Praying, "peace, be still."

Here it is around 9:30 just a few hours prior to what meteorologists declare to be, "round 3" of a horrible series of tornadic thunderstorms. You can almost feel the fear trying to grip the heart of the Tri-state. I am writing to remind you readers of The Refuge City that we have a promise. Just as Jesus promised the disciples that they were going to the other side of the sea, He has promised us that the Evansville region would become a shining "city of refuge" for the hurting and lost. No matter what the storm may bring, we are going to the other side. Our God is for us, who can be against us.

Pause now and put your heart in the hands of the man who calms the sea. Jesus Christ will never leave you, nor will He forsake you. Let the light of Christ shine in you during the darkness of this hour and any others that may threaten in the future.

Remember, gravity does not apply to those who are seated in heaven with Christ Jesus. The weight of the world is nothing compared to our glorious inheritance in Him. Keep the eyes of your heart fixed on Him. He will sustain us and lift us up again.

We may be get bruised, but never beaten. We may get knocked down, but never knocked out. We may endure great hardship, but we are never alone!

Peace to your hearts, Tri-state, be still
Dave

Courage Under Fire

While it may seem like a catchy phrase, the title of this piece really sort of irritates me.  I often find myself thinking about writing just this thing that I am writing now and it is meant to be all about things that attack one’s courage.  You know, things that make us fearful.  But that is not what it is about at all.  I knew this, but I just really wanted to be clever and make a play on the phrase and take it in a new direction.  I just can’t bring myself to do it.

So this piece is about actually having courage in the face of danger.  Where does it come from?  How do we get it?  What does it actually look like?  I want to try and answer these questions and maybe a few more.

First, I think it is important to note that I am not referring to a physical fire fight here but these principles would apply.  I’m writing about the fire we undergo while simply going about our lives.  Think about it; The Devil has one desire.  All that he wants to do is steal from you, kill you and destroy all there is left of you.  His one desire is to completely consume you.  God, on the other hand, want only to love you and fix you.  The enemy of our souls is very cunning and is constantly attacking us on every side.  Most of us are blissfully unaware of this (as mentioned in an earlier post), but once we wake up we realize that we are under constant fire and then we freak out. 

Now, we have a mighty Father who loves us.  This means that He is in the business of protecting us and strengthening us to overcome the enemy.  Where does courage come from?  It comes from knowing that you are loved by God.   I’m not just referring to knowing that this is what the Church teaches.  I’m talking about recognizing the reality of this love and embracing it.  When you accept the fact that you are accepted, the love of God quite literally crashes through the wall and throws fear out on the street.  This is no ordinary love, friends.  This is the love that motivated the Son of God to lay down His life for sinful humanity.  This is the love that spread His arms out on the cross so that we could run to the arms of the Father.  This is the love that chose you.

Recognizing the reality of God’s love for you is done simply though asking Him to show you.  It is His part to tell you who you are.  He gives you your value.  He reveals His love to your heart.  If you ask Him to open up your heart in such a way that you can realize His love, then that is just what He will do.

This is how we are able to have courage in the middle of the fire fight.  The bullets are real and the danger is all around us.  We would be foolish to ignore that fact.  However, we are loved.  I know, you might be thinking that God loving you does not quite make up for the fact that you could get hurt.  But that would only be if you were playing in the shallows of His affections and merely acknowledging His love.  Swim into the deep, let Him wrap His massive heart around you, and you will see that His love far outweighs any danger that we may be subjected to.

You can always notice the brave ones.  They are aware of the fight.  They are aware because they are in it.  They are in it because they have courage.  They have courage because they know who they are.  They know who they are because God has told them that He loves them.  Their identity is wrapped up in the love of the Father and they are not afraid of the terror that comes in the night, nor the arrow hat flies by day.

As a prayer for you and the rest of the tri-state, I pray for your heart to be open to receiving the love of the Father is such an encounter that it transforms who you are.  May the God of love who watches over you day and night be so close to you in the days ahead that you become renowned for your acts of bravery.

Peace, Dave

Climbing Out From the Darkness

The thing is, we can go on and on about how hard it is to follow Jesus, but we can't claim it isn't simple. Do you know left from right? Up from down? In from out? Light from dark? Yes from no? You get the picture, right?

We are so easily deceived; not by the darkness masquerading as light (though that can and will happen more often as the day approaches), but by enemy and our own flesh telling us that the terrain between us and the light is too difficult for us. We are convinced that we are not able to climb out from the darkness we find ourselves in.

Most of the time, the enemy only needs to give us hints and we take it the rest of the way on our own. The rest of the time, the enemy does not even need to help us out.

The next time you are stacked up against a clear choice between choosing righteousness or sin, light or dark, loving or fearing...take stock of the situation and know the the King of Kings is fully empowering you; not just to see the light, but to reach it too.

Bless you all as you keep heading for the light. Don't give up.

Dave

Why do we do this?

Driving into work this morning, I was reflecting on my own personal struggle with sin and the stupid choices I make (sometimes on a daily basis) to embrace sin and reject righteousness.  Often times, it is in the context of an unkind word to someone in my family.  Don't get me wrong, it can be much worse than that, but I'm not going to use this blog to throw up all over the Tri-state. 

The question I kept asking myself was why it was so easy to fall into the same things that have beset me for such a long time.  Why is it so hard to choose righteousness?  If sin were a swimming pool, it seems like I am never quite finished drying out in the sun when I end up falling back in.  "Why?", I asked.

Then I drove up on this scene and the Lord began to teach me.

"David (This is usually what Jesus calls me),
Could it be that the reason you keep falling into it is because you keep dragging it around with you? (ouch, Jesus.)  Sure it looks all nice a tidy, but you and I know what is in all those containers.  If you were to unhitch the trailer that you are hauling around with you, you would have much more liberty to choose righteousness.  You can't pull two trailers at once.  You need to cast off that one that is hindering you and put on the new one.  The neat thing is, David, is that the trailer of righteousness actually propels you down the road.  You don't have to pull it around, it carries you.  In order to choose the righteousness that I have provided for you, you will need to let go of the weight of sin and shame.  Snake handlers have a tendency to get bit.  People who don't get in the swamp are immune to alligator attacks.  People who don't skydive never have to worry about their chute not  opening.  Those children of mine who decide to stop pulling their sin around with them are completely free to choose righteousness without any conflict of choice.  

Don't you think it would be easier to do the right thing if you were to let go of the things that hinder you, David?  Don't you think that it would be easier to obey me if you were not so focused on loving yourself?  Don't you think it would be easier to walk in the truth if you stopped listening to the lies.  You are worthy because I payed the price of my life for you.  You are righteous because I handed my own righteousness over to you in exchange for your sin.  You are beloved, and that is even what your name means, because you belong to me and I am dwelling inside you.  You are holy because I have set you apart for me and no other.  The lies would tell you the opposite of all I have just declared about you.  They would say that you are not worth what I payed and what would that say about my wisdom.  Am I a fool that i would pay too much?  No, I payed what it took to redeem my children.  The lies would say that you are not righteous because you are carrying the shame and the guilt of your sin around with you wherever you go.  What would that say about my righteousness?  Did I fall short of pleasing my Father?  No, He told Me that He was "Well pleased" with Me.  That was the righteousness I gave to you.  The lies would say that you are not beloved, but simply tolerated by God.  No!  I chose you!  I did not merely allow you to come into a relationship with Me because I'm nice.  I went out of my way to come a lure you into my arms.  I have worked tirelessly to woo you into my presence and break down your resistance to my perfect love for you.  I wanted you, that is what the truth is.  I'm not just putting up with you, I anticipate every moment we spend together with such excitement and joy that I can't contain Myself.  I love you, David; I always have and I always will."

Now, only Jesus could tear me down and build me right back up to be stronger than I was to begin with.  My encouragement to you; stop pulling around those things that hinder you.  Got bitterness in some relationship?  Go fix it.  Got anger toward someone who abuses you?  Let it go.  Got fear over what you can't control?  Let God's perfect love cast it out.  Got anxiety over poor decisions that keeps you from making future ones?  Forget your mistakes and ask God for wisdom as you move forward. 

Get rid of the port-a-potty trailer and exchange it for the rocket sled of God's grace.

Bless you all, Dave

Hey, are those bullets real?!

Watching this little clip from the movie, "Steamboy" is one of the ways God spoke to me about how we really are born into a battle that most of us are sadly unaware of.  It strikes me that there really are only two options when the reality of warfare shatters one's dream world like it did for the young lady in this clip. 

1: Fold up like a lawn chair and hide in the closet till it is safe to come out (some would call this the Ostrich Approach).

or

2: Take in your surroundings and figure out a way to emerge as the victor. (I call this the Conan Approach)

The differences are stark and easily definable.  One is focused on survival and maintaining a sense of our former world view.  It is just as tenacious as the other and requires just as much strength, but produces nothing worth while.  The second is focused on overcoming and changing the recognized reality into one that is more suitable to one's liking.  Arguably more stressful and requiring of more strategy, this Conan Approach is the more biblical one.

Show me, if you can, where the Word tells us to run and hide from the war.  I would argue that it is not there.  The psalms are full of scriptures that speak of taking refuge in God and even making Him your hiding place.  However, taken in their context, I have not found one single instance where the eventual purpose was not to be strengthened in order to win the battle in the end. 

There is a sense in which the Lord is the One who is supposed to fight our battles and we are told point blank that the battle "belongs" to Him.  But I assert that He has chosen to fight these battles of ours through us and with us.  He has chosen to pour His strength into us and dwell in our hearts and to overcome the world system through His presence in our hearts. 

As believers, we have been given the responsibility to fight and to be "more than conquerors" in Jesus Christ.  We don't have the right to ignore the battle around us.

So, if we choose to fight, we can go about it in a couple different ways.  More choices?  Yes, this is sort of a big part of being human.  We are always going to have a choice in the matter of how we go about things and it will almost always come down to a difference between good and best.  Fighting the enemy who is trying to steal from us, kill us and utterly destroy us is good.  Fighting the enemy by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts and in the full armor of God is best. 

It is not enough to get all Rambo on the devil and storm the castle.  There is a great deal of combat training, strategic planning, and coordination with the others who are fighting alongside you to be done first.  Admittedly, much of this is done in the battlefield, but it is still necessary.

So let me sum up today's post in as few words as possible;

"Wake up, get your boots on, grab hands and charge!"

Wake up: It is completely futile to pretend that everything is fine because that helps you sleep at night and you don't want to face reality.  Open eyes are preferred when fighting a war.

Get your boots on: Preparedness is only for those who wish to win.  Practice, Planning, Pruning, Praying and a bunch of other "P" words apply here.  Don't rush in where angels fear to tread.  Note that it did not say "Don't go", but "Don't rush in."

Grab hands:  Don't go alone.  The fellowship around you is the greatest source of encouragement and strength.  They are the ones who will remind you of your true strength in Christ.  They are the ones who will share in the victories and in the losses as you fight.  They are the ones who will increase your ability to send the enemy fleeing.  "They" is an important word.

Charge:  We are not those who shrink back or retreat or surrender.  We are the overcomers, the conquerors, the victors.  The enemy is not just going to give up and go home because we won't get out of our foxholes.  Rather, they prefer we stay in them and they will walk all over the battlefield abusing those we have been sent to defend and rescue from darkness.

Let me close with a few questions;

If the bullets flying through the air are real and they are being shot at me, what should I do?  What can I do?  What will I do?  I think you find the answers to these questions in the statement emboldened above.

The Glory Belongs to Another

 

 On my way to work this morning, I was driving into what I would call a Chaff Storm of what looked like straw and dust.  I'm sure it came from a truck similar to the one in the first picture here.  To give you an idea of what I was driving through, I have placed the second picture here. 

 

Now imagine that you can see the faint outline of a tractor-trailer through all of that dust.  I was sure that once the truck or I made a change in direction, I would see a flatbed truck loaded down with some type of bale.  But when we got to the interstate on ramp and he went a different direction that I, I was shocked to discover that he was not carrying anything like that at all and was, in fact, hauling a closed box trailer.  The truck in front of me was simply driving through the chaff left by someone else and stirring up a cloud for me to drive through.

As often is the case, I was almost to work when the thought occurred to me that God might be teaching me something here.  Could it be?  Well, perhaps not, but if I had to draw some sort of life lesson here I think I'd take it in this direction.

We can easily be deceived by the stuff flying around us and convince ourselves that we are the source of all the activity.  For instance, I may have some young people in my youth group who are being drawn closer to God and my own children may be growing in their faith.  Other folks in my church may be experiencing something great in their walks with Christ and I may even be experiencing a personal revival of sorts. But I would be wrong in my deduction that this was all because of something I possess as a man.  We must remember that we are "nothing" without Jesus.  All that is done "in us", "through us" or "around us" that is of any importance is Jesus Christ.  Apart from Him, we can do nothing. 

That truck sure did throw a lot of chaff around the countryside, but the source was an entirely different truck.  He was just driving through.  Let us remember that all of the glory belongs to God.  He will share it with us, but we can;t forget that we are simply driving through His glory and stirring it up.

Peace, Dave

E.T. Phone Home

This guy came by our house today to do an energy use diagnostic for our house. He put this little get up on our front door. Me being me, I could only start imagining I was hiding E.T. in my closet with all the stuffed animals. While frantically searching for Reese's Pieces, it happened upon my mind that our lives are a bit like this.

I know, you think I'm reaching a little. But hear me out. We are not like the rest of the people here. While we are not quite extra-terrestrial (in fact, we are the ones this world was made for) we are super-terrestrial. We walk here on earth and in heavenly places with Jesus Christ. That makes us carriers of significant contagious elements , if you will, that greatly affect those we mingle with here on this earth.

This is just part of our reality that we need to keep in mind while living out our lives here. Don't seal up your hearts like an infectious disease disaster waiting to happen. Rather, throw caution to the wind and spread the stuff of heaven anywhere we can.

Peace, Dave