Deliberate

This past week I was fortunate to work with two senior executives at a large corporation. During one event I heard first hand how one executive knew as a child that they had an interest in money and pursued a career in Finance that gave them experience in multiple disciplines and allowed them to work around the world. I watched through a glass wall as the other executive was finishing up a conference call where as he was making his final points he motioned with his hands (to an audience that couldn’t see him) to emphasize the points he was making. Both are very passionate people.

I wondered how focused or deliberate I’ve been in the life I’ve lived or the work I’ve done over the years. While there were plenty of times I had worked very hard because it was expected of me, I was looking more for those times where I was driven by something on the inside. It seems that was case when it came to music but not so much in the many other jobs I’ve held. I would learn and practice without any prodding and to this day “see the music” whenever I hear it or play it. I keep thinking I was made to be a musician and that I should do something about that.

Enough about vocation. What about the issues of life? My passion for God drives me to read His Word, pray in the Spirit and proclaim His greatness through song, writing and conversation. He’s my “magnificent obsession” as one writer put it. In Him I’ve found life and am gradually understanding what eternal life with Him might be like. Since He is eternal and life on earth is temporal, it’s pretty obvious that there’s much more to know and experience than we can here. So, I’m never bored spending time with Him because He is fascinating. Are you pursuing God?

The greatest commandment God gives us is to love Him with everything we are and to love one another. He expects us to be deliberate in our love. Take that path today.

Luke 10:27
And he answered, “ YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

Ready or not

Last night I dreamed I was at an event where I was scheduled to speak but, had forgotten to prepare my talk. People were arriving and I only had a few minutes to get my thoughts together. Instead of panicking, I prayed and began thinking about a topic I had plenty of experience in.

Great athletes practice the basics all of the time. Actors, musicians and comedians rehearse their parts. Sales people learn scripts, study objections and role play. Corporate executives write business plans and build strategies for growth. It’s usually pretty clear who is prepared and who isn’t.

Retired NBA star Alan Houston came to speak to the local youth and talked about how important it is to prepare your response to temptation. If our response is rehearsed, we are ready to stand firm against that which is designed to take us out. We learned this in an anger management group I worked with. This is a common theme in recovery programs. Know what you’re going to do when that moment comes.

Our God loves to train His children. He is generous towards anyone seeking wisdom in faith. The Holy Spirit is known as Counselor and Helper. Jesus is interceding for us at the right hand of the father. We have all the help we need and more. Don’t shrink back.

Hebrews 12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

No sweat?

I woke up this October morning sweating. It’s not hot in our house so some unclean thing in my biology must be getting evicted. Still, it had me wondering what was going on and doesn’t exactly “feel” great.

A couple of years ago I took the advice of a nutritionist and stopped eating sugar, gluten and dairy products. The first month of eating this way didn’t make me feel better at all as my body was being cleansed of toxins. After that first month, I started feeling a lot better. After a year of eating “right”, I slipped back into my old patterns and have relived the old “pain” that brought me to the nutritionist in the first place.

The greatest trials in my life didn’t have anything to do with physical issues. In retrospect they seemed to be more about learning how to live in a world where everything wasn’t going my way. Selfishness wasn’t working. Somehow, I had to cooperate with the character building process of trials. You know the song, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. While I don’t think this is an absolute truth, I get it.

Jesus’ brother James wrote that we should count it all joy when we enter into various trials. He talked of how they build proven character. God’s plan is to conform us to the image of Jesus, to be like Him. The trials in my life are used for that purpose. Understanding that has been the only possible way I could consider them as “pure joy”.

James 1:2-8 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

Hold on

How many times have you watched a movie where someone is hanging on by their fingernails from some precipitous height hoping to be rescued? If you’re like me, the tension you feel watching these scenes has been diminished by seeing them so often. You just sort of know how things are going to turn out.

We’ve all been faced with very difficult times in our lives. Holding on to God’s promises can be very trying when you’re staring at your ugly circumstance. Yet, God does not lie. What He promises He does. Sometimes, all I need to do is look at the evidence of my life to see just how good God is. The surest way to be rescued is to hang on until the end.

Abraham and Sarah were promised a child and at the age of 100 still hadn’t received that bundle of joy. Abraham is credited as righteous because he believed God could and would do whatever He promised. No one can live by faith for you. This is your choice, your decision. Trust the One who is trustworthy.

Romans 4:16-25
New Living Translation (NLT)
So the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift. And we are all certain to receive it, whether or not we live according to the law of Moses, if we have faith like Abraham’s. For Abraham is the father of all who believe. That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.

Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping—believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, “That’s how many descendants you will have!” And Abraham’s faith did not weaken, even though, at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead—and so was Sarah’s womb.

Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous. And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.