My head is spinning . . .

My head is definitely spinning after a great weekend. I am going to list the highlights so that this does not turn into a marathon post, so here goes:

Friday morning we were able to meet our deadline at work and I actually got out of the office a little early. I actually found a shade tree at a park near by, rolled the windows down, set the alarm on my phone and took a nap. It was righteous.

Was able to have lunch with Jim Barnes Friday and hear about the trip that Marianne and he took to Pa.

Had my eyes examined and picked out new glasses.

Friday evening I spent the whole evening with my beautiful wife Irene.

Saturday morning I worked in the yard for about three hours. Way to long to work outside in the heat and the ground as hard as it is.

Checked in on the crew at “Hunger Hurts” and carried some can goods down. Great event. Way to go guys!!

That evening had our first meeting with our executive partners. A group of awesome, Godly men who have agreed to come along side the leadership team of The Journey. The first meeting was great. A big Thank you to Marshall Fagg.

Sunday morning we had a joint worship service at Meadowsprings Church on Woodruff Road, with The Journey leading. Great music (way to go Jonathan) and an awesome message on worship from Mike.

Sunday lunch was at mother’s house and supper was at Mike and Karen Thompson’s house. Played Totally 80’s Trivial Pursuit. I know I lived through the 80’s but I don’t seem to remember much.

Today is back to work. I will continue to develop what God wants in the days to come. Until then, keep your eyes on Jesus and pass the brownies please.

What does God want – continued . . .

Please allow me to take a few minutes and continue the thought from yesterday. We started along the thought process that God wanted people to know Him and to love Him. That he was not looking for an acquaintance but someone who really knew Him. He is looking for someone who is actively seeking a relationship with Him. He is looking for someone that will love Him with a faithful love – a never ending love. The same type of love that He shows us.

Now as I am sitting here typing this and developing this thought something has just hit me – God is looking for us to love Him and know Him in the same way a bride knows her groom. Maybe that is the reason that God refers to His church as His bride. DUH!! To speak from my own experience – I do not just go through the motions of being married to my wife. Our relationship (my knowledge of her and my love for her) began to grow the minute that I met her and it is still growing and developing today. I can with all confidence say that I know and love my wife more today than when I met her and I will know and love her more tomorrow. That is my choice. If all I did was go through the motions of being a husband I would be no better than the Pharisees were to the early church. They went through all the motions as religious leaders but they had no relationship with the God they professed to follow.

For now, we’ll stop here since it is Friday, but more to come next week. Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and how is your relationship with God?

What does God want . . .

Have you ever wondered what God really wants? I mean – what does He want the most? Well, I ran across something in Hosea that kind of jumped off the page at me at three am yesterday morning. I’m not sure why I woke up – except that my neck was killing me. I guess that was God’s way of waking me up to have a little time with Him, since my neck was fine the night before.

I had been reading in first and second Timothy lately, but that night God directed me to Hosea. Now when I say that He directed me – I did not hear an audible voice, but it was awfully close. When I get that kind of epiphany I generally go where it leads and it led to Hosea. What I did not realize is that it would take two days to get to what God had for me.

In the 6th chapter and the 6th verse you find the following. This is God talking to Judah and Israel and He states pretty clearly what He really wants. What I see here is that God wants two things: 1) He wants a faithful love – a love that lasts, one that is loyal to the very end and – 2) He wants people to know Him – a real relationship with Him, a personal knowledge of Him.

Bear with me for just a couple of quick statements about each of these. God wants us to have a real love for Him. He wants this more than all of our religious acts. He is not impressed by how many times we go to church, how many Sunday School pins we have or how many offices we hold in the church. He wants us to fall in love with the author and creator of love – Himself. Secondly or maybe it needs to come first – God wants us to know Him. I would think that this probably would come before love, but I am writing in the order that I see it in the scriptures. The Message states that God wants us to know Him not go to more prayer meetings. God is looking for a relationship not merely an acquaintance. He is looking for a relationship not more religious duties.

I’ll look more at what God is looking for and develop this thought more next time, but for now – keep your eyes on Jesus and stop all your running around and build a relationship with the creator of the universe.

Pleasing to God . . .

See I told you that I would get back to this subject – what is pleasing to God and how do we please God? Well, in the first two verses of the 12th chapter of Romans we find a couple of ways that we can be pleasing to God.

First we can present our bodies as a living sacrifice – holy and acceptable because that is the way to truly worship God. We can please God through worship, but note the restrictions put on this statement. We are to be a living sacrifice – not dead. Everything that we do should show the life that God has granted us. With a sacrifice we are giving up our control and turning everything over to Him. This sacrifice is to be holy and acceptable. God will accept nothing less than holy – set apart for His use.

Secondly in this verse we find that we can please God by doing His will. Well, you may ask, how do we know what His will is? According to this scripture we will know what His will is by not copying the behavior and customs to the world and allowing God to transform us by changing the way we think. You may say that there is nothing wrong with the way you think. I would say that if the way you think is not in line with God’s word, you have a problem with the way you think.

Enough for today – we’ll revisit this in the days to come, but for now – keep your eyes on Jesus and answer this question – have I been pleasing to God lately?

Pleasing to God . . .

This morning in my study of 1st Timothy, I ran across a statement
about our lives being pleasing to God. That really has got me thinking this morning. What does it mean – to be pleasing to God? Well, let’s start with what it means to be pleasing.

I started with at dictionary.com and searched for definitions of pleasing. What I found is the following: to act to the pleasure or satisfaction of; to be the pleasure or will of; to give pleasure or satisfaction. There were several others but these seemed most applicable to what I want to talk about over the next couple of days.

Over the next couple of posts we’ll take a journey through what it means to be pleasing to God and what the advantages and disadvantages are of being pleasing to God is. Until then – keep your eyes on Jesus and what do you think it takes to be pleasing to God?

To simply love . . .

What we are talking about is love. Specifically, simply love as described in 1st Timothy 1:5 – as read in The Message. This love is to be a “love uncontaminated by self-interest and counterfeit faith, a life open to God.” In what I read here in this scripture, I see simple love – a love that we have not attached some selfish desire to. Often times we complicate the love of God by attaching some convoluted meaning to it. We need to get back to understanding that God loved us first while we were un-lovable. Love only comes from God – apart from Him we would not have a clue what love really looks like. Love is not self serving – that would be lust.

Also in this scripture I see that love should not be contaminated by counterfeit faith. Often time we say that we have faith and we do – in one form or another. I am sorry to say that the faith that I often see is a faith that professes God with our mouths but deny Him with our lives.

So what does it mean to simply love as seen in the context of this verse in 1st Timothy? To accept people and care for them exactly where they are. And love them enough to allow God to change them without any of us playing Holy Spirit. Should we withhold biblical guidance from someone walking with God – never! Should we withhold our personal opinions that do not stand up in light of God’s word – absolutely! One of my favorite music groups is Casting Crowns. They did a song called “What the World Needs.” They deal with this in music form in a great song – if you have not listened to it – find it and give it a listen.

One last thing and I’ll warp up this post. The last part of the verse that we have been talking about says – “a life open to God.” Honestly – that is the only way that we will ever simply love someone – through a life open to God. If we live a life open to God and His guidance and direction we can simply love people the way that He loves us.

Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and open up and let God live through you.

Is simple easy ? ? ?

That is the question that I keep kicking around in my head lately – is simple easy? I know that I like it when my life is simple. I also like it when my life is easy. What I don’t understand is that they are mutually exclusive of each other. What I mean is – when my life is easy, it is not necessarily simple. What I have found out is that simple can be hard work at times. Like when we have over complicated things and we are trying to get back to simple. That is one of the thoughts that I had a few weeks back when I read “Simple Church.” How exactly did we complicate church to the point that we have? Anyway, that is another rabbit to chase at another time.

According to what I can find in an on-line dictionary – Simple can be defined as the following – easy to understand or deal with, not elaborate or artificial, unaffected, unassuming, not complicate or complex, not grand or sophisticated, common. I think that I could apply all of these definitions to the love that was shown us by God except common. There is nothing common about the love that God has shown us in order for us to have a relationship with Him. There is nothing common about giving your only Son to die on the cross so that we could have our relationship with God restored.

Next time I talk about what it means to simply love – but until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and tell somebody that you love them. Better yet, show them.

The goal . . .

To start with – I am sorry that it has taken me so long to get back to posting on this site. Honestly – my focus has been so scattered that words would not come together in any way close to a c complete sentence. Maybe with this series of thoughts I can turn the corner for a while.

This past Sunday evening I had the privilege of teaching the bible study during our time together at The Journey. We talked about loving God and loving others based upon the scriptures found in Matthew 22:37 and Mark 12:29-31. This week during my personal study time I have been reading and studying in 1st Timothy. What I found was a verse (verse 5) that has steadied my mind. In this verse it states that the goal of our teaching is love. In The Message it is stated “simply love”. The questions that I have batted around in my head are – what is simple love and does simple mean easy?

Over the next couple of posts we’ll deal with both of these questions, but until next time – I’ll let you chew on the questions yourself. Let me urge you to read Matthew 22:37 and Mark 12:29-31 in light of 1st Timothy 1:5 and chew on it for a while. That being said – keep your eyes on Jesus and Keep it simple.