Celebrating freedom

Next week many of us will get together with friends and family and have bbq, home made ice cream and all the other foods you're not supposed to have. By the way why is it that everything that tastes good is bad for you - surely there is a conspiracy there! Anyway back to freedom. As I prepare for Sunday - God is causing me to rethink what freedom is and how to celebrate it. I began with looking up freedom. You wouldn't believe how many definitions there are for freedom. But most of us think freedom is the ability to do what we want and when we want. That is mostly right. I think it goes deeper. It is also about choices. That is having the ability to choose what is best. So that assumes that you have all the choices at your disposal. We believe that the American flag is a great symbol of freedom. I agree whole heartedly. I truly love my country. But I think the best symbol of freedom is the cross! I believe that it is because of God's work through Jesus on the cross that we even have this great country.

It is the cross that gives us all the choices. You see before the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross we didn't have real freedom because we didn't have all the choices. Jesus opened the way for a relationship with God the father by paying for our sins on the cross. Without that we don't have the best choice of a forgiven and holy relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

So now that we have all the choices and the best being a relationship with God, how do we celebrate this freedom? A couple of things come to mind. Let me explain them this way. What do folks do when they find a truly awesome restaraunt or a fantastic deal at a store? They tell their friends about it so they can experience the best too. So we as free followers of Jesus have found the best - lets tell our friends so that they can have the best too.

Freedom also should be celebrated by being the best! Dana and I have gotten to be in a few other countries over the years. In the countries where there is no real freedom - folks do their best not to stand out. If they stand out - those in charge will be quick to investigate and bring them back in line. Where there is real freedom - there is the ability to be creative and stand out and be your very best without fear. I have complete freedom without fear because of the relationship with Jesus. So I can celebrate (by the way that is what worship is - celebrating freedom) my freedom by being absolutely the very best I can, realizing that God has created me special and has equipped me to shine for HIM! So my celebration and being my best becomes an everyday act of worship. Not just worship in a church sanctuary from 11am to noon on Sunday!

I pray that you become free through Jesus and celebrate that freedom!

Sorry - I'm not dead!

Some may think that my lack of blog updates would point to my death. Not So! As the old man being carried off in Monty Pythons Holy Grail would say - I'm not dead yet!
No I'm not dead - just lacking creativity. I've had lots of thoughts and read lots but had nothing I was dying to share.

This evening I'm preparing for a funeral. This gentleman was a true believer and follower of Jesus. I'm tempted to tell folks I don't believe in Christianity! Now pick up your teeth. What I mean is I don't believe in what many call Christianity. Many folks in American say they are Christians. When they say this - it sometimes shocks their co workers or even family members. They look at each other with unbelieving stares and mouth "really". The gentleman who passed would not have had that problem. No one would have been surprised by his proclamation of being a Christian.

You see his everyday committment and trust in God and His Son Jesus was evident all the time. His faith was apparant because of his actions and his words. He looked and sounded like a committed follower of Jesus. I have folks that live in the area that say they are Christians but their faith shows very little. Their committment and love for Christ shows rarely! Surprises are fun sometimes, but honestly I hope I don't surprise anyone when I say I'm a Christian.. No I take that back - I'm not a Christian. I am a follower of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I'm working on the Lord part. You could pray for me on that.

Trent

Peace? Are you kidding?

I've been thinking about Peace alot. You may have read my previous posting where I talked about rest. Related item here! Let me share my thoughts in a few points.

1. Peace is the thing that is supposed to be one of our best tools to attract non-believers to Jesus. Peace, along with love, is something that everyone seems to crave. In fact the thing that many will point to in someone's life that really caught their attention is peace in tough times. You'll hear something like "they just seemed to have such a peace about ____" or "I don't understand how they handled that with so much peace."

2. Christians in the US don't usually exhibit peace. We must think its ungodly to relax and have a semi sane schedule! I am proposing that we learn to have margin in our lives. Time and money that are uncommitted so that we can be at peace and then ready to give our time or money when God directs.

3. We do this to ourselves. Let's give credit where credit is due! When it comes to a crazy schedule or screwed up finances we need to look in the mirror to find the culprit! We do this to our selves, but we place the blame on everything else around us.

So here's the plan

1. Begin to think about those things you do that make the time fly. Those are the areas that you are gifted in - so focus on those!

2. Weed out your calendar - its hard to begin with but you have to say no to some things.

3. Begin to obey God with your finances by tithing! He gives you everything - and only asks for 10% back.

4. Put margin in your finances by getting out of debt. I can show you how or you can go to daveramsey.com

If we did just these 4 things, it would amaze us all how peaceful our lives would be! Give it a try and let me know the results!

Rest in God - yeah right!

I am surrounded by folks that seem hurried and harried. Followers of Jesus seem to be some of the worst. We even claim being tired and overworked and stressed as a badge of honor that we wear with pride! OOOOOOPPPPS!

If you hear yourself saying I'm just worn out and stressed. Red flashing signs out to be going off in your head. This does not equate with all that Jesus called us to as his followers.

The ability to rest in God is a spiritual discipline that I believe is very misunderstood. Unfortunately some believe that if you are to rest in God you have to sit like a monk and wait for God to work out every issue in your life - then at some preappointed time, aka aligning of the planets, you'll get up and live a happy stress free life.

NOT!

Help - I'm resting and I can't get up!?

Scripture tells us to find rest in Him (Matthew 11:28-30). We are also told to cast all our stresses or anxieties on Him because He cares for us (I Peter 5:7). I've been studying and praying and asking God to help me in this area. I've heard folks say in what seems a very glib way "just give it to God". So I pray and tell God that I'm giving it to Him but then can't quit thinking (in reality worrying) about it.

God has been teaching me a bunch about this.

Here are a couple of major lessons

Worry verses Worship

1. Worship reminds us who is in control.

If I am spending my time worshipping God, then I am giving glory to God and telling Him how much He means to me and how much I trust Him.

If I am doing these things in worship then I can't also worry about other issues. On one hand I'm saying "God I trust you." On the other I'm saying "excuse me God I've got to get back to dealing and stressing over some life stuff." Isn't that the double minded life that God tells us not to get caught up in? (James 1) It also leads me to think that my worship is not real because in some way I am lieing to God. Do I really trust Him? So the deal is this worry and worship are mutually exclusive.

I need to be reminded every day that God is all powerful, omni-present and all knowing. I'm like a leaky bucket - my trust drains away and so I need to be worshipping God every day to be reminded that He is the one who can handle my life better than I can.

Ok so Christians should never have things they are concerned about?

No that's not the issue. The issue is what we do with those concerns and "worries"

2. God gives effective directions.

I believe that God is a very efficient God. Worry is very inefficient! Worry is a non-active response. John 5 tells us that both Jesus and the Father are always working. If we are to be sitting and chanting - that doesn't seem to me that we are being like Jesus. But we are to efficient in what we do.

We are to give our worries to God by asking Him which ones we can do something about. Then the ones we can change, we are to obey God in what He says to do. The ones we can not change we have to quit worrying about them because there is nothing we can do.

A real big problem for me and many others is that when God shows us what we are to do about an issue, we don't like the answer and so we just sit and worry. Then sing about trusting God! OOPPS! we are lieing!

The old hymn Trust and Obey gets it right. Take some time to read it. I think you'll find the writer nailed it!

Trust that God loves you and is in control.

Obey directions He gives rather than sitting and stewing about things!

Still learning

Trent

The "us against them" mentality

Yesterday I was struck by the use of the term "world" in Christian circles. We typically use the term world in a very derogatory way. "Don't give in to the world" "Don't be part of the world" etc. Well I understand that we are not to give in to temptation and I know I am to be living a life that reflects Jesus in righteousness.

More thoughts today are that its hard for us to get excited about witnessing and sharing Christ with the "world" when its really us against them. We preach one Sunday that the world is our enemy and the next that we need to be reaching the world. I can't shift gears that fast!

I would like to propose that we put faces to our words. Lets talk about people! There are approximately 6.7 billion folks on this planet as of today (May 14). There are some folks who have made good decisions and folks that have made bad decisions. There are folks who have received the salvation that only comes from God's grace through the shed blood of His only Son Jesus. There are some who have not. They are still people!

We've mixed up the enemy! The people aren't the enemy - they can't be and we still have a desire to share Christ with them; weeping over them dying without Christ. No Satan is the enemy in a very real war. Jesus calls him the prince of this world. That prince has an active fortress in this world. Some folks have become slaves to this prince - some by decision, some by default. Many have not had the opportunity to know there was another option. "Jesus is the answer for the world today - above Him there's no other Jesus is the Way!" as the song goes.

I believe its important to know the real enemy here. That knowledge changes the way we fight the war. I would encourage you to study how Jesus fought the war with this enemy. Not with political statements but with love and prayer.

You see we get upset with people for their decisions. We expect folks who are not believers and followers of Jesus to make decisions like they are followers of Jesus. That's ludicrous! They have no basis for deciding like a Christian. They decide based on what they know of. They don't know of Jesus - so duh!? They make non- Christian decision.

What do we do? Realizing why people make the decisions they do - we love them and serve them and pray for them in order to share with them about Jesus so that we might earn the right to lead them to Jesus - the other option.

Thats all my thoughts about that today.

Learning to love

Trent

I've been robbed

I'm struggling with something and so I have to write it down in order to vent a bit. Recently a friend was accused of inappropriate behavior. I believed it to be a false accusation and the police and DA seem to be concluding the same thing. Thats great and it makes me feel better, but unfortunately it has not helped my friend. He has recently resigned and is planning to move.
I have to say I HATE THAT. This accusation has ruined his life, and the more that I think about this and look at the losses to our community and school system I want to scream

I'VE BEEN ROBBED!

Now our community has been robbed of my friends talents and skills. We are losing a contributing member of our community - someone that I feel added lots to our community.

The person who made these accusations has robbed our community of a great deal. That makes me angry. I know that as a Christian I am to be talking about forgiveness. But the way I see this is that I don't have that opportunity. Only my friend and God can forgive. The community is to seek out justice and truth. We as a community should be looking into the possiblity of providing consequences to those who make false accusations. These words can literally ruin someone's life. And the sad part is anyone can make a damning accusation about another and instead of innocent until proven guilty - we have flip flopped it to guilty until proven innocent.

The other side of the coin

Now I have to say here that I believe that there should be very stiff and swift punishment for those who are proven guilty. I want to protect our society and especially children from those who commit these crimes. I just want to deter knowingly making false accusations by providing punishment for those who say things that ruin another's life just because they don't like them.

As a pastor or public servant or public figure you are an easy target for accusations. If you do the crime - then literally you should do the time. But if you are not guilty then the person who made the accusation is certainly guilty of many crimes that unfortunately society easily overlooks.

This is just my thought - not speaking for anyone but me.
Trent

Our Continuing Conversations

Over the past few weeks I've been preaching about Revival. One of the main points that I hoped to get across is that personal revival always precedes corporate revival. We have to change things in our lives before we can expect revival to occur in our church. Unfortunately we pray "God please revive my church." But won't change anything in our own lives to help our prayer be answered.

My friend Chris and I have been having an ongoing conversation about this so I thought I'd give you the benefit of our "GREAT" wisdom - try not to giggle!

Here's some of our email

Hey Trent,
Just wanted to say thank you for the sermons that you have done the past two weeks. They have been really good and are words that I have needed to hear. You've talked about personal revival and this past week about how we need to get rid of the junk in our life. I must admit though that the "cold turkey" aspect of getting rid of the junk in my life wasn't real motivating ha ha. But it's the truth.
I also just wanted to share a devotional from Oswald Chambers that I read today. "I claim God's promises for my life and look to their fulfillment, and rightly so, but that shows only the human perspective on them. God's perspective is that through His promises I will come to recognize His claim of ownership on me. For example, do I realize that my "body is the temple of the Holy Spirit," or am I condoning some habit in my body which clearly could not withstand the light of God on it? (1 Corinthians 6:19).
"God formed His Son in me through sanctification, setting me apart from sin and making me holy in His sight (Galatians 4:19). But I must begin to transform my natural life into spiritual life by obedience to Him. God instructs us even in the smallest details of life. And when He brings you conviction of sin, don to "confer with flesh and blood," but cleanse yourself from it at once (Galatians 1:16). Keep yourself cleansed in your daily walk."
I just wanted to pass that along, as I really thought it related to what you preached about on Sunday. It's definitely hard to get rid of the junk that we've been holding on to for long periods of time. But it's something we must do. I think the question really comes down to the memory verse for this week. Do we desire righteousness or do we desire the things that keep us from the close walk with God that will fulfill us in ways we can't even imagine?
Sorry for the long e-mail, but I also wanted to throw in a prayer request that God would give me a true desire to get rid of the junk in my life and a desire to get closer to Him.


Chris
Thanks so much for the encouragement. I appreciate it a bunch. I think that God gave us freedom of choice from the beginning in having the ability to choose Him for salvation. But I don't think that God takes away freedom of choice once we receive Him as our Lord and Savior. We still have the choice every day to choose Him as our Lord. If we truly received Him as Savior - God knows that and I believe that it will show, But that doesn't mean that a month down the road when I'm tired and sick that I don't choose against Him. I don't lose my salvation but I certainly lose the fruit of the spirit that could have been mine for that day and the days to come until I decide to return.
I also believe this is why God chose a marriage as the picture of the relationship that He has with us. The bride doesn't lose her mind (although I'm sure there have been some that think they may have in the days following their marriage.) She also doesn't lose her will or identity. She choses to place her will under the protection and guidance of the groom. She chooses to identify with the groom. The book of Hosea shows us that it is possible to renig on that choice but that doesn't cause God to quit loving us or pursuing us. He loves us even though our hearts are far from Him.

The thing that we have to keep in mind is that there are always consequences to our choices. If I choose to be fulfilled and thus satisfied with God and His provision - then there is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, and all the other fruit of the Spirit because we have chosen to let the Spirit work. BUT if I chose to find fulfillment in something else that the Holy Spirit has warned me was wrong - then I will live with a sense of guilt and fear that someone will find out. Because I have a real sense of guilt and fear - that shows itself in a lack of patience with others, no love for others because all my focus is on me and protecting me. I have shut down the Spirit's work in my life.

Does this make sense?
Please pray for me - I'm still very sick and getting very tired of being sick!


Trent,
It definitely (does). Everything is a choice. We consciously or unconsciously in some cases choose what we are going to do and who we will follow. One thought I had after reading your email was how I think we sometimes choose to "fulfill" our lives and desires with worldly things because it is a more immediate fulfillment.
Sometimes we pray for things and God may choose to wait to respond to our requests and petitions. But instead of waiting on God to fulfill us, we find something that will immediately fulfill us. Again though, it's the choice we make. Our Sunday School lesson this week is on the story of Lazarus and how Jesus received word that he was ill, but it was 4 days later before He arrived. Does that mean he loved Lazarus any less or that Lazarus messed up somewhere or that Mary and Martha were being punished? No, but there was a reason why Jesus delayed His response. Because of His delay, He was able to do something greater than just heal a man. He brought him back to life.
If we would just learn to wait on God and not seek our own fulfillment, God will bring us back to life as well.