Get vs Give

Get or give, the struggle is real. You and I, we are bombarded daily by every means possible that the key to our happiness is by getting. Now what appeals to me to get may be different than what appeals to you to get, but the reality is that world is yelling loud and clear, "The more stuff you have the happier you will be." I would even admit that I've tried it. I bet you might just admit that you've tried the whole getting thing too. Question, "did it work?"

For me the answer is "No, It didn't work at all." As a matter of fact, it created a monster in my mind and heart that began craving "getting." I have hurt others, even people I love deeply, trying to get what I want. I don't like it when I see it me. It is painful, and it is costly.

Today I witnessed the opposite of getting, giving. Today is the halfway point of spring break in these parts, and I just left a small struggling church not far from here where two youth groups from two churches have been giving of their time and talents to help this little church get ready for its homecoming. They spruced up the church yard, mulched the flower beds. They have cleaned and painted. It has been amazing to watch. They aren't getting paid, and they are having a great time doing it. I'm very proud of them and their leaders.

So I saw with my own eyes that giving is better than getting. Now getting doesn't have to be bad, dangerous, or harmful. It's all in the heart. But giving, I have found, is always better than getting. The reason this is true is because the Bible says it is. From the very heart and mouth of God the Son, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many."

Give it a try. It just might change your life.

The Hunt Is On

It's Saturday. It's the middle of Easter Weekend. For most of us, spring break is upon us, and people are hunting, people are searching. People are hunting for stuff to do, we must occupy our time. We must fill every moment of time and every space on our calendar. Kids are hunting Easter eggs all over. There is excitement in the air.

We had about 50 kids, plus parents, on our campus this Am hunting, and I pray they find more than they were expecting to find. The hunt is on.

Question--what are you hunting? What are you searching for? It might be a better job. It might be a better relationship. You might be searching for peace. You might be searching for joy and happiness. You might be searching for help and answers. The reality is that most people are hunting something. The reality is the most people have varying opinions as to what a person needs to find. There are probably as many ideas about what to search for as there are people who are searching.

I want to encourage you to search for things that last. Don't waste your time, don't waste you life hunting things that are temporary. To do that is like trying to grab a handful of water. You can try and try and try but you just can't hold on to it. But something that lasts, now that's something you can hold on to for the long haul.

People are for the long haul. Relationships are long haul material. Be a learner. Be a follower when it's necessary and be a leader when it's possible. Point people towards things that last.

I'm a Christ follower. I believe that nothing can outlast my relationship with King Jesus. I love the fact that He will be with me forever. He will be with you too, if you come to Him on His terms.

Character

In the last few weeks I've met and started to get to know a man who has a talent for drawing. He is an artist. I've seen some of his work and it's pretty impressive. His favorite work is comic book heroes and villains. He does great character work.

But the reality is that those characters aren't real. They are fiction. People might get lost in their stories, but it's all make believe. It saddens me to watch people waste lots of their time on fiction and make believe. I've seen it over and over again and it's never pretty to watch. I bet you know what I mean.

John Maxwell says, "Character is not about intelligence. It is about making right choices."

Character is not about intelligence. It is about making right choices.
Character is not about intelligence. It is about making Right CHOICES.
Character is not about intelligence. It is about making RIGHT CHOICES.

I hope and you pray you will be men and women of character. Your marriage needs you to be a person of character. Your children need you to be a person of character. Your grandchildren need you to be people of character. You need to teach people to be people of character. It will not happen by accident.

Make your kids work. It will make them responsible people of character.
Clean up your messes. It's about character.
Take care of your stuff. It's about character.
Lead them well. It's about character.

Broken but Unbroken

I am reading Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand. It is the biography of Louis Zamperini. I've seen the movie, and it was very powerful. Now I'm reading the book. There is actually another movie that is coming out soon that will tell the rest of Zamperini's story. He became a Christ follower during the Billy Graham Los Angeles crusade in the 1950's.

The truth about Zamperini is that he was a broken man. He was flawed in many ways. He had numerous struggles. His story is common in that we are all flawed, broken, and desperate. I know that is an adequate description of my life. And yet, even in his brokenness, he refused to be broken. He suffered greatly, but wouldn't allow his suffering to brake him. He refused to surrender even when he was in captivity. He fought the good fight as a POW. He was a true American hero, but what made him famous was his refusal to break. Even in his weakest moments, he somehow found the strength to take another breath, another step, he chose to live another day.

I want to encourage you in this also. You and I, we are broken people, but we don't have to brake. We can keep moving forward. We can, if we choose, make it through the darkness of our situations. We can refuse to surrender. I don't know what you are facing, and I won't share what I'm facing. What we are facing is secondary. The struggle to fight and succeed is more important. But where will we find the strength to persevere?

I will find my hope, my help, my comfort, and my strength in King Jesus. He is my source. He has always been faithful. He has never let me down.

Acts 19-20 (19:11-20)

The War is Real

September 27, 2015

Things are continuing to get “interesting” in our country and in our world. One of the great religious leaders in the world has been in the US, the pope, and in my estimation, he failed. He talked more about global warming that the value of life and the need to protect it or the stance of the Roman Catholic Church on marriage. I am constantly reminded when I think of what we read in the paper, on the internet, and what we see on TV, that the war is real. Gandalf said, “The enemy is strong beyond our reckoning, yet we have a hope at which he has not guessed.” When we think of war I first think of winners and losers. I think of soldiers and battles, wounds, death, and family. In our text Paul is on his third and final missionary journey. He too is a soldier. He too has many battles to fight, the war is real and it rages around him. Satan is trying to stop Paul, destroy the church, and prevent people from being saved. Living as a disciple of Jesus in not easy. The reason is that to be a disciple of Jesus means you are constantly engaged in spiritual war. There is an increasingly common misrepresentation coming from preachers, especially on TV (Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen, Jessie Duplantis, Creflo Dollar, Joyce Myers, Paula White, and others), that the Christian life will be easy (life on vacation at the beach). The Bible says the Christian life looks more like this (picture of soldiers moving out).

I Peter 5:8-10, James 1:2-4, Ephesians 6:10-18

READ TEXT Discuss the battles we see in these 2 chapters.

1. The losing side of the war. v. 11-12, 13-16
1. Satan and the demons are on the losing side of the war eternally but also now. Jm. 4:7-8
2. 7 Sons of Sceva were on the losing side. v.13-17. No relationship with Jesus. Guaranteed to lose. Eternal losers are outside the umbrella of God’s grace. Their attitudes and actions reveal their rebellious hearts. Proc. 27:19

1. The winning side of the war. v. 11-12, 17, 20
1. God wins. Jesus is triumphant. The Holy Spirit is victorious. The gospel advances. Every time someone gets saved God wins and Satan loses. Every time a Christian grows in his faith God wins and Satan loses.
2. God’s soldiers win. II Cor. 10:4-5, 11:16-12:10

1. What do you need to do to win? v. 18-20 Take only what you need to fight, to win, into the battle with you. Remember the pic of the soldiers, they didn’t have beach chairs and volleyballs, they had their armor on their weapons in hand. The disciples in Ephesus destroyed the things, the books of magic, because of the destructive nature of those things to their new lives and their new mission. What do you need to lose now?

1 Peter 5:8-10(ESV) 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

James 1:2-4 (ESV) 2 Count it all joy, my brothers,[a] when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Ephesians 6:10-18 (ESV) 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

Coach or Critic

I don't know about you but I've had a lot of coaches in my life. I played sports growing up and had coaches on every team I've ever played on. Coaches are awesome. Coaches want to help you so they teach you new things. Coaches are awesome. Coaches want you to reach your full potential so they encourage you. Coaches are awesome. Coaches want you to succeed so they are honest with you but they are honest in a way that motivates you to do better and try harder. Coaches are awesome. Coaches see the big picture, they see more than you do because they've been around longer, in most cases, and have more experience. Coaches are able to communicate with you so that you are able to hear, process, and apply. Coaches are awesome. Coaches ultimately build you up.

Critics are people in our lives, and I believe they, for the most part, want to help, but what critics do is beat you up. Critics are present, but they see the negative, and repeated point out your mistakes and failures. Critics are present, but they feel it their responsibility to put you in your place. Critics are present, but they...really get some kind of sick pleasure out of seeing you fail.

You have a choice to make today: Coach or Critic. One is a person that anyone would want to have walk through life together. The other is a person no one wants to have in their lives. Determine that you will be a coach today. Build up or beat up.

I'll take a few more coaches and would love to get rid of a few critics. I choose to be a coach to others. I want to be a builder-upper.

Dig A Little Deeper

I just finished reading a blog by Seth Godin, I want to give credit for the initial idea of what I'm about to write. His idea was shallow vs. deep.

We are on information overload: emails, blogs, social media, apps for news, weather, sports, and stuff for all our hobbies and pleasure. I know when it comes to social media and all it's glory I'm a skimmer. I very seldom go deep. I don't want to get bogged down with the endless chatter and debates. Most of it is simply ridiculous, immature, and completely unnecessary. I also realize that people are, most of the time, presenting a picture of themselves that's not quite as real as real life, much like "reality TV." People let others into the best 5 seconds of their lives, and those watching actually think that that picture represents the norm for the presenter. NOT TRUE!!! We should dig a little deeper before we start wishing we had "their life." If you dug a little deeper into the lives of others you would come to realize pretty quickly that what's going in their lives isn't all that great, and you would might just start appreciating your life a little bit more. You might start investing in your own life, digging a little deeper, a little bit more so that you grow to maturity and are able to do some good and maybe even help someone else along the way. Dig a little deeper.

If all of these this is true in our daily lives I wonder if it's true in our spiritual life as well? Could it be that the reason our physical lives are what they are is that we have often failed to dig a little deeper in our spiritual lives? Have we really gone as far with Jesus as we hope others think we have? Do we spend our days with our religious, spiritual friends trying to make them think we are spiritual giants when we can't see over the dashboard yet? I bet if we spent as much time with Jesus as we spend trying to convince others we are spending time with Jesus we might just grow up in the faith, catch that first glimpse over the dash at the road ahead, be filled with wonder and amazement at our Heavenly Father, and develop a hunger to dig a little deeper.

I pray your hands get a little dirty as you dig.