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Finding God’s Will

One of the big questions I field as a pastor (year after year) is “What’s God’s will for my life?”

No matter where you go, or who you’re with, this is a huge issue for most. So, I hope this is helpful for you!

I gave this message just last week at a chapel service for Central Christian College in McPherson, Ks. I look forward to hearing from you on this post.

This teaching is based on Romans 12:1-2

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

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A Trajectory of Destruction

Have you ever heard of “hurry up sickness”?

 

Even if you haven’t heard of it, you have probably suffered from it. Don’t be confused, hurry up sickness is not busyness. Being busy might be a symptom, but most of us who are trying to make a difference in someone else’s life, our families life, or even our own life will be busy to some degree.

 

What i’m talking about is a schedule that leads to a behavior that causes a mindset which produces irritability, feelings of futility, difficulty in relationships and a general displeasure with things that should be fun and/or satisfying.

 

When busy turns your everyday into something like this, you have hurry up sickness. This has been the subject of my daily devotions in a journal thatI am working through recently. It’s been a challenge to hear words like slowdown, process, and “be in the moment you’re already in”.

 

Most of us seldom sit down long enough to enjoy the moments of our day. In fact, wherever we are at any given point on the timeline of our lives we are usually rushing to get on to the next point. So, during these devotional times I have been required to slow down, meditate and really try and let the Lord speak.

 

The Lords prayer which is so familiar to us is easy to skim over because we think we’ve already covered it. But, that seems to be the point. I was instructed to go over each line of that incredible prayer, chewing on each word and thought, journaling what the Lord was saying. I want to encourage you to do the exact same thing.

 

It might take you a half an hour, or an hour, or maybe even a weekend. But, one thing I know for sure… it will be worth it!

 

I don’t want this to influence your own experience, but let me share with you right out of my journal as an example of what I hope god will produce in your life. The following reflects my reflections of the Lord’s prayer back to God.

 

After you read this, scratch out your own time where you are alone and in relative quiet… read through the Lords prayer slowly (Matthew 6:9–13)… write down everything you think and feel.

 

There are no wrong answers, just the opportunity to spend some time with your Maker.

 

Our Father- I have never really known a father, but I desire that role for my own life more than all others. I believe a father to be Continue reading “A Trajectory of Destruction”

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Willing and Able

Here is where I have been all week…

In my personal devotions I have been studying meditation and discipline. The focus for this spiritual exercise has been on the Lord’s Prayer. Each day I have been guided to meditate/focus on a specific line from the prayer in Matthew 6:9-13.

Meditation is not sitting on the floor chanting ooga booga. It’s chewing on, centralizing your heart, continuing to return to a thought over and over again until it is ingrained within you.

Basically, it’s everything bad about worrying, but used for the forces of good. Yeah, that’s about it… meditation is positive worrying… if that’s even possible.

While every line from the prayer is worthy of daily focus, I have not been able to get around the first line. Even though I need to move on, I feel like God isn’t done with me as it relates to these 4 little words:

“Our Father in heaven…”

Here’s what meditation on this sentence fragment is revealing to me: my God is willing and able.

Our Father – As my Father I know He wants to Continue reading “Willing and Able”

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What does tertiary mean anyway?

After nine months of study and filling no less than six hand written journals, today I have completed a spiritual journey.

 

Long ago, I decided to study the book of Romans with more depth than I ever studied a single book. It’s been a blessed, frustrated, beautiful, agonizing endeavor (and, no, I am not being dramatic).

 

But, here, even on the last day as I pour through Paul’s concluding remarks, I am smacked in the face by a lesson I can’t wait to preach. So, let’s blog it!

 

In his 27 verse long conclusion (he sounds like some preachers, I know, I know, yuk yuk), Paul sends his greetings to 26 individuals, two families and three house churches. But, one greeting stands out in an amazing way!

 

Romans 16:22 I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.

 

Tertius was a scribe (a secretary if you will) who wrote down the letter as Paul dictated it. For this one brief verse he breaks form and speaks in the first person, to say “Hi” to all the believers in Rome.

 

This is so amazing because Romans is so amazingly Continue reading “What does tertiary mean anyway?”

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The best plan for your life, well, maybe

What if God’s plan for your life is not the best plan for your life?

 

For most of you reading this, that is an absolutely ludicrous question. But, let me ask you to suspend your theological questions for a moment and just ponder whether there is any way it  is possible that God’s plan for your life may not be the best plan.

 

I’m pretty sure at this point I’ve offended 50% of you, 25% of you have already unsubscribed from CrossEyedLife.com and the remaining 25% are praying for my soul. Let me ask you to just hang on, I promise I’ll make a point worth making.

 

For us to seriously ponder the question of whether or not it’s possible for God’s plan for our life to NOT be the best plan for our life, we must define a term or two.

 

When I use the word “best” we almost universally, as individual as we are, define it in the exact same way:

  • the best financial plan for me is to spend less and get more
  • the best time plan for me is to do less and play more
  • the best physical plan for me is to be healthier and suffer less
  • the best emotional plan for me is to be happy and less… everything else

 

I think you see the pattern here; we could go on and on defining what’s best for us in every arena of life based on a single standard:  what will benefit me the most?

 

That’s how we naturally and internally define “best.” The best answer, the best plan and the best Continue reading “The best plan for your life, well, maybe”

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ABCs of Devotion, complete download

A couple of weeks ago I posted a sample day of a new audio devotional project from PSALM 119. I’ve had a lot of requests to make this available. It’s actually a CD project that I offer when I speak at camp and other events. But, I am posting links to each day of the 21 for you in the CrossEyedLife Community.

You can click and listen right here, or right click and download to your desktop. Or, if you want to go big guns, you can download this zip file and get all 21 in a single download: click here

 

Here’s a suggested pattern for your daily time with God using the ABC’s:

  1. Pray and ask that God would speak to you and that you would hear clearly what He’s saying
  2. Read the passage for that day
  3. Listen to that day’s track
  4. Pray again and commit to God some point of application that you can take away from that days devotion

Each day in the 21 day audio devotional journey is available below: Continue reading “ABCs of Devotion, complete download”

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The Vacation Is Over

Just dropped the boys off for the first day of school… one of them a junior higher for the first time.

 

There was lots of crying, fretting and snot blowing before school, but I should be better by lunch.

 

I’ve been trying to imagine what this day is like for them, and I can visualize several things: trading items off their tray at lunch, bouncing legs under the desk trying to mask a little nervousness, and awkward conversations with kiddos they haven’t seen for three months.

 

I’m sure they are talking about teachers, the coming year and what they did over the summer. We (adults) do the same thing since they are just smaller, slightly less mature versions Continue reading “The Vacation Is Over”

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Courage is not the absence of fear…

Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the completed action in the face of it.

We often confuse courage with stupidity. We watch some guys take unnecessary risks, or tackle extreme obstacles for no purpose and exclaim that they are fearless.

I couldn’t disagree more.

Often, the ability of some to do things others can’t simply because they aren’t afraid is not courage, it’s chemical physiological.

  • Some people aren’t afraid of heights… good for them.
  • Some people don’t fret confrontation… kudos.
  • Some people don’t get rattled no matter what… yeah them.

When these folks walk straight into the circumstances that others cringe away from, this is not courage; for them, it’s normal.

Courage is displayed when those who are overcome with fear displace that obstacle and operate in direct opposition to what’s going on inside of them.

That’s courage.

First Timothy chapter 1 verse seven says, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”

 

Many of the fears we experience are not legitimate. A legit fear is one God has given to keep you safe: fear of big dogs, guys with guns, etc.

Most of the fears we have are  illegitimate, simply obstacles that keep us from moving in a the direction we need to move in order to heal relationships, advance our career, grow in faith, see the miracle!

We are afraid of consequences:

  • What will people say?
  • How much will it cost?
  • What if I fail?

This is the kind of fear we must fight. This is the kind of fear that requires bravery. This is the kind of fear that God said He gave us power, love and discipline to bust through.

You’ve probably already thought of one or two (maybe a dozen) areas that have held you paralyzed with fear.

It’s not going to get any better. It will never be easy. It’s going to take real courage.

It is time to step up…

Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the completed action in the face of it.

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Don’t be dumb

There is a difference between dumb and ignorant. Unfortunately, I have experience with both. To illustrate I need to reach back into the far recesses of ancient history… yesterday.

Yesterday I spent about 15 minutes looking for my car keys. I finally found them when I looked under some furniture in the living room. No, they weren’t under there. But, to lift the chair I had to clear my hands, so, before moving the chair I had to set down the… keys… why yes, I do have two graduate degrees. Why do you ask?

Ignorance is a lack of knowledge. When you are ignorant, you can’t even be expected to make a good choice because you don’t have the resources for it.

Dumb is having the right information and resources, and still choosing wrong.

Again, ignorance is bad choices because you didn’t have an option. Dumb is a bad choice that was your option… and that’s just… dumb.

I had a high school football coach that loved to say, Continue reading “Don’t be dumb”

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Watch your mouth

We really need to learn to be careful with our words.

Most words are important and tend to get thrown around flippantly. And, I don’t mean  just the bad ones.

Criticism, condemnation, cursing all cut deeply. Even if the hard to hear words were not spoken with malicious intent.

For example, I got to play bass with our worship team at a children’s camp a couple weeks ago. It was so much fun and the kiddos were totally into it. There were a couple of days I was really feeling it, and loved saying, “I’m with the band.”

But, one day in the lunch line this precious little 4th grade girl asked me, “Why are you so old and the rest of the band is, like, teenagers and stuff?”

She didn’t mean a thing by it, but I have done at least a 1,000 sit ups since then. Pass the Rogaine, please!

I think its obvious we need to watch what we say when negativity (intentional, or unintentional) comes tumbling out of our sound holes like a devastating mudslide. But, that’s not what I’m writing about.

I think we, especially believers, need to be careful how we use our words, even in a positive sense.

For example, watching the NBA playoffs… by the way… you did hear that the Dallas Mavericks are world champions… MMMMAAAAVVVVEEEERRRRIIIICCCCKKKKSSSS!!!!

Pardon me, getting back to the original thought, watching the NBA playoffs I have innumerable times seen a Bible-believing, Jesus-trusting professional athlete give a court side interview and thank Jesus for the win, or give glory to God.

But, have you ever heard an interview from the losing locker room where some dejected, defeated athlete asks, “Why does Jesus hate me?”

Or, worse yet, have you heard an athlete give glory to God in a halftime interview and them watch them mouth the F-bomb half way through the third quarter.

We need to watch Continue reading “Watch your mouth”