Whether you believe you can or can't either way you're right!

This famous line is by Henry Ford.  I love that statement because so often we end up sitting in the death trap of our own doubt.  Doubt is scary monster that we should all run from.  When we live in a state of doubt, our doubt will most certainly capture us and hold us ransom. 

The bible says that all things are possible through Christ who strengthens us. This means that there's nothing that you and I can't do with the power of God in us. We also believe and teach that God lives in us from the time of belief, or baptism which ever comes first.

As an illustration for this idea, I love to look at Peter as he was cruising across the water toward Jesus.  The story doesn't indicate how far out he got or how long he'd been walking, just that he saw the wind and the wave and sank like a rock!  Peter believed that he could walk on water simply because Jesus called him to come toward him.  Peter believed that no matter what his lord called him to do, he would be able to do it.  And honestly he was right!  Peter jumped out of that boat and I would venture to guess he started strolling toward Jesus like he'd been walking on water all the time. 

But something quickly changed - he began to dip into his reasoning and realized how crazy this water walking thing really was.  As soon as he quit believing that he could walk on water, he sank.  He didn't stop believing in Jesus, because Jesus was still walking on the water.  He stopped believing that he could do what he set out to do and instant failure snatched him up and dragged him down. 

We are all a bit like someone in this story. Either we step out in faith and start journey toward Jesus, like Peter started out doing, or we begin to doubt God's power in us and we immediately start treading water and sinking.  Or we could simply be like the other eleven in the boat, who were so comfortable with the status and position that they left the hard job to someone else. 

Whoever you are in this story, it's not hard to be like the first Peter and start walking toward Jesus.  It's not hard to simply believe that Jesus has given you the power to do what he has put before you and then simply to trust it and run!  Today take something and really trust God to be there.  Lean into him like you've never leaned into him before - and I promise, if it's the thing God has called you to do you'll be walking on water in no time! 

Lord give us the courage to do you will no matter what our reasoning tells us.  Amen.

When God Smiles

I'm not sure how many of us here in central Ohio have noticed or not.  I don't want to jinks it or anything but the sun has shined for about four days straight.  We whined and complained about the rain.  We talked about building arks and God forgetting his promise with the whole rainbow thing.  But how many of us have taken the time to thank him for the smile he's shown us the past couple of days? 

Today I'd like to lead you in a time of thanks.  God is so amazing and so wonderful that often we just miss the many things he does for us.  We all overlook the "little" things in life.  When small things happen that are wonderful, we rarely say anything positive about them.  When the bad stuff happens we're all over complaining about them.  So today we're going to be thankful. 

No matter what happens today - BE THANKFUL!

We've got so many things to be thankful for - family, friends, cars, houses, churches, jobs, food, money (even the change that we stick in our ash tray - aka trash can), the ability to walk and talk, running with our kids,  even having kids to yell at or who we complain about.  We are so very blessed in so many ways.  Today just go through your day with your eyes wide open to the many blessings that God has put in your life today. 

Jesus - we hardly see you in our lives.  We complain when we don't see you, and when you're blatantly doing something good we rarely recognize it's you.  Help us see you today so that we can give thanks for the many blessings you've put in our life.  AMEN

What is faith?

Honestly - faith isn't really something that's hard to come by in our world.  People practice the basics of faith every day.  You get in a car and you exercise faith that the wide pedal on the left (or middle for you manual drivers) will stop you.  You put faith in that chair you're sitting in to read this.  Granted it's easy to have faith in something that you've seen work a million times or more.  It's easy to live by the philosophy that seeing is believing. 

But I'm inclinced to think of faith a little differntly.  Today you are at a monumental point in your life.  You are at a point when your life collides with the truth of Jesus' resurrection and the amazing grace of God given to you.  When these three roads collide, I believe that point is called radical faith. 

Any monkey can have faith, but it takes a follower of God to have radical faith.  Radical faith is leaning into God.  Even when you can't see him, lean.  Even when it seems as if he's gone and left you all alone - just keep leaning!  Never stop leaning into God. 

You see, what happens when you lean into God is simple.  You begin to see him.  You see him because you believe and trust that he's there.  Seeing isn't always believing, but truly believing is seeing.  That's what the writer of the book of Hebrews was getting at when he wrote - faith is being sure of what is hoped for and certain of what is yet unseen. 

When you can see what's not physically there, chances are, you've been leaning into God.  When challenges arise, lean into God.  When everything's going right, lean into God.  When you have needs, lean into God.  No matter where you are or what's going on in your life, lean into God.  He'll never let you down!  He will let you slip and sometimes get skinned up a bit, but he'll never leave you all alone. 

Lord help us to live with radical faith today. Help us lean into you today! Amen.

Grace PLUS?

One of the most popular misconceptions about grace is that it needs something added to it.  Honestly that couldn't be further from the truth.  There's a passage in scripture that says My grace is sufficient for you. There's another that indicates saved by grace, through faith in Christ, and this not by works so that no one can boast.

I believe these two passages really cut through the garbage in our thinking.  They get right down to the fact that grace is all about what God already did for us.  They tell us that God is big enough, strong enough, present enough, forgiving enough to forgive our sins and restore us to a right relationship with himself. 

It blows my mind how many people are in the world who say they have to add to God's grace.  Or better yet that they've done too many wrong things that they can't be forgiven, as if they could take away from how amazing God's grace is. 

Here's the truth of the matter - you can't make God love you any more than he already does.  And the reverse is true - you can't mak God love you any less than he already does.  That's what grace is about -getting the undeserved love and goodness of God. 

Today I encourage you to bask in the grace of God.  See everything around you as God setting you up for something great.  It's truly amazing how God can take something that looks terrible and frightening and turn it into something amazing, wonderful, and full of blessing. 

Lord, open our eyes that we might see you today!  Amen.

When broken doors open doors

It's been a couple of months ago now that I was looking out my home office window after hearing a loud crash.  As it turned out my neighbor had an unfortunate experience with their garage door - it twisted off track and had come down at a diagonal.  Now admittedly I'm not knowledgeable about garage doors at all but I am adventurous and always willing to learn.  I'm what many call a "jack of all trades, master of none." 

So I proceeded to go over to see if I couldn't lend a hand to at least get the door all the way to the ground.  Well a little muscle later the door was down on the ground and the home owner had made arrangements for the repairman to come the next day to make the necessary adjustments.  What happened next could only be from God. 

The home owners began asking questions about what I did for a living - obviously not garage door repair.  This led to a wonderful conversation that lasted for over an hour and a couple of beers (thanks man!).  The family now worships with us on a regular basis - and all because a door broke!

The moral of the story is don't overlook a broken door it might just be a couple of beers away from a gospel moment. 

In all seriousness God does some amazing things when we're not even paying attention.  He breaks doors all of the time just to see how we'll respond.  Today I pray that we have our eyes open to see where God is moving and what he is breaking.  I pray that we see and respond to the broken door and that we get the wonderful experience I had of sharing my Jesus over a couple of good domestic cold ones. 

Lord, be with us today as we seek to live our lives for you.  Open our eyes so that we can see you moving and breaking things around us.  Help us to respond with hands ready for service and mouths ready to speak the truth of your love.  Amen. 

Too Big!

Today's readings are from: Luke 17, 1 Timothy 2, and 2 Chronicles 6-7.  And our focus today is from 2 Chronicles 6:18 - The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you.  How much less this temple I have built!

What a thing to realize!  Solomon just finished building this huge and very elaborate temple so that the presence of God might dwell there.  But then a strange turn happens.  Here Solomon acknowledges that this temple, no matter how big it might be could never contain all of God's glory.  Not only that - nothing in all of creation could contain him either!  If the heavens (also read as skies) can't contain God then surely nothing made by the hands of men and women will be able to contain him. 

I wish that we could learn and really remember this lesson on a regular basis.  Many of us know that God is big.  Most of us would acknowledge that we can't keep God in a box or anything like that, but we still try!  We do this when we strip parts of his teaching away, remove him from certain parts of our lives, and don't let him into the dark places of our day to day living.  It's way too easy for us to treat God's word like a buffet - only taking from it what we want and leaving the rest.  The things that give us indigestion we leave for someone else, but we need to take all of it in. 

That's how big God is!  You can't separate one part of his character from the rest of him.  It's an all or nothing kind of deal.  True enough, God promises to be wherever two or more are gathered in his name; but he's also wherever you are - at any time!  You can't go far enough or fast enough to get away from God!  He'll always be right where you are headed, waiting for you.  He'll always be right beside you - making the journey less lonely, if only we would open our eyes and see him right there!  He'll always be behind you - ready to catch you when you get caught up in sin.  He'll always be above you - raining down his blessings on you at every turn!  And he'll always be beneath you - supporting you and holding you up as you keep his word your foundation. 

Today we move forward expectant of God's peace.  We go into our day or night ready to be touched by the presence of God! 

Lord - we need to see you today!  We long to know of your presence.  Show us how big you are today!  Show us how truly all encompassing your love and mercy are in our lives today.  We need to see you today!  AMEN. 

A Sinner Forgiven!

There have been some questions about the randomness of the Bible verses used for these updates, so starting today I'll be adding the references to my daily devotional time.  Feel free to check-out the entire reading on your own.  This morning I was able to read Luke 16, 1 Timothy 1, and 2 Chronicles 3-5.  I'm making every effort possible to read through the bible in a year and this is the plan that I've chosen to help me accomplish this task. 

As I was reading from Timothy this morning, I was really drawn to verse 15 and 16 of chapter one: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst.  This is where I always used to stop but there's so much richness in the verse that follows: But for that very reason, I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. 

There are two really key elements in this passage that we all need to live by: confession and forgiveness.  Since we don't walk down the street using these churchy words, I'll unpack them a bit. Confession is the act of admitting that we've gone in the wrong direction.  This is fessing up to the crime/fault that rightfully is ours and then turning to move in the opposite direction. Forgiveness is what you'd expect - a complete wiping away of all record of that incident that was just confessed.  I mean completely gone!  The bible says that our failures are removed from us as far as the East is from the West - and let me tell you that's far!  Jesus death and resurrection guaranteed our victory over the sins we would commit.

So we live in a constant state of paradox: sinner - saint.  For the time being we are both.  While we are here on earth in an unholy world filled with faults and brokenness - we will be sinners, people who miss the mark.  But let us not dwell there alone!  Let us be like Paul who reminds us that even though we fail there is forgiveness.  God loves to forgive!  He promises that when a sinner repents, when a person admits their brokenness, he is all over lifting and restoring and bringing that person right back into the family.  He loves to forgive.  He even says that heaven throws a party every time a person admits their brokenness! 

How cool is that!  Heaven throws a party when we admit who we really are - sinners forgiven!  Today live as a sinner forgiven!  Live as one who doesn't have it all together.  Remember that you've got issues, you've got problems, you've got failures.  But remember that God loves you just the way you are.  While we were still sinners Christ died for us!  While we were still far away from him, he sought us out and freely forgave us all of those things we've done wrong!  You are a sinner forgiven!  I am a sinner forgiven!  Thanks be to God for this wonderful gift of Grace!

Lord - today we want to rest in your forgiveness.  Help us to let go of our sins and cling to your forgiveness!  AMEN.