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Archive for the ‘Hope’ Category

Feed Your Faith

I went to the doctor’s office this morning to have my leg checked.  It’s just purple but Kristi thought it would be better to be safe than sorry (she’s pretty smart about these things).  At any rate, while I was waiting, I noticed one of the nurses wearing a jacket that had the hospital logo on the front, but on the back was a neat statement.  It said, “Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death.”

What a great thought!  As I think about my own life,  any time I feel uneasy about anything, if I will stop and remember that God holds my life in the very hands that created the world, things somehow don’t seem so bad.  When we focus on our faith and growing in our relationship with God, our fears become very small.

It is not that our fears are magically removed.  And it is not that the things that cause us fear go away.  But rather, when we take our eyes off of ourselves and our problems and focus on God, life is put into perspective.

So today, are you feeding your faith or are you letting your concerns and fears eat at you?  Your choice.

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I am spending a couple of days in Colorado with the youth of our church and my family.  We are skiing at Crested Butte for three days (counting yesterday).  I am not sure I am in any kind of shape to ski three days in a row but we are going to give it a try.

Yesterday, I decided to venture off and try a couple of double black diamonds to see if I thought Kristi and Bryson could handle it.  It started off fine.  The top of the run was about like the other blacks I have skied but then I realized that evidently signage is not important to people who make it a habit of skiing double blacks.  On the map, The Glades looked like a wide open area.  I had no idea that the word Glades in Crested Butte talk means 4 foot wide runs through trees – oh, and did I mention that this was a double black?  Had there been a sign, I would have realized that I was not in the right place.  But I didn’t need a sign to realize that I was in way over my head.  After about 1/2 mile of that, I just took my skis off and slid down on my rear end and even then I found my way into a couple of trees (you know its steep when you can’t stop sliding even with both heels dug in).

Thank God we don’t have to live our daily lives with no sign posts – no directions.  God has given us a book – God’s Holy Word – to help us make it through this life.  So today, if you find yourself on the wrong path, fighting all kinds of dangerous obstacles, turn to God’s trail map the Bible.  I can tell you that getting back on the right trail may take some work on your part fighting the trees and rocks, but once you are there its a blast.

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Mold Me Lord Jesus

There is a sticky note on the top right corner of my monitor that I keep there as a reminder.  It is the only sticky note on my monitor (lest you think I am one of those who has sticky notes covering the circumference of my screen).  The words on the sticky note say this, “Mold me Lord Jesus to be like you!”

When I look back on the reason that I started this blog, Clay In The Hands, it is because I wanted a place to reflect on how Jesus molds me along this journey of the Way and I prayed that sharing my journey would somehow be used by God to mold others as well.

I am not sure how God has been able to mold others through this ministry, but I do know how God has used it to mold me.  I have been reading (as most of you know) through the book of Romans for several years now.  I have been camped in chapter 12 for about a month.  I have come to think of this chapter as the Christian Manifesto.  Just about everything you need to know to live for Jesus is in this chapter.

But today I am reminded that the molding of our lives into being more like Jesus happens when we cease to chase after the things of this world – stop being conformed to this world and its patterns – and we allow God to transform us by giving us a new way of thinking about life and love and service.

This blog is really built on the foundation that God is in the pottery business and we are in the formation stage.  Let God give you a new mind today.

Lord Jesus, mold us to be like you!

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Just a Snapshot

This morning I heard a song I have never heard before, Before the Morning, by Josh Wilson.  There is a line in that song that has really stuck with me, and in fact, is the title of the album, “life is not a snapshot, it might take a little time but you’ll see the bigger picture.”

A snapshot is just that – a snap shot – a split second in time.  It is not life defining.  As followers in the Way, we live with the big picture in mind – or at least we should.  Whatever you are experiencing today is temporary.  Life ebbs and flows.  Some days are better than others.

So if you have been living in the shadow of suffering, hang in there, it very well could be the darkness before the dawn.  Another line in the same song speaks to this: “the pain you’ve been feeling can’t compare to the joy that’s coming.”

Dare to believe – the snapshot you are living today is just a moment in time – there is more.  God is going to do something amazing today, you just watch!

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On the way to the office today, a song was playing on the radio that has stayed with me.  The song is by Kris Allen titled, Live Like We’re Dying.  Not to be confused with Tim McGraw’s song, Live Like You Are Dying – both songs have much of the same emphasis of making the most of our time on earth.   If you knew you had only 3 days to live, would it change you the way you live right now?

What caught my ear is the chorus of Kris’s song.  The words remind us that we only have 86,400 seconds in each day to turn the world around or to throw it all away.  It’s our choice.  Kris urges us to tell people that we love them and make a difference in the world around us while we have the chance.

The point is this: we should live each day as if we were on the verge of death.

So here is my challenge for you:  What are you going to do, today, with your 86,400 seconds of life God has given you.  Will you be selfish or will you spend some of those seconds showing God’s hope and love – making the world a better place?

Live like you are dying!

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I had a parent tell me this story yesterday and I wanted to relay it to you.  This particular family got some bad news on Monday and they were talking and crying and praying through and sorting out all that this news would mean for them.  In the midst of the discussion, their 10 year old daughter made this observation.

“You know, God made the road and we are just the cars that drive on it.  Sometimes it snows and we slide into the ditch and get stuck.  But if we trust in God and pray, and with the help of God and our family and friends, we can get unstuck.  We are just stuck right now but we will get out.”

Wow – the wisdom of a 10 year old!

Have you slid into a ditch?  Are you stuck?  Reach out to God and to your friends and family.  God is faithful to pull us through!

Be blessed today!

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Sometimes I am pretty thick headed – just ask my family.  I am also fairly driven by a type A personality – I need to get things done to have a sense of accomplishment.

Do you have any of these tendencies?

The reason I bring it up today is that God has been teaching me that my times in prayer and reading each day should not be about checking things off the list.

If you have been following my ramblings here in this blog for very long, you may remember that I have been in the book of Romans for a couple of years.  I don’t read it every day, some days I focus my reading in other books of the Bible, but inevitably, my goal is to make it through the book of Romans.

Here is why it is taking me so long – some days, like today, God stops me and says, “don’t leave that verse until you get it.”  Yesterday, I read Romans 11:22-24 (you can read it here).  Today as I sat to pray and read, I opened my Bible back up to Romans with the intention of beginning with verse 25.  I had an overwhelming sense that I should not read today, but rather simply pray.  As I prayed, I kept reflecting back to a phrase in Romans 11:23 from yesterday, “if they do not persist in unbelief.”

We say that we trust God – but do we really?  With everything?  Or do we set out each day to get things done and then ask God to bless our actions?

I still have a tendency to want to control things and make things happen but God wants me to simply rest in this belief and to trust:  God is in control.

God is going to do something amazing today!   Do you believe that – or do you persist in unbelief?

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Who Do You Doubt?

We are into our second week of the study, “In The Dust of the Rabbi,” on Wednesday nights.  Last night we had a good bit of discussion around one particular Bible story.  You can read the story here.

The setting was the Sea of Galilee and the disciples in a boat, caught in a storm.  Jesus came walking along as if this was a normal thing and said something to the effect, “Hey guys, what’s up?”  Well, something like that.

When the disciples figured out who was out on the water, Peter wanted to join him.  He asked Jesus to call him out of the boat.  Jesus did and so Peter stepped out on the water – not in the water, on the water – he was doing it!

The problem came when he took his eyes off Jesus and focused his attention on the waves and wind.  He began to sink and called out to Jesus to save him.  I have written about this story before – you can read that post here – but today, the point I want to make is a little different.

What was Jesus’ response when Peter called out for Jesus to save him?  “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”  Now I have always read this story and thought, “Peter was doubting Jesus.”  But think about it.  Was Peter really doubting Jesus?

Jesus was still standing on the water – he wasn’t sinking!  So why would he be doubting Jesus if Jesus is still standing there?  I think he was doubting himself and the calling Jesus gave him to step out of the boat.  I don’t think it was an accident that the disciple in this story is Peter – the bold one.

Jesus used this experience to illustrate the importance of being bold in our faith.  If Jesus has called each of us to follow him (and he has) then why should we doubt?  Jesus is still standing!

Jesus has a plan for each of us – it is his plan – it can’t fail.  So be bold in the way you step out of the boat today – or do you still doubt?

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In the Absence of God

Do you ever feel God is silent?

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to visit with a young man who is suffering.  He was visibly hurting, to the point of tears, so I approached him to offer a shoulder.  He relayed to me that his grandmother has been sent home to die of cancer.  Hospice has taken over and the only thing left is to wait for the inevitable.  On top of that devastation, his mother-in-law just learned that she may have cancer as well.  As I sat beside this broken young man, I had little to offer but an ear.  I did my best to console him and his wife.  I then knelt and prayed with them and went on my way.

I have been thinking a lot about suffering lately.  We all suffer from time to time.  Many of us have experienced deep emotional and spiritual pain.  I have been there and find myself there now.  Some of you may be with me in the midst of this kind of suffering today.  If you have never experienced a period in your life when you felt God was absent and silent, I pray you never do – it is agonizing.

But even in the midst of such pain and suffering, I know that God is at work.  I trust that God is in control.  No matter how abandoned I feel, I have to believe that God has a plan.  It is in times like this that we must press on.  Even in the hollowness of going through the motions, God wants us to be faithful and do what we know to do.

Jesus never told us that following him would be easy – simple maybe – but not easy.  Press on!  Have hope!  God is still in control.

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I have said this before, but Kristi and I have been blessed with three amazing sons!  Our youngest sang this past Saturday in Lubbock as part of the middle school all-region choir (8th chair first tenor).  I sat and beamed with pride as our son stood on the front row of those risers, singing with the rest of the “best of the best” from the schools in this area.  They did an incredible job.

We have been to a multitude of choir concerts as parents, but this one was different.  There was a noticeable focus in each of the choir members.  Each one was there because he or she wanted to be and the result was inspirational.

It got me to thinking – what if church could be like that?  What would your church look like if everyone who attended this coming Sunday, was there to praise God and to learn how to follow Jesus more passionately?  What would your community look like if everyone who attends your church on Sunday were on fire for God during the week?

You may be thinking, “That is a nice dream but it will never happen.”

I want to leave you with one question:

“Why not?”

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