change my circle.... It also allowed me to be able to work in a manner in which it made me not hate my other job. It has made it fun again. It has also allowed me to keep in the fore-front the reason why I do what I do....

When the stability is there, you can do so much more. When you have stability, you can be more effective to those around you and to the Kingdom - God's Kingdom. Paul was able to make his money - build his stability off of building tents. He worked with his hands... Point blank - he worked.

It is in working that change happens. So the question becomes.. what work are you willing to do? What work are you willing to put in - not talking anything illegal.. but are you willing to work to change your circumstance...

Funny thing about change

Change can be a scary thing. It can be the thing that totally makes or breaks us. It's how we adapt to change is what makes us the people that we are...

Funny thing about change though, it happens whether we want it to or not. It can either happen on our own accord or it can drag us kicking and screaming into the future. The thing I have learned is that when God needs to move us, to position us, change will drag us kicking and screaming. When it drags us kicking and screaming we can end up wounded, but the wounds heal. It may leave us with scars, but it is those scars that are our "badges". Those scars are proof that we have made it out and that we are/will be OK. 

Funny thing about change, it happens can happen unexpectedly. We don't always get a warning that we're going to be fired. We don't always get a warning that a friend is going to be sick. Life doesn't always warn us about the changes that are going to rock our very existence. Reminds me of the story of Joseph. He didn't know that he would be sold into slavery. Nor did he know that he would be hit on by a ranking officials wife and thrown in prison for 12 years... I believe that if he had known, he might have stayed away from his brothers. 

Funny thing about change, it has to happen. Things have to change in order for us to move, grow... learn. Change has to happen for us to walk out our purpose. People need to be removed from our lives. We need to be removed from theirs. We need to be exposed to different things in order to learn what we need to learn. I doubt that Joseph would have been in Egypt had it not been for him being sold into slavery. I doubt if he would have had the chance to interpret dreams had he not gotten out of his comfort zone. I doubt if he would have had the chance to become second in command in Egypt had change not happened. 

Funny thing about change.. It can be a scary thing that drags us kicking and screaming into the future; it can happen unexpectedly... But it has to happen in order for us to step into our purpose. Change has to happen in order for us to keep moving forward. 

Looking the Part

We hear all the time that God chooses to use people who we may not think look the part. He will use some of the strangest people to get thing done...

I'm not going to talk about that. I believe that has been done to death... But what I will talk about is even though we may not start off looking the part, by the time God is finished with us, not only do we look the part, but we have become the new definition of what the part should look like.

Everything, every job, every profession has a "look". That's why the President that gets elected is the one who usually "looks" the best on t.v. Yeah, I know you vote based on the issues, but studies have shown that people will vote for those who look more Presidential. The same thing goes for religious leaders, teachers etc... People gravitate towards what their understanding of what the part should look like.

The religious leaders in the Gospels had all of these rules about what they should/shouldn't be doing and how they should and shouldn't look. But all the while, they had stopped doing God's work. They were cheating the people, not taking care of the poor etc... They had become the idea of what a religious leader looked like and with that came their ineffectiveness with the people. How can you trust someone who looks like they look the part and doesn't carry out the primary functions of the job?

God had to change things. He had to change the way the people thought about their leaders, and by connection him. He had to change their thoughts about how the part should look. Enters John the Baptist.  When we first encounter him he is preaching in the wilderness and baptizing people in the Jordan. He looked the farthest thing from "the part". ( Matthew 3:4, Mark 1:6). He would however, become the staple as to what the part looked like. The part looked like the people. Talked in a manner in which the people understood. The part led by example. The part changed the way you thought about who or what should be in it. The part gave glory to God not to the individual. By the time all was said and done, the idea of the part had been shattered.

In changing who we surround ourselves with, we broaden our understanding of things. We start to think outside the box in what things should look like, sound like act like. We allow for dreams to become reality. We allow ourselves to start trusting in God.... By getting away from what the "part" should look like, we gain Freedom...

Are you going to start to set yourself free? 

Changing our thoughts

I wonder if Jesus told the disciples to give up everything and follow him to change their way of thinking. Think about it... They had been doing the same thing day in and day out.. How could he have expected them to fully embrace his teachings while still worried about how they looked in the eyes of the law of the land? How could the disciples be open to anything different if all they were following was what they knew? In our time we call that insanity (Doing the same thing day after day expecting the same results). Jesus had to get them away from those who could be said to have the most influence on them, strip them bare, and then build them up in a different mindset. He has to do those things with us as well. People hit ruts in their lives because their thinking never changes. Once they get it into their heads that they cannot do it, that's it and they give up. Why is it that way? I believe its because they have not changed their way of thinking. I believe its because they keep relying on what they know (think they know) without taking that leap of Faith. I doubt that we would be here discussing this if someone had not said "I want to see what this Jesus cat is really talking about". It was a pretty radical idea to walk away from being a fisherman to being a fisher of men....


What can be done to change your way of thinking? Have you gotten into a rut and don't see a way out? Do you have a dream that no matter how hard you try it won't come to pass? Maybe, it's because you haven't decided to give up everything to follow Christ. Maybe it's because you keep doing the same thing day after day after day and expecting to see something different. Maybe it's because you keep hanging around the same people day after day after day and not broadening your circle. My favorite quote as of late is "If you're the smartest person in your group, you're group is to small.".

As we continue on with the rest of the year, lets make that apart of the things we accomplish. Let's get out and do something different everyday. Let's talk to someone different each day. Let's start a new activity. Lets       go to Church with that friend who keeps inviting us yet our belief systems might be different. Lets pray for God to work wonders in our lives instead of just asking for gas money (I'm guilty of this one myself)... Let's change how we think and see where it takes us.

Whats the Purpose?

We move through life doing the same thing day in and day out. We get caught up in an unending cycle that most people never get out of. Why is that? Why do we sit back and make plans for what we want to do without thinking of the purpose behind it?   

Part of the definition of success is the accomplishment of a purpose. A purpose.. Everything comes back to a purpose. We don't take the time to realized that the purpose of us working isn't to make a lot of money, it isn't to store up material things as they all will dissolve someday... No - the purpose of us working is to better society. Our purpose is to draw people to an enlightened mind in which they are realizing that their purpose is to make society a better place. For some the enlightenment comes from believing in a higher being from believing in something bigger than themselves. For others the enlightenment comes from realizing that they are not here just to work and then to die.... 

For those of us Christen believers, our purpose in all that we do should be to bring people closer to God. I know I'm probably guilty of not doing this as much as what I should be. You can't begin to  help others realize their purpose until you know yours.... Do you know yours? Can you say 100% that you know what you purpose is? We cannot think about our purpose, we have to be still in order to learn what it is. The moments when we have the most clarity is when we are sitting still. Still - with no distractions. But how many of us can "afford" to sit still... The better question is how many of us can afford not to sit still for a few moments everyday to tap into what our purpose is.. If Jesus had to spend time talking with God about things what makes you think we don't?

"And he withdrew himself and prayed." Matthew 5:16

What are you doing?

Have you ever had a point where you just felt like... and you just can't place what the feeling is. Some people go through life never knowing what the feeling is. Some people are so in tuned with themselves that they know not only what the feeling is, but what is causing it. Sometimes, its just the fact that you're not doing what you thought you would be doing.. Sometimes it's it's knowing what you want and being told no a few times. Being told no sucks a bit and you never know if it's that you weren't ready or if they weren't ready for you. 

How do you know? How do you keep yourself from feeling like you're free falling without a parachute. How do you keep your spirits up? Well, I can give a suggestion. Feed your Spirit. When your Spirit is malnourished it manifests itself in many different forms and for everyone it's different. What is the same though is the feeling like nothing is working... Feed your Soul... Feed your Soul... Feed Your Soul.... Feed...Your....Soul....

Think I'm going to go get a "meal" myself.... Enjoy

"Man shall not live on bread alone".  Matthew 4:4