Like this…

Do you remember the song, “Oh, Lord it’s hard to be humble, when you’re perfect in every way!” That song was sung by Mac Davis. It was a catchy tune and I can still hear the song in my head today. One of the reasons this song was so popular was because it resembled a world view. It reminds us how the world places value on people.

The world’s vision of people is physical beauty, money and accomplishment. This is how many people get values of themselves. Of course, this doesn’t line up with the Word of God. There is no biblical guarantee that you will automatically receive healthy feelings about yourself when you accept Jesus as Your Savior. Some people do, but many do not.

I didn’t! You want to know a secret about me? I have low self-esteem. I love myself as a Man of God, doing what’s right and true… but at times, I don’t like myself. Matter of fact, there are times I’m so disgusted with myself, I’ll refuse to look into the mirror. Why?

It is mainly because I label good feelings about myself as pride or conceit -traits that God hates Proverbs 21:4. When I say I don’t like myself is because of my dislike of my carnal self. That unredeemed part that has wrapped itself around my human self in an attempt to control it. The carnal self can be destroyed, but not the human self. I see it as a tension between two verses - “I can do all things through Christ” and “Apart from me you can do nothing”

I have to constantly remind myself that how we view ourselves should be how God views us. God has already established our value, we just need to acknowledge and recognize it.

When I was in Italy during the Navy, I overheard others talking about the value of items you could obtain while in Italy. You could buy rugs and fabrics for pennies and return home and sell them for 200 – 300% profit. As Sailors, we were allowed to purchase and bring aboard ship only a certain amount of items. Basically, if they didn’t fit in your locker on the ship, you really couldn’t bring it aboard.

Being Italian, I realized this issue and went to find a stone called Paesina. A Rare Italian stone made into jewelry and worth a lot of money in America. I acquired 20 pounds of it with the intention of making a lot of money off it. I would have too except I failed to realize the value wasn’t really in the stone itself but the craftsmanship of the Jeweler. I did make a profit but it was nothing compared to what I would have made if it was already in the form of jewelry.

1 Corinthians 6:19, 20 or don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”

We are like the Italian stone when we first become saved….rare and valuable. Our real worth is when we let the craftsman mold and shape us once we become saved. This takes time and involves a lot of chipping away, sanding, smoothing and polishing. This doesn’t occur instantaneously.

There is a great video on you tube produced by “The Skit Guys” called “God’s Chisel”. I highly recommend you to see this video if you haven’t had the chance. It deals with God Chipping away at us and revealing our true selves in him.

Yes at times I don’t like myself very much but I know God loves me and views me much differently. Isaiah 62:5 “…as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”

My low self-image of myself is a reflection of how I believe other people see me. It consists of who I think other people think I am. That’s a lie straight from the Devil! It would be real cool if everyone liked me but I need to realize that it’s not necessary! Even Jesus was not liked by everyone. He had but twelve disciples, and one betrayed him and one denied him.

Proverbs 23:7 as a man thinketh in his heart so is he

Eleanor Roosevelt is credited with saying, "Nobody can make me feel inferior without my permission."

Saying adapted for Paul’s New Thinking: No one can make me feel anyway at all without my permission. My feelings are our chosen reactions to life’s events.

God wants to give us his view of life. He wants to enable us to love ourselves as he does, in order that we can love others the same way.

I am where I’m at because God loves me…what’s not to like about that?

 

 

Mistakes: Portals of Discovery

 

Mistakes: Portals of Discovery

 

I was working in my office as usual a few weeks back when something caught me by surprise. This squirrel was scratching against my office window for a good 5 minutes. Guess it didn’t realize it couldn’t get in. After he finally, or I thought finally, went away he came back again about an hour later and tried again. Matter fact, he came back about 3 or 4 times that I know of. I guess he never learned from his mistakes?

Mistakes are a part of life and when we make those mistakes we are called to learn from them. We call that experience.

When I was in Navy boot camp in Great Lakes Michigan, there was a rule that when you folded your blanket, you had to place it where the very edge of the blanket was touching the end of the bed. This was a strict rule and it being off a centimeter would have failed an inspection. Once…..just once I made this mistake and the company commander disciplined me as a result. Never happened again, I learned my lesson.

Israel made some mistakes too. God tried to lead them into the Promised Land directly after their exodus from Egypt. They showed a lack of faith and refused to enter into it out of fear, so this led to their forty years of wandering in the desert. They were spiritually immature so God sent them on a 40 year spiritual boot camp in the wilderness. He still blessed them and provided for their needs but all the while he was disciplining them.

They performed multiple acts of disobedience; they got Aaron to make them a golden calf; they griped when there was no water and they griped when there was no food. God gave them these things, as he was disciplining them.

Deuteronomy 8:5 “Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.”

It seems sometimes that we have so many opportunities to mess up in life. We do things we know we shouldn’t – and we make mistakes. We all make mistakes, When General Motors tried to introduce the Chevy Nova into South America, they neglected to notice that in Spanish “No VA” means “No go…

When Coca-Cola was introduced in China, their attempts at finding a phonetic equivalent in the Chinese language resulted in a drink called “bite the wax tadpole.”

Sometimes when we make mistakes we try to deny it. When we try to deny our mistakes that is when the trouble really begins. 1 Corinthians 10:12 says, If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. We all make mistakes!

“Mistakes are the portals of discovery.”

Thankfully, God is in the restoration business. He uses our mistakes and failures to bring about His intended results. It’s often through our mistakes that He is able to teach us and to transform our character…but only if we will let Him.

Sometimes we make a mistake and we think we can never go on again. Maybe we think we could never be forgiven because we have done such terrible things, but this is just another mistake.

Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings.  And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32

Jesus was taking about freedom from sin. Some of the worst mistakes we make are sinful ones.

Whatever mistakes you make in life, let them be a place of learning. Whatever error you see, replace it with truth. Whatever else you do, live by faith: Faith that you will make mistakes and faith that God will see you through it.

I don’t know what life has dealt you this past week, month, year or lifetime. But I do know with God – “ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!!!”

So if life has become messy because of mistakes…cling to the promises of God! He loves you more than you can imagine. He will be there for you when everything and everyone else has abandoned you.



Band of Brothers

Lie #1: I can do it myself - I don’t like to fly! Not because I am afraid of dying or claustrophobia, but because I don’t have control. Face it; most of us want to believe that we are competent and capable. Ultimately we’d like to believe that we are in control! None of us really are in control but we sure would like to believe it.

The first lie is a control issue a challenging lie.  It says I can take on anyone, any challenge, and any time. I don’t need help. I am in control.

Lie #2: This is just the way I am - The second lie is when we realize, we don’t have control. This is a surrender lie. It is what a man says who has given up and let go of control. It’s surrender to the desires of his own heart and not God’s.

To change or overcome from these lies, independently, is hard….not impossible but really hard. It’s even harder to do it by yourself. Speaking directly to us men, we need to learn that we need each other. That’s right I said it, Men need other men!

Hey guys - You can’t make it alone and you don’t need to try!

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work. If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Remember the series on HBO, “Band of Brothers?” I love that series for many reasons besides being a history nut. I love the series because it represents men being there for other men. No Lone Wolf McQuade’s in that bunch.

Ok so here is how we can become a Band of Brothers:

1. I’ll carry you when you’re tired and you carry me when I’m tired.
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2
2.  I’ll Pray for you, you pray for me
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed...
James 5:16a
3. I’ll get in your face, you get in mine
when Peter came to Antioch, and I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Galatians 2:11
4. I’ll be there for you, you be there for me
…correct, rebuke and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction.
2 Timothy 4:2

 

A “Band of Brothers” help each other to eliminate the lies, asks the hard questions, doesn’t blame others, confesses immediately and fully, helps each other do the right thing and a “Band of Brothers”…

 

 WINS Together!!!

 

Ticket Theology

Last week, driving home from somewhere, my thoughts turned to my writing; more importantly, what to write about. Usually, when I get this temporary writers block, I go back to basics Grace and salvation. In my thoughts, I came up with an analogy (something I have never been really good at).

Salvation is like waiting in line for tickets to the “Best Concert Ever!” Why are people in line? The want tickets to the show…some wait days in line so they can get the best tickets. There are those who KNOW somebody and already have the best tickets; there are some that get ticket given to them for answering the right question or doing something goofy as part of a radio promotion or raffle.

Interesting analogy to say the least but it has one humongous flaw. As humans we already have a Grace ticket. That ticket was filled out in our name when Jesus sacrificed his life for ours. Our tickets were bought and paid for at Calgary. We just need to accept the ticket! But that’s not the real flaw….

The flaw is “Ticket Theology.”

People with ticket theology think that the only thing that is important in the Christian life is salvation. They rarely think about real discipleship, they just want their ticket. They want to avoid hell and go to heaven without ever considering whether they will be happy in heaven. I might say that if you don’t like living for God here, you’re not going to get the full benefits there.

Ticket theology trivializes the Christian life. This kind of thinking reduces the Christian life down to some kind of spiritual fire insurance. It turns the Christian experience into a recipe: “Say this and you will be saved,” or “Pray this prayer and you will be forgiven.” It is very important that we are saved by grace. The Bible does say, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Many people stop reading there and forget the next verse: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:8-10).

We cannot save ourselves by our good works, and whenever we think God owes us heaven because we have been better than most people then we are in trouble. But there is more to the Christian life than just being “saved by grace.”

What is the point of being a Christian?

1.      It is developing a relationship with God and living for him.

2.      It is the decision to no longer live for ourselves or our pleasures and interests, and to give our lives totally to God. It is falling in love with God and his ways.

3.      It is discovering life as we become closer to him and learn his will for our lives on a daily basis. It is coming alive to joy and the fullness of what we were created for.

4.      t is so much more than just having our sins forgiven.

5.      It is growing every day in our relationship with God and learning to be faithful to him as we mature as his disciples.

6.      It is developing our relationships with other Christians and becoming a part of the family of God.

Maybe you think you have your ticket, but you have never entered into the kind of life that mirrors the life of Jesus. What good is the ticket if you never walk into the concert? And what you discover as you walk into the concert hall is that you are not there to be entertained, you are supposed to take your place on the stage and become one of the performers. You are to live out on that stage what it looks like to be a person who follows Jesus so well that others want to join you and become a part of the concert themselves.

Don’t just grab a ticket and wait…hop up onto the stage and let’s show all what it’s really like to have a ticket!