Are you satisfied?
…that they might be with Him and the he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. ~Mark 3:14-15
Am I satisfied with 2 out of 3?
We can be complacent and okay with being with him and speaking about Him openly but what about the authority He has given us? The authority to bring change to someone else life. Am I willing to take that next step and grab hold of the authority?
The short answer, for me anyway, is no. I’ve been completely satisfied rolling along in my life living day by day. And each day I wake up and ask myself “what am I doing?”, yet I keep doing it over and over.
I’m saved, and if it gets brought up I’m happy to say that I believe in Jesus and what He’s done for me, but I lack the faith to grasp that authority and in essence be all I can be.
As I was waiting for my train the other day I spotted a small turtle on the tracks. He was inbetween the two rails and was lazily moving towards the other side. There was no hope for him. He was far to small to get over the tall steel rail.
As the metal began tinging ever so slightly I knew his time was running out. He had reached the other side, but realizing he could not climb over, he had stopped. The train rolled around the corner and I caught a glimpse of the turtle ducking for cover inside his shell as the large locomotive went right overhead. Goodbye mister turtle.
I waited as the train left, and something miraculous happened. The wheel had missed. His head poked out of his shell, he slowly turned around but He headed right back the way he came!
Are you kidding me? Angels must be up there marveling at our ineptitude. I lack the faith to trust that Jesus is going to come pick me up and lift me over the hurdle so I turn around and head back to the place I knew.
Read Numbers 13 and 14. Verse 13:1, the Lord tells Moses he’s giving them the land but by verse 3 of chapter 14 they want to go back to Egypt! Jesus has given us the authority to change lives. We are indwelled with the Holy Spirit but when the time comes and something suddenly blocks our path we tend to go back to what we know rather than pushing through to the place the Lord has for us.
Don’t be like that turtle, satisfied with walking between two points over and over and ducking for cover every time a trouble comes your way. Recognize the pattern, focus on Christ and let Him be your eyes when you can’t see, your ears when you can’t hear, and your strength when you feel weak. He can pick you up and over that hurdle and set your feet on solid ground.
That turtle had the whole world on the other side of that rail but lacked the faith to reach it.
Carrying the Burdens of Others
they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus ~Luke 23:26
I think we can all agree that the health care bill now shoved through Congress despite the outrage of the American people is frustrating. Why are we burdened with the few? Why is American becoming more socialistic as the days progress? The economic system in America is being held up by popsicle sticks as we’re determined to spend nearly a trillion dollars on just 32 million of the 309 million Americans to provide them with health care.
I spent a bit of today in a heated argument with someone about the whole thing. I’ll be honest, Christianity did not ring out in my words. As her comments became more ludicrous and began landing below the belt I retaliated back with jabs of my own. I felt good. I know what I’m talking about, I feel somewhat educated on the subject and have formed my own opinion. I thought “Yeah I’ll show her.”
A little while later, still steamed by the whole thing, I was chatting with a friend and expressing my dismay at the cluelessness of Americas youth.
“The sad thing is, they are two of the people I will probably be paying for health care for.” I lamented.
“Of course they are.” my friend replied.
“As if I don’t have enough problems now I have to carry the burdens of other peoples?!” I argued back at no one.
And literally as the words were forming in my mind I heard “I did it for you.”
I felt ashamed of myself. Jesus carried a cross ladened with my burdens, my sins, my troubles.(John 19:17) He didn’t pick and chose who; For the sins of all he bled. It wasn’t whether he liked it or not or which sins He felt like forgiving, He took them all.
Here I am whining and complaining about some bill my government is passing. Why?
- Do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow has enough worries of it’s own.(Matthew 6:34).
- Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?(Matthew 6:25)
- Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.(Matthew 22:21)
See, I should be more focused on the Lord’s call for my life every day and less concerned about this health care bill. If we want to spur change, go out and spread the gospel and make some real change. All these things will burn but the Word of God will stand forever.(Isaiah 40:8)
Am I pissed off at the fact that this bill is a pile of junk? Absolutely. Will I continue to fight for what I believe in and push for the possibility that my tax dollars will be used in a better way? Without a doubt. But should I really be this concerned? No.
Ask yourself, would Jesus be picketing somewhere over this health care bill or would He be teaching the gospel?
Simon from Cyrene didn’t know Jesus personally. He was just a passer by and they plucked him from the crowd and put the heavy cross on his back. As sweat dripped from his brow he continued on. Splinters dug in to his shoulders and back as he pushed forward.
We should be more like Simon, helping pick up the burden of someone else, even if it’s unfair. After all, Jesus did it for way more.
Defiant
“Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion” – 1 Peter 5:8
Have you ever heard the saying “everything comes in 3’s.”? It’s a common theme, you get a new car cheap, and find a $5 bill on the floor of the local stop and shop and one of your friends mentions “hey what’s next? Good things come in 3’s.”, and vice versa for bad things.
Let me walk you through the last month of my life: I got severally sick for 2 weeks(bed ridden for days at a time), my heat broke, I ran out of heating oil, I hurt my back to where I thought I had just had back surgery again, I was down to my last dollar, a girl at work is trying to make my job hard and for some reason doesn’t like me, and as soon as I fixed my heat, it broke again, only this time I need an entire new heating system!
You know what my plans were in that month? I started a Bible study and I taught awana(kids church). I can say with certainty that had I not done those two things my problems would have went away. My heat probably wouldn’t have broken, the girl at work would probably be cordial, and my back would feel great.
Satan knows the power of the word(1 Thessalonians 1:5) because he knows the Bible inside and out.(Matt 4:6). If you begin taking on the tasks God has given you, if you decide to change and live for Christ you are going to feel it. It will not be easy. He is not going to come at you and prick your finger with a pin. He will come at you like a roaring lion looking to devour you.
Several years ago I gave up. Any little bump in the road caused me to stumble. It didn’t even need to be my bump! “Oh they disrespected my dad? Well, I’m not going to that church then!” I’m 26yrs old and I’ve been through some crazy trials in my short years. And up until recently each one had the desired affect that satan was looking for.
Then something happened. I chose not to live for this earth. I still struggle, sure, but my focus is elsewhere. I started my Bible study, I taught those little kids, and the trials got worse. Some how I need to come up with $4,000 for a heating system.
When it first happened over the weekend I got a little down. How am I gonna do this? Then I got defiant. I got mad. But not at God. I became defiant to the devil’s tricks and lies. To his manipulation of my situation. I prayed. I prayed while I drove, I prayed while I ate, I prayed while I slept.
You do not control my situation. I will submit to my God’s will and will remain in the places He has me. Jesus, help me in my time of trouble. You are in control and because of this I know I will not freeze to death, I know I will not go hungry. I know my pain is temporary.
I know I am in God’s will because I’m being hammered from every direction. I’m making a difference, some way, some how, for God’s kingdom. Satan knows it and he’s trying to break me down. I don’t see the difference I’m making and maybe I never will but I know it’s happening.
BRING IT ON.
I am defiant and I’m angry. Take anything you want from me satan because I’ve already won. My soul has been won. I have been bought with a price and I will let everyone know you are a liar and the blood that covers me covers them as well. I have fallen on a stone not cut with hands(Daniel 2:34) and have been broken(Matthew 21:44) for the glory of my Lord and Savior. These cheap tricks will not work on me any longer. This world, this house, these clothes, mean nothing. Take it. I’m out to save lives.
Don’t play house
Therefore what God has joined together, let man not seperate. – Matthew 19:6
I feel I must get on my soap box after having a conversation a couple of days ago with several non-believers. Two are around my age, one around my dad’s age. It troubled me to the point I needed a few days to grapple with what it really means.
Recalling how the conversation actually started is difficult, and probably irrelevant, but we all somehow managed to get on the conversation of marriage. One spoke up and said he and his wife moved in together and then got married so marriage wasn’t a “big decision” for them. Another chimed in and confirmed, saying her and her husband even bought a house together before getting married. The older of the 3, in partial disbelief, said “what is the world coming to?”. And proclaimed that it was much different in his time. You would think that was enough for me to chew on but it gets better.
In the world we live in none of this was really a shock to me. It’s a part of every day life now, a passing thought in the minds of all. Then came this revelation: “Oh it’s the way to go. I’m going to tell my kids to do it.” Hold on, WHAT?! The logic itself was flawed. When pried for an answer as to why the response was “with the divorce rate so high why would you not want to test it out first? It only makes sense.”
Even a non-believer was questioning this. And it made me think how much easier it must have been 30yrs ago to live a more stringent Christian life. How disgusting is this world than even just 30yrs ago? It’s so hard to stay on course when all around you are things to tickle your senses.
Then it hit me. The world doesn’t have a moral and spiritual compass to guide them. They step out in to the woods unprepared and are confused when they get lost. Don’t believe me? Try convincing a non-believer that the big bang is impossible. Yes, logically it makes no sense but they don’t have any other answer for how we got here so it must be right. 2 Peter 3:3 says in the last days scoffers will come following their own evil desires. It’s so easy for them to scoff at logic in the face of doing what they want. Following logic would mean changing and why change when things are “ok” as they are?
You don’t need to read far in to the Bible to see the answer. Genesis 2:24: For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. See, you want the divorce rate to go down? Don’t mess around before getting married. Sex is more than a feeling. It’s a union of two spirits, it’s something humans can not understand. Only God understands the complex union of two into one.
So you say, I’ve already had sex am I doomed? No, because the blood of Christ cleanses us of all sin.(Hebrews 9:14) When you except Christ in your life God only sees a blameless lamb, it’s the beauty of grace! In following a Christian life, divorce becomes a mute point. Through the power and glory of God He makes all things whole.
The divorce rate is so high because without a compass there is no guide to say “no that’s the wrong direction”. Unbelievers simply see it as a decision. black and white. Oh it’s sad, but you can find someone else. Not true. We should not break what God has joined together.(Matthew 19:6) It’s not just a decision. It’s a breaking of a union of two souls. Ever heard the saying “He took a piece of me with him.”? In a sense, this is true. If you give over to sex you have joined together as one and breaking that leaves a lasting impression.
I felt broken inside hearing that these children are going to be given no compass and be given misguided information on how to live their lives. I felt powerless, hopeless for them. I wish you could just shake someone into believing sometimes.
Remember, nothing is hopeless with God. He has a plan for each and every one of us. If you’ve stumbled, if your marriage seems irrepairable, if you’re a non-believer, don’t lose hope! Pour out your heart to God. He will hear you, he will pour out His blessings on you, even though we don’t deserve them. With God all things are possible(Matthew 19:26)!!
