Did you hear that?

If you read my blog, “Forgive and Forget or Revenge and Regret “you will remember the event in my life that taught me about forgiveness. There’s more to the story that I didn’t reveal at the time. So now, here’s the beginning of the story.

As you may or may not have read, I was attack by a stranger. Or so I thought. The actual beginning of the story is I was sitting at home that night. I got a call from a friend, to pick HER up from work. Apparently, her husband was called away on Military Duty and she needed a ride home.

After I hung up the phone, and got ready to go pick her up…I had this deep thought that I wasn’t supposed to go. Being a babe in Christ, I didn’t realize God was telling me not to go. There were a few other signs…. I couldn’t find my keys so I had to use my spare; a friend had called with free tickets to the Premiere of Star Wars (starting in 30 minutes) and my car wouldn’t start but a neighbor was nice enough to jump start my car.

Think God was trying to give me a message?

I still went and the events that unfolded changed my life forever.

People have a tendency to listen only to what they want to hear. God’s Word informs us that "The heart is deceitful above all things." In Ezekiel 12:2, God complained that "these people have ears to hear but they never hear, eyes to see, but they never see"

To our own detriment, we can be selective in our hearing. God does a lot of speaking and we miss most of it. God gave us two ears but only one mouth. Some people say that’s because He wanted us to spend twice as much time listening as talking. Others claim it’s because He knew listening was twice as hard as talking.

God is always speaking to people; the key is that we must want to hear Him.

You probably would never want to go Computer shopping with me. My eyes glaze over, my brain shifts gear; my ears get clogged and let’s not talk about standing in my way. You could tell me my hair was on fire and I wouldn’t hear you (if this ever occurs, please put it out). Talk about zoning out God and others!

Some people are this way with God; they get this idea in their heads that they have to have this item, job or relationship and take their eyes off God. Some even convince themselves that this is what God wants for them so it must be ok! When it fails, who’s the first one they blame?

In order to listen to God, we very often, must give up or lay down something we want to grasp or control. It is God’s desire to reveal Himself to us through His Words and thus, call us to new life, new hope, and new beginnings!

We must put God’s will before our heart. Our hearts can be broken but God’s heart is perfect. The only way we will truly know God’s heart is by listening and reading his word.

Did you hear that?

God is speaking.

The Coffin or the Cross?

Not all of us are good at picking up on the warning signs around us. If your wife refers to you as “the ex” when she is talking to the milk man – that could be a vital sign you are missing. If the boss keeps talking about how much more efficient the office temp who filled in while you were on sick leave was – that could be a sign you are not picking up on. When co-workers start greeting you with, “Are you still here” – it may be too late.

Every day we need to be reminding ourselves that this world is not our home! You have daily choices to make and warning signs to watch for. In my opinion, you have 2 daily choices… You can live the way the world wants you to and end up in a coffin. OR... you can follow Jesus by taking up his cross daily.

Luke 9:23-25 - Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and 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, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?

Here are my keys to “taking up his cross daily”:

1. Healthy Christians connect with God daily! Proverbs 8:34 - Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.

2. Healthy Christians maintain balance in all areas of their lives. What areas of life do we need to be balancing?
The spiritual life. (Your relationship with God)
The social life. (Your relationships with other people.)
The career life. (Your work or education.)
The physical life. (Your diet exercise and overall health.{ Yes, Steve I know})
The family life. (Your wife, kids, parents, grandparents…)
The ministry life. (Your service in response to God’s call.) You can become unbalanced by doing too much or too little in all of these areas of life – they are all vital to a fulfilling and Godly life.

3. Healthy Christians talk about spiritual issues in a positive light with other believers and they watch for Spirit lead opportunities to engage non-believers in spiritual conversations.

Are you having any faith based conversations?

Luke 6:43-45
"No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

If you don’t want to talk about God, you’re not taking up his cross you may be headed toward flat-lining.

If you only want to talk negatively about faith issues, I don’t mean you should never speak up if you see something wrong, I mean if all you want to do is complain – that’s not taking up the cross, it is revealing something about your heart.

If you have fallen into being single issue minded – that is not taking up his cross. If you have an issue over some theological, doctrine or prejudice ideal, and that is all you want to talk about – that is a bad sign.

Don’t get cross with me, God said it first.

So, which will it be…the Coffin or the Cross?