Category: The Church

What’s Going On God? – pt 2

Every person in scripture had a purpose from God to fulfill. Just like each of us have a purpose to fulfill.  Each persons life took different turns and twists on the way to achieving that purpose, and Each person had a different approach to his destiny and which either qualified him, or disqualified him.  Everyone had similar difficulties to overcome – 1Corinthians 10:13  “But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience.”

Each one had things happen TO them,

So that things could happen IN them,

So that things could happen THROUGH them.

Discovering God’s purposes for us leads us through 4 stages.  Now before this process can begin in our lives we need God to give us insight into what He wants to do and become We call this receiving a Revelation.  In this stage God sets our sights on what can be.  The possibilities of what He wants to do.  Receiving a revelation brings an increased expectancy and faith that challenges us to reach for the impossible.  Which means that hearing God personally is extremely important in our lives.  Without input and direction from God we will each go our own way and do our own thing.  Jesus said “It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God’s mouth.”  Matthew 4:4 Message.  We really need to know the heart of God personally and hear from Him regularly.  This starts us on the journey and is the easiest part.  God speaks, and we listen.  How we respond to what God does next determines if we begin to fulfill the purpose of God for us.  Immediately after we receive a revelation from God He moves us into the second stage.

Now this is an exceptionally important stage and one that cannot be passed over.

This is the stage of Confrontation.  It is where God begins to deal with our character.  And it is the stage where we feel the most uncomfortable because it is where God begins to show us ourselves.   God begins to confront us with the changes that need to happen in our lives so we can fulfil His destiny for our lives.  This is where things begin to happen TO us.  In order for us to fulfill what God has planned for us we require change

God isn’t going to change His mind about us, but there are things in our lives that are standing in the way of His plans.  It is here at this stage that God begins to reveal the changes that are necessary.  But it is also at this stage that much of what God is doing in our lives can go misunderstood and as a result go unresponded to.

As a result of our misunderstanding what God is doing at this stage we can often fall into resentment, bitterness and complaining.  Some people have so misunderstood what God was doing that they have completely given up on their future.  God’s desire is for us to be like Jesus.  And so God begins to squeeze us so that just like toothpaste, what is really on the inside of us comes out.  God has to confront us with ourselves.  We need to honestly see ourselves as God sees us so we can change.  We have to face the reality of who we really are, and not the rationalization.  If we simply keep justifying ourselves and our lives we won’t change.  And if we don’t change we will miss fulfilling our purpose.

We have to understand this process and take heart that even though it may be difficult there is a reward at the end worth all of this hardship.

Things happen TO me,

So that things can happen IN me,

So that things can happen THROUGH me.

We cannot become who God wants us to be to in a day.  Just take one step at a time as God leads. Things happen TO us to reveal in us what God wants us to deal with.  We have to choose to respond to or ignore God.

Securely Anchored

anchorAnchors have been around as long as we have had boats on water.  They are a means of securing a boat to keep it from drifting away.  On larger vessels capable of ocean voyages they also secure the ship against the storms that come.  Oil drilling rigs are often stationed in some of the worst areas in our oceans for storms and they are anchored securely and even the worst of the storms the crew can remain secure in the fact that the anchors have been designed to keep them secure and in place.  They won’t drift or blow away.

In our lives anchors are important as well.  We live in a world that is going crazier every day.  With new bombings happening in Belgium, and Turkey, and terrorist attacks on the rise all around the world our lives are become more and more unstable.  People are beginning to question much of what they had counted on for securing.  With global instability rising, and markets crashing even the finances we had set aside and based some security in for our future is disappearing.  Overnight people are waking up to realities where the moneys they had worked so hard to set aside and plan for had disappeared.  Many lost thousands as the market values crashed and world currencies devalued.  Security has become an illusion for many people.  With home invasions on the rise, and gun violence all around us many have become disillusioned with what we had at one time considered security.

In all of this there is an opportunity to have real hope.  An all-encompassing sense of security inside, even when the world is going crazy outside.  There is an ability to have a confident peace that is secure and quietly allows you to weather all that life may send your way.  It isn’t an absence of things going wrong, but a confidence and hope that fills us regardless of things going wrong.

1 Peter 1:3 talks about this hope that is available to us.  “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” NIV Jesus is alive.  He was dead, and was raised to life again, and because of this we can have a deep-seated hope and confidence that is not dependent on our circumstances.  A hope which anchors us securely through all that life sends our way.  “This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.” Hebrews 6:19 NLT

As we enter the season where we as Christians reflect on what Jesus did for us, and offers to us because of His death and resurrection we need to refocus our lives at times.  We can get distracted and allow ourselves to let go of our anchor and tie ourselves to many other things which will never be able to hold us true and steady.  In this season we need to ask ourselves what are we anchored to, and will it hold no matter what comes?

Are you following?

follow meWhat does it mean to follow someone?  In our world it doesn’t mean much.  It usually means that we go in the same direction as the one we are following.  But in Jesus’ day follow me actually had a depth of meaning.  When Jesus spoke to His disciples and said “Follow Me…” they knew it was more than traveling together.

A modern image of following someone would be an apprenticeship.  When you apprentice for a trade, you are a student or follower, and you allow the teacher or master to guide you and train you to become like him.  If your studying to be an electrician you will follow a journeyman or master and learn to be an electrician by doing what you see done.

Following in Jesus’ day meant more than just learning a trade.  It also meant learning a life.  When you followed someone you became like the one you followed.  You learned to think and act like them.  You didn’t trade in your personal identity at all, but you submitted your life to the one you followed, and you learned to live life the same way they did.  It went deeper than apprenticeship.  You learned a lifestyle, a world view, a way of relating to the world around you, and you took on the mission of the one you followed.  Your character changed, your life mission changed.  Peter and the other disciples left their respective trades and jobs to become like Jesus.

Paul, who encountered Jesus and became a follower stated in 1 Corinthians 11:1 “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.“ NIV  Paul understood what it meant to follow.  In essence you become like the one you choose to follow after.  You take on their traits, some of their habits.  You allow them to speak into your life and character and to build you up.  And you take on their mission.  You become an electrician if your following one.

If you look at your life who would you say you follow.  As Christians we are called to follow Jesus.  But we don’t see much of the life of Christ when we look at our lives.  Wolfgang Samson wrote “In the West, the lifestyles of many Christians are still centered on careers, TV, hobbies, privacy, and pets. We sugarcoat our faith with a thin layer of Christian behavior: attending church services, praying before meals, and listening to Christian music. This is not much different from the lifestyle of the average person living in the West where almost everything is geared toward the pursuit of personal security, success, fun, and even individual spiritual growth.”   We call ourselves Christians, or followers of Christ but are we following?  A follower always becomes like the one they follow.

One quick way to check if you are following Jesus is to see if you are passionate about His mission.  Jesus stated His mission was “For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” Luke 19:10 NLT  And He stated that following Him would have us taking on His mission.  “Jesus said to them, “Follow Me. I will make you fish for men!” Matthew 4:19 NLV.  If we are not becoming sharing the hope that we have with those we come in contact with and seeking to connect them with Jesus, can we say we are following?  Someone once wrote “If your not fishing, your not following.”  Who are you following?  Does it need to change?  Only you can decide who you want to follow.  Everyone follows someone.  We need to decide if they are worth following and if we really want to become like them.