Experience God this Christmas

I've been reading through Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby the last few weeks and one of the things that you learn is the seven realities of experiencing God.  Number 3 on that list is, "God invites you to become involved with Him in His work."  Looking back over the Christmas story, we find that God was at work in a small manager in Bethlehem 2000 years ago to give us the greatest Christmas gift of all.  We see that the wise men were invited by God to become involved in that work.  The shephards were invited to become involved in His work.  In fact, Mary and Joseph were invited to become involved in His work.  This Christmas season, as I search for places in my own life that God is working, I realize that God has invited us all to become involved in His work started 2000 years ago under that star.  The work he started 2000 years ago continues on to this day and we all can take part in this work.  This Christmas season we have the opportunity to take part in perhaps God's greatest work since creation, the salvation that he provides us through Jesus Christ.  The angels spread the news 2000 years ago that a savior was born.  Today I can share that news with anyone who reads this and can continue working with God in the great work he invited everyone one of us to join in on.  God bless you all this fine Christmas day!

Motives

What are your motives when you give of your time, talents or money?  Do you feel God needs to be bribed?  Is it because you need to feel good about yourself?  Is it because everyone else does and you feel obligated?

By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did.  By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings.  And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.   Hebrews 11:4

Abel gave from the firstborn of his flock and gave out of his faith and obedience of God.  And so his sacrifice was seen as better.  He heard God's Word and obeyed.  On the other hand, Cain gave his sacrifice out of obligation, as a mere formality, not acting in faith towards God.  

We should give back to God out of faith, a faith that is effectual, manifesting itself by its works.  We show our faith by what we do and what we give back to God.  Our actions work to make our faith complete.  Give back God's portion of what he has given to us.  But do so out of faith and we will be righteous in his eyes.

Be generous this Thanksgiving

Are we able to be thankful in good times and bad?  Can we be without worry in poverty or wealth, sickness or health?  Philippians 4:19 says;

My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

No matter our situation, God wants us to be thankful for what he provides.  We can overcome poverty, sickness or any bad situation by recognizing that God personally tends to His children.  He wants our focus to remain on Him, and He wants our trust to in His faithfulness to grow.

Generosity is the cure for the fear of poverty.  In Luke 6 we can read;

Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom

Generosity of the people can be freeing for those doing the giving.  It's interesting to note that some of the poorest states in this nation are the most generous states.  Government who takes from the people to spread the wealth is not showing generosity to those who are in need.  God wants the people to show their trust in him by being generous.  Individuals can be generous.

Let's allow God to grow our faith by trusting in Him to provide for all our needs and by providing opportunities to be His avenues to provide for the needs for others.

What are you thankful for?

 What are you thankful for on this Thanksgiving?  Some of you may be thankful for your family, your job, your health or the record of your favorite sports team.  These are all great things to be thankful for and I'm sure you can think of so many more.  But we are reminded that we should be thankful in all circumstances.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 says;  Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Read the following post on why we celebrate Thanksgiving

Walk the Walk

We often say one thing and do another.  It comes so easy, it's easy to say "Yes I'll help you do that, just give me a call" yet have no intention of following through and hoping that you don't actually call.  Politicians do it all the time.  They say one thing to get elected knowing full well that they can not or will not follow through on the promises they make.  

Our Christian life is no different.  We can know all the right words to say.  We can attend every Sunday service.  We can be faithful in prayer, but what really matters is our changed lives.   Matthew 7:20-21 says;

Yes, the way to identify a tree or a person is by the kind of fruit that is produced.  Not all people who sound religious are really godly.  They may refer to me as 'Lord,' but they still won't enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father in heaven.

There is nothing we can do to make ourselves worthy of God's love except to accept the gift of Jesus.  That alone changes our lives and enables us to produce the fruit that identifies us as followers of Christ.  

What is true and honorable and right

The Lord seemed to be speaking to me over the weekend as I don't think I had been listening to him very well.  I had the stomach flu starting early Saturday morning and lasting for about 6 hours of extreme sickness, then the rest of the day recovering from the exhaustion.  Sunday was spent resting, though I was able to get out and do some things.  Also started to eat a bit more normal.  My wife had the same thing though she had more exhaustion but not as much sickness.  My oldest son also, he was more like me, but recovered quicker than I did.  Must be nice to be young still.

Anyway, I'd been reading and praying over the weekend, and kind of out of the blue on Sunday, the Lord put 1 Timothy into my head.  I failed to really read it until this morning.   But once again, the Lord knows best and was nudging me in the right direction.  You see, last week after the election of Barak Obama as president, I was upset, disappointed and generally just not sure of the direction this country was moving in.  I started a blog and posted on facebook a few posts that while I tried to stay positive, still created some controversy and plenty of discussion.  I thought perhaps that was what the Lord was telling me to do.  But now I'm not so sure.

I feel led today to step back from that path.  Like I said 1 Timothy came to my mind yesterday.  I was doing my reading this morning and came across a couple things, both in 1 Timothy and also in the devotional book I've been reading.

1 Timothy 2 says 

"I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people.  As you make your requests, plead for God's mercy upon them, and give thanks.  Pray this way for kings and all others who are in authority, so that we can live in peace and quietness, in godliness and dignity."  

This reminded me that regardless of who is in power, whomever is the president regardless of party affiliation, we should be praying for them, praying for God's mercy upon them.  I need to be able to pray for Barak Obama each and every day.  I need to get past my disagreements with his policy and direction he seems to want to take this country and pray for him.  We as a nation, did not do enough of that for President Bush, we must not make that same mistake here.

In my devotional study over the weekend (which I actually didn't read until this morning), we read how Peter's pride got in his way of what Jesus was trying to teach him.  Peter's pride in his own cleverness and strength got in the way of God's purposes.  In one incident in Matthew 16: 21-28, Jesus predicts his death, but in verse 22, Peter says,

"'Heaven forbid, Lord, ' he said.  'This will never happen to you!'"

Jesus responds in the following verse, 

"'Get away from me Satan!  You are a dangerous trap to me.  You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, and not from God's.'"

I find this interesting in that I was viewing this election from a human point of view and not from God's.  How many of us on both sides of the aisle truly sought out God's will in this election?  I'm sure many of us prayed about it, as did I, but even though I prayed, I'm not sure I was seeking God's will.  I think I was more trying to force God to see it from my perspective.  I had it completely backwards.

The next thing that came to me this morning was from today's devotional.  Reading from Philippians 4:8-9

"And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter.  Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right.  Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable.  Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.  Keep putting in to practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you."

Again throughout this election, both parties focused on immediate help for our problems.  But what I and probably many others, failed to do was to focus on God's greatness first, which puts our needs in perspective and encourages us to rest easy.  He is in charge and at work.  Romans 8:28 says, 

"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them."   

Regardless how this or any election turns out, we need to remember that God is the one in charge, not us.  Everything that happens serves God's purpose.  We don't always see God's purpose or his reasoning behind certain actions, but we can trust that he is in control.  

This weekend while my wife and I were sick, it was hard to find a good reason for our illness.  But I'm sure there was one.  Perhaps it kept us home when we could have been in an accident.  Perhpas it helped show our children that their parents are human too and at times can be helpless.  Perhaps the purpose was just for us to slow down and rest.  Or perhaps the only purpose was for me to read and understand these devotionals better than I would have otherwise.  I doubt I will ever know his reasoning until I reach heaven someday, but I can know and trust that he is in control.

We as conservatives or liberals can be happy or sad about this election.  But we need to understand that regardless of the outcome of this election, God is in control.  We need to focus on God's greatness first, pray for our leaders (conservative and/or liberal) and we can rest easy that God has a plan and he will not deviate from his perfect will.

Angry Liberals??

I just don't get the whole "angry liberal" thing.  They speak about peace and love, yet spew such hatred towards anyone that thinks differently than they do.  They complain about conservatives being intolerant, yet they fail to look at themselves in the mirror.  

I have plenty of friends and family that voted for Obama and even consider themselves moderate liberals...but the far left  which seems to be running the Democratic party these days seems to be so filled with hate for anyone that disagrees they've blinded themselves to what really matters and fail to show the love, peace and brotherhood that they will tell you they believe in. 

Of course, any "angry liberal" reading this now will be dismiss me at a minimum as an intolerant conservative...but that's ok, because I'm a really just a "Happy Conservative!"

Election Recap

Coming off a historical election where we have elected our first african-american president, I cannot help but feel a bit proud of our nation.  Not for the reasons some may be expecting, but because we are still one of the only nations in this world where one may move up through life and dream to become more than what they are.  Obama displayed that characteristic.  He moved up from supposedly meager means, went to a prestigious university and here we are today with Barak Obama the president elect of this great nation.

Unlike some, I have always been proud of my country and am still proud of our nation today.  We had a historic election (whichever party would have won would have been historic).  We have a peaceful transfer of power.  Despite our differences as of today, we can still be outspoken in our criticism and differences, but will come together when the going gets tough and will move to protect our nation.

At least that is what I hope we will have.  Like most, I've heard the stories (though not through the mainstream media) about Obama's associations, with the people he surrounds himself with and those who are drawn to him.  I've seen the questions that have arisen about his economic policies.  I've seen his position on abortion and other controversial subjects.  

While I may disagree with most of those positions, unlike what we’ve seen the past eight years, I will support him as my president.  While I may question his judgment, his policies and his direction, I will work with him to make sure we have a nation that stays the greatest nation on earth.  I truly hope that in 4 years I can look back and say, “Boy was I wrong about Obama.” 

As a business owner, I will work hard to make my business grow and prosper and while there may be some changes that will make that a bit more difficult, as an American and in the American spirit, I will continue to work hard to succeed.  I will not be standing around waiting for handouts or bemoaning my troubles or worrying about and hoping for change, I will be working hard to make this nation, my business and my family, grow and prosper.  Oh if we would have had more of that these past eight years.

I will be holding Obama to his promises and I will be expecting him to work for the betterment of this country.  Not for the betterment of the Democratic Party, not for the betterment of those friends of the left around the world, not for the betterment of those angry liberals who seem to think we owe them something.  Nope not for any of those, but only for the betterment of this great country.  If he does that, he may just succeed at being a good president.  I will be as should we all be watching him and the congress very closely.  We should not be swayed by a silver tongue, for sweet talking or empty slogans.  We should look at his actions and look at the results and then in four years decide where we stand.

This blog will be my vehicle to document my feelings and thoughts on how Obama is doing, how Congress is fairing and my thoughts and opinions on how they could be doing better.  Yep I’m a conservative Christian and will be speaking from that point of view.  So if that offends or you don’t wish to hear that side of things, well then this is not the place for you.  I however invite both sides to read my posts and comment in the spirit of not proving one side or the other, but to make this nation even better.  Please treat me and my opinions with respect and I will do the same of yours.  I will not hold back on my opinions or ideals so expect to disagree with me and you can even call me nuts…but that’s ok most of us are friends and family, most likely we are all Americans and have the same goals in mind.  This should be fun.

I’ll be praying for Obama every day that he will have wisdom and insight to lead this great nation on the path that God has laid out before us.  God bless those in leadrship and God bless the United States of America.