2014 "Top 10 List"

As we begin a new year of resolutions and changes, I wanted to take a minute to provide a "Top 10" list of verses that will help keep you motivated and encouraged. 

Happy New Year!! 

1. For I know the plans I have for you (declares the Lord) plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future - Jeremiah 29:11-13
   
2. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength and love your neighbor as you love yourself; There are no commands greater than these - Mark 12:30-31
   
3. Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all ways, submit to Him and he will set your path straight - Proverbs 3:5-6
   
4. Be kind and compassionate to one another forgiving each other just as Christ forgave you - Ephesians 4:32
   
5. And when you pray, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive your sins - Mark 11:25-26
   
6. Be still in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently for Him to act. Don't worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes - Psalm 37:7
   
7. Be joyful always, pray continuously, and give thanks in all circumstances; For that is God's will for you - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
   
8. As long as you know that God is for you, it doesn't matter who is against you - Romans 8:31
   
9. We should rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope - Romans 5:3-4
   
10. My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness. Therefore I will boast about my weakness...in hardships, persecutions, and difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong - 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

A Different Perspective

A single mom tells her young son "Not this weekend honey, we have a lot of stuff to do." The son stomps away and goes to his room angry with his mom that she won't let him visit with his Dad.

What the boy doesn't know is that the Dad (once again) has chosen to go drinking with his friends and has forgotten all about it being his weekend. In an effort to protect the image he has of his Dad - the man he looks up to and wants to be when he grows up - she makes yet another excuse and prays that one day he will get his life together and be a part of his sons life.

Two teenage girls, best friends, get excited about entering an upcoming talent show. Just a few days before the show, the one friend says "I'm not sure we should go thru with this. Maybe we should do it next year when we've had more time to practice." The other girl starts crying and accuses her friend of being jealous. As she's running away she yells "I thought you were supposed to be my best friend!"

What the girl doesn't know is that her friend heard a group of kids talking about how they were going ridicule her on stage and make fun of her the rest of the year. In an effort to protect her friend she thought the best way to handle it was to talk her out of it. She would rather have her best friend be mad at her for a little bit than to carry that scar around for a lifetime. 

The bible says:

 "I know the plans I have for you - plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future" 

  Much like the stories above, I wonder how many times God has done something in our lives to protect us and we've responded with anger, a tantrum, or ungratefulness? A traffic jam, not getting the promotion we wanted, being late to work, etc. What if those were all various ways that God was somehow protecting us that day?


Until we get to Heaven, we will never fully understand God's plan for us and why our lives are laid out the way they are. In the meantime though, He leaves us with a very simple (3) step process to help us live life to the fullest...

1. Be joyful always 
2. Pray continually 
3. Give thanks in ALL circumstances 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

So the next time something happens to you that isn't exactly what you wanted, instead of being frustrated try taking a minute to say "Thank you God - I'm not sure why I'm thanking you, but YOU know why and that's all that matters" 

What Would YOU Do for a Klondike Bar??

There was a commercial that used to come on all the time when I was a kid. You know the one - It had a catchy tune and it showed various scenarios of what people would do for a delicious Klondike ice cream bar. The catch phrase was "What would you do for a Klondike Bar..." and then it went on to show all kinds of ridiculous scenarios.

As crazy as it sounds, it got me thinking about what we would do for various things in life - not just for a chocolate coated ice cream bar, lol. Think about these questions for just a minute and dream with me.....

• If I knew the winning lottery numbers and offered to give them to you, what would you do for them? 
• If I knew of a MILLION dollars buried somewhere in your state, how far would you go to uncover it? 

• What if I knew the secret to happiness and eternal life - Would you give me 5 minutes to talk to you about it? 

Ahhhh, there we go. Turns out, most people will give their full attention to the first two bullet points but then shy away from the last question. Seems we would do just about anything for money, but when it comes to talking about eternity, Jesus, salvation, etc. we tend to think it's not that important. Why is that?

I mean think about it.....Everything we do is for an end result - We work for money. We need money for food, a house, a car. We want a car to go places, do things, see things. We marry to have a partner for life, to have kids, to be loved. Everything for an end result.....So what is the final result you're looking for? What are you living your life for?

I read somewhere the other day that out of some 7 BILLION people, only 2 BILLION are professed Christians and believe in God. That leaves 5 billion people that you can ask the question to "What if I knew the secret to happiness and eternal life?"

What if we're running out of time to ask that question? What if not knowing the answer to it means an eternity of sadness and pain? Are you willing to chance that for yourself, your neighbors, your co-workers, family, and friends?

Let's pretend that Heaven and Eternity are the proverbial "Klondike Bar" - What would you do for it?

You can start here :

http://www.southeastchristian.org/?page=4754&sermon=178

Catch Me if You Can!

When we lose something important to us what do we do? We spend hours, days, sometimes even years looking for it until we find it again.....I imagine that God does the same thing when He loses one of us to sin, doubt, worries, or wordly treasures. He searches and searches until He finds us, then He chases after us until He eventually catches us.

Take a look at a few of the notes I jotted down from our sermon last week called "Running from God" ~ 

• "When we feel the weight of our sin, that's God trying to get our attention" 
• "With God, being 'caught' doesn't always mean punishment - Sometimes it leads to salvation" 
• "Sometimes we find ourselves running from God's will for our lives" 
• "Why would God spare you? Why would He forgive you of your sins? It's because He's not done with you yet" 

Do any of those quotes touch a nerve with you or seem familiar? They did for me.....

Growing up I spent a lot of time making bad choices and justifying them with various excuses. When someone wanted to talk to me about Jesus I diverted the conversation to something else. I avoided church and any activity that might cause me to face my sins and make changes. Quite frankly, I knew that admitting my sins and having a relationship with Jesus meant that I would have to change my life and stop doing everything that I wanted to do. The funny thing is, all the things I wanted to do made me happy at the time, but the happiness wore off quickly and I found myself spinning around in this circle of 'Why me?' and 'I wish things were different!' Good thing God never stopped chasing after me  all those years....

The funny thing about someone running after you is that if you're both running at the same pace, you eventually need to slow down or stop in order for them to catch you. What do YOU need to slow down or stop doing in order for God to catch up with you? Is there a sin in your life that keeps you constantly running from God? Is there a doubt or worry that you let consume you and keep you from being close to Him? Or is it the things of this world - money, possessions, relationships, your job, etc. that keep you running as fast as you can? 

Whatever keeps you on the run, I encourage you to SLOW DOWN and listen to what God is saying to you...Let Him catch you and your life will never be the same again, I promise. 

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps" ~ Proverbs 16:9

The ONE Decision That Ruined Your Life.....

My heart has been heavy for several weeks now - I go to bed praying, I wake up praying, and I spend most of my day sporadically praying. You might say I have gone into 'desperate prayer mode'. For what you might ask? Well.....for you.

Truth be told, it's for me too. 

You know what I realized? I realized that each of us is ONE bad mistake away from ruining our lives. I mean think about it - ONE bad mistake and your life is turned upside down.

By itself, that's pretty depressing but then you know what else I realized? I realized that we are all ONE DECISION away from ruining our eternal lives. 

Jesus said over and over again "Do not love the things of this world!"

But what does that mean? Simply put, it means you should love God above all else. 

In Matthew 19:21-24 a man comes up to Jesus and tells Him how much he loves Him and that he wants to follow Him. Jesus replies "Go sell your possessions and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me". But the man went away sad because he had great wealth.

Jesus also says in Luke 9:23-25 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily to follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world but lose himself?"

So what do YOU love more than God? Do your words and your actions glorify Him? Do people see Jesus thru you? Or if asked to describe what you love would someone answer "Sports, TV, work, food, the computer, etc"? Would Jesus even make the list??

Here are a few quotes that help put things into perspective: 

• "I am allowed to do all things, but all things are not good for me to do. We are allowed to do all things, but not all things help others grow stronger. Do not look out only for yourselves. Look out for the good of others also. " ~ 1 Corinthians 

• "The spirit wants to do what is right but the body is weak" ~ Matthew  

Look at the first quote - It means we are all given free will with the ability to make decisions and choices that will impact how we live on this earth. ONE of those decisions is the choice to follow Jesus, allowing the Holy Spirit to live in us and help us make the best decisions. Now look at the second quote - The "spirit" which is the Holy Spirit, will always guide you to do what is right because the body is weak. Those who do not choose to follow Jesus do not have the spirit living in them and their 'weak body/mind' will make decisions that impact them negatively.

So here's the bottom line - I said earlier that we are all one decision away from ruining our eternal lives. Let's change that around to say:

We are all ONE DECISION away from saving our lives - both now and eternally. 

Choose to follow Jesus. Choose to open up your heart, mind, and soul to Him and stop living for the things of this world. If you haven't been listening before now, it's not too late. Jesus is always ready no matter where you are in life. It's that simple.....I promise. 

 

 

 

Gay Marriage....What does God Want?

First let me start off by saying that by no means am I scholar or an all knowing Guru of the bible. I do, however, feel like I know a thing or two about Jesus and about Love so I want to share my thoughts on the most recent hate filled topic taking over FB - Gay Marriage

Here are some facts I would like to share: 

• We are ALL sinners - That's why God sent his son to die for us so that we could be forgiven of our sins and have eternal life in heaven 

• In Revelation, when talking about those who are destined for hell, there is no order of importance. In other words, liars receive the same punishment as murderers. Add in the cowardly, the unbelievers, the vile, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters, and the sexually immoral and you have a full list of sinners that are all equal in God's eyes

• The Bible is full of laws - most of them are made by man with the purpose of 'walking a straight line' and following God. But we tend to get so focused on these 'rules' that we lose sight of the most important message Jesus tried to teach us....."Teacher, which command in the law is most important?" Jesus answered "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and MOST IMPORTANT command. And the second command is like the first. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. All the law and all the writings of the prophets depend on these two commands" ~ Matthew 22:36-40

Alright, it's Pop Quiz time! I would like to you to openly and honestly answer the following questions: 

1. Did you have sex before marriage? 
2. Have you had sex with more than one person? 
3. Have you divorced someone who didn't cheat on you? 
4. Have you married someone who has been divorced? 
5. Have you ever lusted for someone secretly? 
6. Have you ever watched a movie where there was nudity or sex? 
7. Have you ever cheated on your spouse? Either physically or in your mind/daydreams? 

If you answered YES to any of the questions above, congratulations! You qualify as sexually immoral according to scripture! 

Ok, ok.... I'll shut down the sarcasm now but I hope I've made my point. All of you finger pointers and hate spreaders need to look at what you're doing. Are you glorifying God with your hate filled comments? Are your actions in line with loving God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul? Are you loving your neighbor as yourself? Or are you too busy pointing out the speck in someone else's eye that you fail to see the plank of wood in your own eye?

           

               

Please don't misunderstand me - this is not a contest or a debate of "Well, atleast I didn't do _____!" It's about awareness and focus around Jesus. It's about creating an environment of love and for those of us who are followers of Christ, and it's about leading others to Him thru our actions.

In Phillipians there is a verse that is written around 'following the rules'. It really stuck with me and I would like to end this blog entry having each of you think about the words that are said here - especially the last sentence. It's not about being 'for or against' gay marriage. It's about being for Jesus - it's about loving each other. It's about living your life for HIM going forward and thanking Him daily that no matter how we've sinned, He will always forgive us if we place our faith and trust in Him.

"Those things were important to me (rules/laws), but now I think they are worth nothing because of Christ. Not only those things, but I think that all things are worth nothing compared with the greatness of knowing Christ. Because of Him, I have lost all those things and now I know they are worthless trash. Now I am right with God, not because I followed the law, but because I believed in Christ." 

I Can Talk 'til I'm Blue in the Face...

What does this phrase mean? "I can talk 'til I'm blue in the face" 

Definition: If you say something until you are blue in the face, it means you keep saying the same thing over and over again but no one listens to you 

We've all heard it before - Maybe you've said it about your kids, maybe it's someone at work that you've been trying to communicate with, or maybe it's a phrase you've used with a stubborn family member. It wasn't until this week though that I realized Jesus may have also used that phrase too (maybe not in those exact words of course). 

In Mark 9:19 Jesus says "You people have no faith! How long must I stay with you? How long must I put up with you?" = He talked until He was blue in the face. 

I've been reading my bible these past few weeks and one of the things I keep seeing over and over again is:

"Let those with ears hear"

"Every person who has ears should listen"

So I've asked myself 'What does that mean?'. Why would this verse be mentioned so many times? I mean, it seems pretty obvious that if you have ears you are going to listen - Right?? Well....not really. 

I mean, think about it. How many times have you been having a conversation with someone and then afterwards they ask you a question and you're like "I'm sorry, what?" You HEARD them, but you weren't really listening. Do you think we hear Jesus but we don't really listen? How many times has He been with us but we haven't paid attention? How many opportunities have there been to let Him in our lives but we didn't "hear" Him?

Another verse from Mark says "They did not understand about the miracle of the five loaves because their minds were closed" Ahhhh, ok - It's starting to make more sense now. How can you hear if you don't WANT to hear? But wait, there's more! It also says "Let those with ears use them and listen! Think carefully about what you hear. The way you give to others is the way God will give to you, but God will give you even more. Those who have understanding will be given more. But those who do not have understanding, even what they have will be taken away from them" 

Jesus used stories to give people messages. He told story after story but many people did not want to hear them. Listening and actually HEARING what He says are two different things. This verse describes how Jesus felt after talking until He was blue in the face:

"They will look, but they will not learn. They will listen and listen but they will not understand. If they did learn and understand, they would come back to me and be forgiven" ~ Isaiah 6:9-10

Are you starting to get it now? He's giving us a warning AND an opportunity at the same time. He's saying "Look, if you have ears to hear then use them to listen to me and be saved!"One of the stories in Mark perfectly describes how we are and what we do with God's word. It goes a little something like this:

A farmer goes out to plant seeds. While he was planting, some seeds fell by the road and the birds came and ate them up. Some seed also fell on the rocky ground where there wasn't much dirt. That seed grew very fast because the ground was not deep but when the sun rose the plants dried up because they did not have deep roots. Some other seeds fell among thorny weeds which grew and choked the good plants out so those seeds did not produce a crop. Other seeds feel on good ground and began to grow. They got taller and produced a crop. Those plants made thirty times more, some made sixty times more, and some made a hundred times more"

Ummmm....ok?? So a farmer dropped some seeds and some of them grew and some of them didn't grow. Gee, thanks for the story Jesus.

But what happens if we listen to the story with different ears? 

• The farmer is like a person who plants God's message in people 

•  Sometimes the teaching falls on the road. This is like the people who hear the teaching of God but Satan quickly comes and takes away what was planted in them

• Others are like the seed planted on rocky ground. They hear the teaching and quickly accept it with joy. But since they don't allow the teaching to go deep into their lives, they keep it only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes, they quickly give up

• Others are like the seed planted among thorny weeds. They hear the teaching but the worries of this life, the temptation of wealth, and many other evil desires keep the teaching from growing and producing fruit in their lives

• Others are like the seed planted on the good ground. They HEAR the teaching and accept it/apply it. Then they grow and produce fruit - sometimes up to 100x's more 

I get it now - I need to do more than just listen. I need to HEAR, maybe even with different ears. I need to be WILLING to let Jesus into my life and then I need to accept what He's saying and apply it.

"Ask and God will give to you. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will open for you. Yes, everyone who asks will receive. Everyone who searches will find. And everyone who knocks will have the door opened"

Are you searching? Are you seeking? If you're not, today is a perfect day to start. Let everyone who has ears listen - That's you :)

I hear you Jesus, all the way down in my heart...