Shallow Minded People

This is a repost of Oswald Chambers Devotional that got me to thinking about how many times I might act like this. We are creatures of habit and the more we think of ourselves as above others, more profound than others and elevate ourselves above all others, the deeper in trouble we sink. 

The trouble being that we don't thin of ourselves the way we ought to. We don't see ourselves in Christ. Hidden and covered by his righteousness. There are definite times for being reserved and quiet but for the most part we need to loosen up and stop being so stiff. You know what I mean. That posture of aloofness and disconnect. The "that's too beneath me" look and feel.

I am going to work on that being the abnormal behavior for myself. I want to be connected and involved in peoples lives. Sometimes I feel inadequate among those I count as specially blessed of God and withdraw into my own little room in my head. Other times I have obtained some thought about myself that exalts itself above all others. It competes with God and I don't want to do that. I don't want to compete with anyone, actually. I just want to be free to be who God made me and life this joyous life for all that God designed it to be.

How about you? How does this practically work out in your life?

Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God —1 Corinthians 10:31

Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow aspects of life are not ordained by God; they are ordained by Him equally as much as the profound. We sometimes refuse to be shallow, not out of our deep devotion to God but because we wish to impress other people with the fact that we are not shallow. This is a sure sign of spiritual pride. We must be careful, for this is how contempt for others is produced in our lives. And it causes us to be a walking rebuke to other people because they are more shallow than we are. Beware of posing as a profound person— God became a baby.

To be shallow is not a sign of being sinful, nor is shallowness an indication that there is no depth to your life at all— the ocean has a shore. Even the shallow things of life, such as eating and drinking, walking and talking, are ordained by God. These are all things our Lord did. He did them as the Son of God, and He said, “A disciple is not above his teacher . . .” (Matthew 10:24).

We are safeguarded by the shallow things of life. We have to live the surface, commonsense life in a commonsense way. Then when God gives us the deeper things, they are obviously separated from the shallow concerns. Never show the depth of your life to anyone but God. We are so nauseatingly serious, so desperately interested in our own character and reputation, we refuse to behave like Christians in the shallow concerns of life.

Make a determination to take no one seriously except God. You may find that the first person you must be the most critical with, as being the greatest fraud you have ever known, is yourself.

THE STRANGER

This is a re-post of a blog from the REVIVAL List I thought was worthy of posting for you.

A few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on. As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. In my young mind, he had a special niche.

My parents were complementary instructors: Mom taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey. But the stranger... he was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries and comedies. If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able to predict the future!

He took my family to the first major league ball game. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped talking, but Dad didn't seem to mind. Sometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet. (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave.)

Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions,but the stranger never felt obligated to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home - not from us, our friends or any visitors. Our long time visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush. My Dad didn't permit the liberal use of alcohol but the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular basis.  He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly, and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (much too freely!) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing.. I now know that my early concepts about relation-ships were influenced strongly by the stranger.

Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked ... And NEVER asked to leave. More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first. Still, if you could walk into my parents' den today, you would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures. His name?.... We just call him 'TV'.

(The average Westerner watches about 12 YEARS of television in his or her lifetime. Yes - 12 YEARS. I wonder what it has done to our generation that we are not even aware of?)

It is quite an eye opener for some of us who have invited strangers into our houses. Today we have a more subtle stranger we have invited into our homes. His name is PC. 

Even more than that we have invited a stranger to travel with us wherever we go. His name is Smart Phone. 

Maybe we should do a background check on these strangers before we so readily invite them into our lives?

The Self-Seeking Christian

"Am I building up the body of Christ, or am I only concerned about my own personal development?"

A recent devotion by Oswald Chambers spoke about the church and I believe there is a lot of practical truth to what he said. Today's "church" seems to be filled with self-seeking Christians. I don't know about every church but there are plenty Christians I know that act that way.

I've been in Kenya the past couple weeks and Kenya is no different than the US in self-seeking interests being fed by the church here. Money is a popular subject. Especially the obtaining of it and preaching about obtaining it, they call it prosperity. I call it foolishness and a waste of time. 

If you read the Bible you find that it is written to the church and not simply to individuals. Especially the letters of Paul, Peter and John. That is the practical reality of it all, seeing ourselves as the body of Christ and not merely individuals looking for blessings from God.

OK, time to face the reality of your Christian life. If yours is anything like mine, you spend a lot of time doing things for yourself. Not that taking care of needs are bad but we tend to go much farther than we really need to. We are a generation of excess. Look around you and tell me that you need all the things you have collected for the purpose of survival and seeking after God. Better yet, how are those things benefiting others? What about the church? Does it benefit the body of Christ?

What we need is a rooster type wake-up call here friends. Jesus calls us to Himself as disciples and that takes more than just simply believing. It takes a working out of that calling. Jesus says you must give up all your possessions, self-interests for your life and come, follow Him.

What does that mean to us today? Does He really mean to give up everything? Does He really mean too hate our mother, father, sisters and brothers? How can anyone ever do all that and still live in this world? Is it even possible?

They are hard questions and even harder to do. Jesus spoke those words. Can you rationalize them away and just substitute something else? Maybe He really didn't mean what He said. You know how words get confused when there are translations involved. Maybe the rich young ruler came back and became one of Jesus disciples without giving up all his possessions. Maybe Jesus was just kidding when He told him that.

Well, read John chapter 17 and tell me if He was just kidding about all of those disciples and us being one. There is the best example of what His heart is. His and the Father’s heart are one. So did He really want us to be one? How in the world is that all going to work out? We can't possibly do that. Oh yeah? Try looking at some historical examples of that starting with the early church before 300 AD. Follow some of the records of the Anabaptists and other groups that were persecuted and killed for their unity and faith.

Today there is another example of that happening. This is the place I live has been practicing oneness in discipleship. They've been doing this for the past 25 years. It can be done. It isn't easy. There are times when you really doubt that this is what the early church went though. History records their lives and they had as many problems then, as we do today. The reality of it all is that, God can and is in our midst, giving us grace for one another so we can be one heart, one mind with one another, and our Lord.

So I ask again, what are you doing to build up the body of Christ, or are you only concerned about your own personal development? If you go to church on Sunday and Wednesday you are in the majority of Christian believers who do likewise. Do you live outside of the church building and its activities the way you act at the church building, in front of the people that come there each week? Or do you have a double life, one for church and one for the rest of the time?

If your Christian faith is divided into AT CHURCH behavior and NOT AT CHURCH behavior (which is completely different) then I propose you are living a hypocritical life. Why not just choose one and live it all the time? Be real about your life. That's what Jesus was saying when He called people to follow him. He wants all or nothing. Just believing is not what He required for the church. He required disciples who were committed and consistent in their lives of following him. Making mistakes is understandable. For that there is forgiveness. Being wish-washy and living a dual life style is not.

 

Joshua said, "Choose this day whom you will serve. For me and my family, we will serve the Lord." Can you say that and really mean it 100 percent of the time? Joshua did. He made mistakes and God forgave him, but he kept his course straight towards the Lord and was consistent with his behavior. 

It can be done. You can follow Christ. You can be His disciple and live out the life of Christ for Him and the church. It's all there in the Bible. Just read it and you will see. Here's a good place to start. Click Here.

The Rooster Crows

All three gospels record the denial of Christ by Peter but only Mark says before the rooster crows twice you will deny me three times. The other three say that “before the rooster crows” you will deny me three times. I’m not sure that makes a lot of difference but it was a thought that was brought on by the rooster that crows here in Nakuru, Kenya. However, this rooster crows at odd times of the night and morning.

Usually roosters crow at daybreak. So we assume that the rooster crowed at daybreak on the morning of Peter’s denial. If the rooster there was anything like the rooster in Peter’s day it could have been at 2 AM in the morning. That was the pattern when we first got here in Nakuru. Nellie has a rooster that crows whenever it feels so inclined to crow. And yes, it crows several times at night and through the morning hours as well.

Abba and Amma said that it probably knew we were new to the house (we’ve been here before) and so it was welcoming us. Good try but I know better I believe. I believe it was reminding us that we were here for the Lord and not our own plans or desires. This is perfectly fine with me. I have gotten used to the rooster crowing now and I don’t hear it when I am suppose to be sleeping. I hear it at about 5:30 when Beatie starts the pump and that’s ok because I need to get up and get moving soon after that.

There are roosters back in the village. They seem to do better at keeping time than this rooster. Sunrise is an appropriate time to crow. I don’t think I was as aware of them as I am this one. This one stays in a garage all the time. He lives in a cage. Maybe he is disgruntled about the living arrangements. I would be. So I guess I shouldn’t be too hard on him about the crowing. His hip or legs probably get cramped like mine and he is just showing his disapproval and discomfort from time to time.

The thing I most felt was important about the rooster crowing is that we associate the rooster with a wakeup call. You get those at Motels when you travel. But you get those from God, too. He wakes us up to things that are not right in our lives.

Sometimes it’s a rooster. Sometimes it’s your spouse. Other times it’s a friend or even a stranger. He can use difficult times and boring times to give us a wakeup call. Whatever the case may be, He does call us up to a higher place with him. To walk a higher walk: to be careful about the way we walk in this life He has given us.

Lately he has been working on me and my methods of communication. Emails are not my strong points. Chat seems to be very frustrating. Phone calls work so far. I’m not sure how God is going to help me in those areas or if he is intending to. What he has given me so far is a wakeup call. Let’s call it “The Rooster Crows”. I have a way of writing and texting and chatting that does not fulfill the needs of others or me in the line of communication. I no longer have a FaceBook account and I am being careful about who I chat with.

My recent failure at email has been a double-header, maybe even a triple with my friends and brothers in Christ. I sincerely hope that God’s grace can fill them up for the lack in me. I really love them and want them to be able to communicate with me via letters and chat often. I am sure God will find me a way through all this bungling of words. Thank God for spell check. It would be ten times worse if it were not for that. None-the-less, I am praying that this post will not confuse anyone and be plainly speaking to hearts that need a wakeup call from God.

Why do I say that? Because I believe each and every one of us needs a wakeup call from time to time. The rooster crows and we may be sleeping through it. God may be trying to get our attention and we are not paying attention. We may be too busy living our own lives, filled with our own dreams and desires to hear Him.

So I leave you with this. Pay attention to the circumstances around you. Things happen for a reason. Maybe you are being sloppy about the way you are living your life, maybe you are caught up in some fleshly desire that is occupying all your time you should be using for God. Movies, music, eating out, video games, consumption of elements that alter your thinking or other things that just plain waste your time away from accomplishing the living of God’s life. Pay attention.

A good exercise for a week or so would be to write down what you spend your time doing and how much of that time is consumed with that activity. It can give you a heads up on where you are at with your thinking and doing. If that doesn’t seem practical, ask your friends, housemates, spouse or kids what they think you do the most. Things are more real when you look through the eyes of others. Don’t be afraid to take a good look and let God wake you up to some things.

OK, I have to go now. I hear the Rooster Crowing again. Time to post this and remind you that I am asking for your prayers and input. May God bless you and give you His rest.

Discipleship Is NOT a Dirty Word

Years ago I taught Discipling 101 in an Assemblies of God church in Florida. My incentive came from a book I read called Evangelism Explosion by D.James Kennedy and a deep conviction that God's intention was for us to make disciples of all nations. We spent countless hours memorizing verses, going door-to-door talking to people, handing out tracts on the Miracle Strip while all the while we told people of our conversions to Christianity through the work of Jesus Christ. Our boldness was enlarged and we found ourselves meeting 5 times a week, talking about the work God was doing in us.

This behavior eventually led to me being asked to leave the Assemblies of God church and so I continued to meet with those that would do so in my living room each night. At first there were only two of us. It seems the boldness of the Holy Spirit was growing until there were 30 or more of us that filled that living room as often as we could. We intently studied the Word of God in subject studies, word studies, and reading through the Bible. We bought concordances, Vines dictionaries, interlinear Bibles, study Bibles, books by old revival authors and especially books about discipleship and the ways of the early church.

In 2008 my wife, children and I moved to Tennessee to be a part of another church (Rose Creek Village) that had been on the quest for living the life of God as disciples also. Their passion and goal in life mirrored mine in being a disciple and doing the work of making disciples of all nations. It amazes me how parallel our lives in Christ were but then it only makes sense in another, since we were intent upon the same things Christ was intent upon. Today we are taking the lives God has given us and sharing His life around the world. But, we've only just begun.

I was delighted to read this article by J. Lee Grady (compliments of Andrew Strom's Ministry) and wanted to share it since it is so much of my heart about where we are with churches today. Take a few minutes and think about where you are in your walk with Christ.

Is your walk the same as His walk? 

Does it model the walk of the disciples, Paul or Barnabas? 

Do you make it a habit to talk about Jesus Christ and God in your home?

Do you talk to your friends or neighbors about God?

Do your friends and neighbors now you are a Christian and what you believe?

Does you life look anything like the members of the first century church? If not, why? 

What is stopping you from doing what was the most natural thing to do in the first century church?

Discipleship Is NOT a Dirty Word -J. Lee Grady. Reprinted from Charisma Magazine

I get funny looks from some charismatic Christians when I tell them I believe God is calling us back to radical discipleship. Those in the over-50 crowd-people who lived through the charismatic movement of the 1970s-are likely to have a bad taste in their mouths when it comes to the dreaded "D word."

That´s because the so-called Discipleship Movement (also known as the Shepherding Movement) turned a vital biblical principle into a weapon and abused people with it. Churches that embraced the warped doctrines of shepherding required believers to get permission from their pastors before they bought cars, got pregnant or moved to a new city. Immature leaders became dictators, church members became their loyal minions, and the Holy Spirit´s fire was snuffed out because of a pervasive spirit of control.

I don´t ever want to live through that again. I know countless people who are still licking their wounds from the spiritual abuse they suffered while attending hyper-controlling churches in the 1970s and `80s. Some of them still cannot trust a pastor today; others walked away from God because leaders misused their authority- all in the name of "discipleship."

Yet I´m still convinced that relational discipleship-a strategy Jesus and the apostle Paul modeled for us-is as vital as ever. If anything the pendulum has now swung dangerously in the opposite direction. In today´s free-wheeling, come-as-you-are, pick-what-you-want, whatever-floats-your-boat Christianity, we make no demands and enforce no standards. We´re just happy to get warm rumps in seats. As long as people file in and out of the pews and we do the Sunday drill, we think we´ve accomplished something.

But Jesus did not command us to go therefore and attract crowds. He called us to make disciples (see Matt. 28:19), and that cannot be done exclusively in once-a-week meetings, no matter how many times the preacher can get the people to shout or wave handkerchiefs. If we don´t take immature Christians through a discipleship process (which is best done in small groups or one- on-one gatherings), people will end up in a perpetual state of immaturity.

David Kinnaman, author of the excellent book unChristian, articulated the problem this way: "Most people in America, when they are exposed to the Christian faith, are not being transformed. They take one step into the door, and the journey ends. They are not being allowed, encouraged, or equipped to love or to think like Christ. Yet in many ways a focus on spiritual formation fits what a new generation is really seeking. Transformation is a process, a journey, not a one-time decision."

Reclaiming this process of discipleship is going to require a total overhaul of how we do church. Do we really want to produce mature disciples who have the character of Jesus and are able to do His works? Or are we content with shallow believers and shallow faith?

A friend of mine had to face this question while he was pastoring in Florida. As a young father, he had a habit of putting his infant son in a car seat and driving him around his neighborhood at night in order to lull him to sleep. Once during this ritual the Holy Spirit spoke to this pastor rather bluntly. He said: "This is what you are doing in your church. You are just driving babies around."

My friend came under conviction. He realized he had fallen into the trap of entertaining his congregation with events and programs, even though the people were not growing spiritually. He was actually content to keep them in infancy. As long as they filled their seats each Sunday, and paid their tithes, he was happy. Yet no one was growing, and they certainly were not producing fruit by reaching others for Christ.

How can we make this paradigm shift in to discipleship? How can we add "the D word" back into our vocabulary?

• Churches must stop exclusively focusing on big events and get people involved in small groups, where personal ministry can take place.
• We must stop treating people like numbers and get back to valuing relationships.
• Leaders must reject the celebrity preacher model and start investing their lives in individuals.

When we stand before Christ and He evaluates our ministries, He will not be asking us how many people sat in our pews, watched our TV programs, gave in our telethons or filled out response cards.

He is not going to evaluate us based on how many people fell under the power of God or how many healings we counted in each service. He will ask how many faithful disciples we made. I pray we will make this our priority.

That Dark Spot Within You (re-post)

This is a re-post of a blog from my other blog Seeker of Light written last June. I thought it would be a good follow up to my last blog post here. Let me know what you think.


As I was listening to the testimonies and hearts of people sharing last Sunday, God placed a verse inside me that I thought I knew the meaning of. It started to haunt me as I pondered its meaning again. The verse was: "If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" Matt. 6:23

I love how the Contemporary English Bible translates that whole verse. "Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!"


The part that strikes me, as a soul, seeking God, is the "eyes wide in wonder and belief" part, so as to drink up all that there is to what God has to give. That soul is completely given to the entirety of Gods life flowing into them and through them. Such a stark difference from what follows with the picture of darkness.

This is the message we hear from John 3:19 in the Message version: "This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is."

When you are operating in the dark, thinking in the dark and walking in the dark, as opposed to walking in the light, something happens inside your mind. A dark place begins to form and a void begins to fill up with all sorts of nasty thoughts. The blinds are pulled shut. Lack of light and communication continues to forms a darker spot yet and then comes the double whammy. That darkness creates confusion and fear. Dread comes over you so you avoid looking people in the eyes, coming out of your room, and just plain fearful of any confrontation from anyone about anything.


So we have the opposition of light and darkness. However, darkness cannot exist when there is light. It seems quite simple that you would just replace the darkness with light. Right? That only works if you want to be in the light and look at what is being exposed by the light. But if the light that is in you is darkness, then you can't really see what the light is exposing because you are really still in the darkness. You just don't know it. You can't admit that you are in the darkness (sin) and that you may be doing something other than what you think you are doing. You have convinced yourself that you are right and the others are wrong. Dark vs. Light. Light and Dark. Not the same!

Have you ever been in a cave? when the lights are turned out it is pitch black in that cave. It is scary and confusing. You cannot see your hand in front of your face. You can't see anything. If you try to walk, you will be sure to run into something or fall in some hole. You are in a dangerous place and not able to guide yourself out. You need help. You need someone to guide you. But if that person can't see anything either you will both end up in the peril of life threatening stumbling and wandering in the dark. What you need is light. You don't have any light nor are you filled with light. Darkness and light cannot co-exist in the same place at the same time so without any light it will be dark.


When our minds get darkened and deceived by the deceitfulness of sin, we hide from God and run into the darkness. Then when we are in the darkness we are overcome with it and we can't find our way out. We are too proud and stiff-necked to admit we might be standing in the dark or can't find our way out. We refuse to ask for help and we continue to think we are OK but we really are not. We need some light. We need someone who has light.


That is what that verse means. "If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" Matt. 6:23


So how do we over come that darkness?


When you were standing in that pitch black dark cave, just a match or small light could illuminate the entire area around you. You could see where to walk and not stumble or fall. You could even lead others who were in that darkness out as well. That small light could drive out the darkness. You need someone to give you some light.


Now imagine that place being flooded with light. Imagine that a hundred people in that cave all had very bright lights. Imagine that a giant spotlight was then turned on and everything around you was revealed. You could see the walls, crevices, small little creatures, fine lines in the walkway, every inch of every surface all around you. Nothing would be left to your imagination. Nothing would be in a shadow or hidden from your view. You would have no problem at all in defining the place you were in or what was around you. That is what the saints and the Holy Spirit of God is like.

How do we find that light?

There is a plan that God has for your life. That plan centers around you walking in the Light of His Son, Jesus Christ and in the presence of His Body, the Church, those who are called according to His purpose. Put away the childish thoughts and the ways of your own understanding. Put into practice the ways of Light and Truth, demonstrated by the love God has placed before you, in unity with His Bride. Relinquish your own selfish thoughts and ways and join with those who are walking on the God-path. You will find a new and glorious life that only God can give you when you empty yourself. Embrace the Light. Look full into the face of God and let your eyes be wide in wonder and belief. Give up and let the God-light direct you out of darkness.

How Easily We Are Offended

It amazes me at how easily we can be offended with others!

My first thoughts when I see someone acting out because of an offense is to ask, "Just who do you think you are?"

Why would I ask that? For a couple different reasons I guess, because if we are Christians, REAL God followers, we should not be surprised at those things. We should expect that our enemy is looking for every way possible to distract us from what is really important about following God.

Jesus spoke about those things in the Beatitudes. You should probably read what he said about offenses and your reactions to them. It would be good for us to remember those word daily before we go off on each other for things said and done. Click Here to read the Beatitudes. This statement He makes about offenses indicates to me that we most often have the wrong response to an offense.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

The "rejoice and be glad" part is where we tend to miss it, don't we? We seem to forget that taking those offensive words or actions and retaliating back against the one who delivered them is not what we should be doing. Nor should we take that offense and sulk in it. The joy of the Lord is our strength. We should learn how to become joyful in the midst of trials and offenses. Are we there yet?

So what do we do with offenses? I can tell you the first impulse is to take hurt, cry, run away and hide. Then after that comes mulling it over and telling someone we like and trust about it. Then if we don't get godly counsel from that friend, we start vindicating ourselves by talking to more people and spreading around the offense taken and shared by those who love to hear gossip.

Instead, we have been taught and know what we should do is to go to that person who has offended us and tell them you were offended. Try to come to some level of understanding and reconciliation between you and them. Find forgiveness and restoration for your fellowship in Christ. This is what we have been taught.

Frank Viloa wrote about offenses lately in his blog and it struck me that those things he mentioned were so real for us. One statement he made inspired much more thought about offenses. It was this statement I thought was so true.

"When wise and discerning believers are concerned about someone, they go straight to the person they are concerned about privately as Jesus Himself taught us to do, asking questions rather than making allegations" Frank Viola

 The asking questions part is so vitally important! We don't always know what that other person was thinking or even meant when they offended us. They may not even know they offended us. Unless we go to each other and talk it out, they could easily be slandered by our unwillingness to talk about it with them.

There are many of you who may read this blog and think, "I'm just fine. No offenses here. Nothing left undone with anyone around me." That may actually be true, but if it isn't, I implore you to immediately go to the person you have an offense with and get it worked out. If you can't get through it with them, then go get some others to help you get through it. Unless that person or you are unable to see and hear God, our Lord will bring reconciliation and restore His joy in you. He will restore fellowship in that relationship.

The practical truth is, if there is no joy in your relationship with others, you might want to have a close look at that, with regards to your relationship with God first. As Christians, you cannot have a joyful and honest relationship with anyone unless God is the center of your life. If God is filling you with joy, joy will spill out of you. You will respond joyfully to everyone around you. Why wouldn't you?

And when someone says something hurtful to you or does something hurtful, you will not spiral down into that dark and depressing place of despair, anger and hatred. You will count it all joy for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. You will walk in the light and do those things which bring about peace and joy. You might even break out into a wholesome smile or laughter. Wouldn't that be a welcomed change?

One last thought. When you become insulted or offended by someone, it might be a wise idea to look carefully at what was said about you. There is a possibility that you are acting in a way that is offensive to others. You may not be aware of your behavior as offensive. That person may have been sent from God to save you from yourself and help you change your attitudes and behavior.

I'm not suggesting that you go into a deep depression over it, but I am suggesting that there may be something true about a statement made about you or against you. that is why you need to ask questions and have an open mind about offensive words and actions. You may think you are "All That, and a Bag of Chips", so to speak. Maybe God is trying to help you get a grip on reality. That offensive statement could be a life saving word, spoken at just the right time, for your good. Think about that.

Are you in unreality? Are you easily offended? Do you blow up in anger often at little things that irritate you? Are you easily irritated? Do you walk around with a chip on your shoulder, waiting for someone to knock it off? (That's an old adage about looking for trouble so you can fight.) Do you wear a frown or scowl? If any of these thoughts or feelings are true about you, please get some help!

The practical truth is that God did not create us to be miserable, angry or depressed individuals; lost, hopeless and consumed by our passions. He created us for His pleasure, to have fellowship with Him. He wants to fill us with His joy and demonstrate His love towards us.

When we are filled up with His love and joy, we can be one with Him and all those who are also filled up with Him. We can smile a real smile of joy and hope. We can be saved from all the unreality and offenses in the world.

Life is not all about us. It's about God and our cooperation with Him to live the life He gave us in a way that keeps us connected to Him. That is fellowship. That is joy! That is real life!

While listening to the praise reports and all the things people were thankful for at this mornings gathering, I began to think about the practical ways God brings us to live this life. I thought about how we actually put feet to doing something or how we respond to the words of God, spoken or read in the Bible. I didn't want to leave our gathering without doing something about those things I heard spoken. So I determined to begin looking at the practical truth of what God is saying to us.

I have mostly been an individual who goes to the "What will we do about that?" question after talking about a problem or challenge in my life. Maybe that is because I am a man and I'm told that men usually go to the point of "fixing things"; especially with their wives. I'm not sure about all of that but I do know my tendencies are to analyse and break everything apart to discover the best or most efficient way of accomplishing a task at hand. Sometimes that is a blessing, other times not.

I wonder, when we read the Bible, or hear someone speak of the things of God, does it make us want to do something about it? Or do we just think about it and accept the warm fuzzy feelings as enough of a response? Do we think, "Those were great thoughts and I feel really wonderful hearing all about it, but I'm comfortable where I am at. Please don't ask me to do something"?


The practical truth is that we most times do just that. Otherwise we may have a variety of lessor responses. Sometimes we even respond in a way pleasing to God! What ever that may be for you, I personally wish to respond in a Godly way. I don't always do that, due to laziness, business, forgetfulness or fear of making a mistake. In my heart and mind I do want to please God. Sometimes I just don't know what to do. It all seems so overwhelming at times.

That is where I see the practical truth of changing the way we think. We don't want to repeat the mistakes of our past or the ineffective ways we have embraced. We want to find new ways of thinking and seek out what works. We want to discover, understand and act in a more practical way towards God. We don't want to be enslaved to our old habits of destructive thinking and act out of them. We want to change. We want to be different.

How can we do that? I believe there are a few ways of doing that. One is to look at the lives of others. They can be inspirational to us if we believe we can learn to do the things they have learned to do. Another way is to seek and find what God has given us as examples and instruction in the Bible. Most always we can find something there if we look. That's where the practicality of "seeking and finding" comes into play. I have an electronic Bible and the Internet, where I can type in a word or phrase and find thousands of resources. God has given us an abundance of resources if we are willing to use them. A good place to start is to talk to God and ask Him to show you what you need to do. He will show you if you are sincere and diligent to look.

Finding those thoughts and examples are the beginning of what to do. We must put into practice the truth we discover. God will reveal to us those deep truths if we seek Him. Revelation then produces reality. Response is what revelation produces when it is married to the earnest desire to follow and please God. Every thought will bring a response of simple action. It may not be the groundbreaking announcement of historical revolution but it may revolutionize your life.

Let's talk about reality for a moment. Reality is simply what is real. It is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. Not just what you think about a thing but what is true about it. It takes an inspection of our lives and thoughts. This is something which is very unlikely to have happen through your own judgments. We need others to look at our lives and speak to us about what they see. We must exercise bravery and ask people to tell us what they honestly see about us. Then we must honestly look at that and respond to the truth.

What if you don't think what is said is true about you? Then go ask another person, and another person after that. Keep asking until you have a good collection of inspections from other people who care about you and love you. Pay attention to what they have to tell you. It most likely will hurt or grate you the wrong way, but you want to be in reality, don't you? Thank them and thank God for revealing the truth about your thoughts and actions. Then start getting over yourself. You are not all that and a bag of chips. Step into reality and life will be much more enjoyable.