Don't Stop...Just Wait.

Many of you know that I enjoy posting to Facebook and I usually try to keep my postings positive, uplifting and encouraging.  This morning, as I was reading, I was thinking of something I could put on my page that would be just that; positive, encouraging and uplifting. 

A phrase came to mind that included the word “wait”, but wait wasn't a word that I thought could be positive, encouraging or uplifting.  If anything it can be taken as a negative.   Who wants to stop progress on something they feel is important?  No one!  However, waiting is something we must learn to do if we’re going to be successful. 

Now, I’m not the most patient person in the world, just ask my wife.  So when I get a notion to do something I want it done right now.  I want to get started with putting things in motion and putting people in place, processing or developing programs and on and on and on….you get my picture.  I have ZERO patients, so when I’m told to wait I sometimes get upset, disgruntled and even downright mad.  Ok, I confess…I’m not a good “waiter”.

So what do you do when you’re asked to wait?  You wait!  But just waiting wasn’t the only word that came to mind while I was reading.  Remember, I said it was a phrase.  That phrase was, ”Wait on the Lord”.    

It was like a light bulb came on in my mind.  “Wait on the Lord” isn’t what you would think it would mean.  I’m not supposed to stop and march time while God does things.  I’m supposed to SERVE Him while He does things.   

Psalms 27:14 says, “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. 

Don’t hang your head because you’ve been asked to wait!  You’ve been asked to wait for a reason.  There is someone going through something that God knows you can help Him with.  WOW! What an honor that God asked us to help Him.  Serve Him…He’ll provide you with the strength you’ll need to complete the task.  Waiting ON the Lord is serving Him while you’re waiting FOR Him.

Psalms 37:34 says, “Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.

It’s while we serve Him that he opens new doors and allows us to see new heights that we may not have seen had we continued on the journey without pausing to help others. 

Bottom line is, don’t let the word wait get you down.  You’ve been asked to wait for a reason.  Look around you.  What do you see?  Who around you needs help?  What situations can you identify that you’ve been through?  You can provide insight, guidance and strength to someone facing that same issue.  You’ve got a testimony…use it! 

Waiting on the Lord is fulfilled by helping others see Christ.  Someone around you needs Him.  So, what are you going to do?  Sulk because you can’t go forward with “your plans” or serve Him by helping others see Him? 

Just my thoughts on a page...

Moving Past Your Cat

I posted this video on Facebook earlier which shows several clips of dogs trying to pass cats, but were afraid to pass because of what the cat might do.  For some reason the dog had the misconception that it would be attacked and hurt if it went passed the cat.  The cats had them afraid to pass, full of fear and disobeying the calling of the master...even with the master being right there providing encouragement.

In many cases the dogs were much bigger than the cat and if it wanted, could have destroyed the cat with one bite.  However, the cat had the dog convinced that if it tried to pass, something bad was going to happen.

The video was funny to watch, but it got me thinking.  Our enemy acts just like those cats.  He will convince us that we can’t go past a certain point in our lives and into the place that our Master wants us to be.  He puts fear in our minds and tries to convince us to stay in the area, the circumstances, and the predicament we’re in by making us fear what he’ll do if we try to go past him. 

We’ve given our enemy more power than he actually has by listening to his lies.  We give him power to control us when we stay in our current situations and don’t move towards the blessings that our Master wants us to achieve.  By allowing Satan to keep us in an area that God doesn’t want us to stay, we miss out on what He has for us to experience. 

Remember what Luke 10:19 has to say: ”Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you”.  Why then do we fear?  Let’s use this power to walk past the enemy and achieve the blessings that our Master has for us.  Let’s move past the fear that the “cat” will harm us and scratch us and remove our eyeballs if we move any closer to the Master’s voice.  If you watch the video closely, in only a few of the scenes does the cat actually swat at or attack the dog…It’s a mind thing the cat has over the dog.

Second Corinthians 10:4-5 says: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ…”.  So again, why do we fear the cat when we’ve been given not only power, but weapons to defeat the mind games he tries playing on us? 

You are the child of the most high God, the King of kings and the Lord of lords.  You have power within you to overcome any adversary, to cast out any image of failure and to tear down any wall that Satan or his imps try to place in front of you.  Remember, 1 John 4:4 says, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: Because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world”.  You have a Master who is standing on the other side of your enemy, encouraging you to move past him and come receive what He has in store for you.  I love what one of the owners told the dog.  “I’m not coming to get you, you’ve got to learn to move past the cat”.  Although God could come get you, He wants you to learn that you can overcome your fears; you can move past your adversary and experience things you’ve yet to experience.

Now get up and move past the issues that have kept you from the blessings your Master has for you.  You’ve been living in a fearful, negative, and unsupportive atmosphere for too long and the master is calling you into an atmosphere of success and positive thinking.  He wants to surround you with a loving and caring environment and provide you with peace and comfort that you haven’t known for a long time.  The only question is, will you make the move or will you continue to miss out on what God has in store for you?  It’s your decision….

Just a thought on a page….

Jumping Ship!

 

This morning I was listening to the radio and a statement was made about “jumping ship”.  For some reason the first thing that popped into my mind was Peter stepping out of the ship to go meet Jesus on the water. 

My first of many thoughts…What in the world was going on inside that ship?  Secondly, what was he dealing with that was so bad that he had to get out and get out NOW?  He was willing to step out of a well build ship to get away from his surroundings and go where?  They were surrounded by water.  What was he thinking?

But then I begin to think that we have days like those now, don’t we?  “Those days” would be defined as days where the people, issues and circumstances around us are so bad we just want out and we want out now. If we were on a plane we would rather jump out or a ship we would rather swim to shore than ride any longer.  We could care less of the dangers involved, we just want out! 

Maybe that’s where Peter was at on this particular day.  Maybe he had just had enough of everything and everybody and with the storm raging, causing havoc on the ship, he took the only route he had available to him; which happen to be outside the ship on the water with Jesus. 

We hear the negative side of this Biblical story all the time.  How that Peter stepped out, but didn’t have enough faith to make it all the way to Jesus without sinking.  Well, let’s focus a moment on the positive side.  He stepped out of the ship and walked on water!  He got out of his dilemma!  Even if for a few moments, he got out and did something no other human on the face of this earth had ever done nor has done since.  HE WALKED AWAY ON THE WATER!!!

I love the fact that he jumped ship.  You know what I think?  I think we need more people doing that same thing.  We need more people jumping ship and walking towards Jesus.  Will you sink?  Probably, and that in itself scares the daylights out of all of us.  The problem is we don’t look at, as Paul Harvey would say, “The rest of the story”.   How that Peter was IMMEDIATELY grabbed and pulled to safety when he called out to Jesus.  That’s all it took for Peter to reach a safe place.  All he had to do was call out. 

So, what do you say?  Are you ready to jump ship and walk toward Jesus or do you want to stay in the boat and miss the chance of seeing what Jesus could do not only in your life, but the life and surroundings of those associated with you?  Because, had Peter not cried out, had he stayed right where he was and done nothing there was a possibility that Jesus would have passed him by.  He would have missed out on not only a great miracle for himself, but the people around him would have missed out on receiving a blessing. 

Sometimes, because of our “leap of faith”, others are able to enjoy a break in the storm they’re facing as well.  So, are you ready to jump ship?  Let’s geaux and see what happens!

Just my thoughts on a page…

Three Words We Don't Hear Anymore

The last week I’ve had the privilege of working with our overnight crews, and for the most part I’ve had a fairly positive experience.  However, I’ll be honest with you, working overnight is very tiring and I don't think I would want to do it full time.

What’s working overnight have to do with the title of this blog?  Well, last night I decided to take my head phones and listen to some music and maybe some preaching while I worked.   I thought that by listening to something might make the night go by a little quicker and I wouldn't be so tired.  Well, it made the night go by quicker, but it didn't help with the wearyness. 

I started out listening to Pandora radio, but then I found a couple of messages of Rev Jeff Arnold and Rev Anthony Mangun on YouTube and got a little word while I worked. 

Both were really good, but for some reason Bro Anthony’s message really spoke to me and the title of his message included the three words we don’t hear anymore. 

Those three words are “Jesus is coming”. 

Now l know that I’m about to lose most readers, because those three words scare most folks.  We don’t hear Preachers preaching on that subject anymore because it scares people and we don’t want people scared or upset; we want people happy, excited and enthused. 

However, as a Preacher I think we have a responsibility to the saints to do exactly what 1 Thessalonians 4:18 says do, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words”.

It should bring comfort to us, knowing that soon we’ll be caught up in the air to meet our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  It should excite us that in just a short amount of time we could be walking on streets of gold, meeting up with our loved ones and getting to see Jesus for the first time.  I don’t know about you, but that excites me. 

I want to see as many people make heaven as possible and in order to do that I know that I’ve got a responsibility to inform them on how they can make it.  Just like Peter did in the book of Acts, I want to answer the question that many will be asking, “What must we do”.  The answers the same; repent and turn away from sin, be baptized in Jesus name and have those sins washed away and receive His Spirit.  It’s just that easy. 

So I want to encourage those of you who are struggling with finances…Jesus is coming!  I want to encourage those of you who are dealing with diseases and other health issue…Jesus is coming.  I want to encourage those of you who are dealing with all the issues the world can throw at you…Jesus is coming! 

It won’t be long and we’ll be singing in heavenly places and spending time with the One that died for us so that we might be able to live with Him in glory.  Yes, I want to encourage you with three words that we don’t hear anymore…Jesus is coming! You ready?

Just my thoughts on a page…

The Rose and The Pruning Process

The Rose and The Pruning Process

 

Earlier this week my sister, Becky, sent me a text saying she had a thought she wanted me to blog about.  Little did she know that the subject matter she wanted me to discuss had already been on my mind; however, I just didn’t know how to put it into words…until now.

I don’t put much out there about myself and the issues I face, mainly because I don’t think people want to read about my problems nor the problems others may be facing.  I think people want to be encouraged and inspired to get out of the problems and issues their facing and want to find solutions to which they don’t have answers; thus this blog.

The text I received from Becky had a beautifully illustrated account of how life can be one of two things…a mess or a beautiful site.  The choices we make can affect the outcome of our situations and either make things messy or, if we leave it alone, face the issues we have to face and allow God to maneuver things the way there supposed to go, the outcome will be beautiful. 

You may be asking yourself the question millions of people ask everyday; why am I facing this?  We ask that question a lot during life.  Why does life seem to be going so well and then all of a sudden, we’re faced with issues or problems we’ve never had to face or dealing with repeat issues?  The answer could be found in a process called PRUNING. 

I know that many of you know what pruning is, but I wanted you to see the definition I ran across on Wikipedia concerning the process.  “Pruning is a horticultural practice involving the selective removal of parts of a plant, such as branches, buds, or roots.  Reasons to prune plants include deadwood removal, shaping (by controlling or directing growth), improving or maintaining health, reducing risk from falling branches, preparing nursery specimens for transplanting, and both harvesting and increasing the yield or quality of flowers and fruits. The practice entails targeted removal of diseased, damaged, dead, non-productive, structurally unsound, or otherwise unwanted tissue from crop and landscape plants. Specialized pruning practices may be applied to certain plants, such as roses, fruit trees, and grapevines.” 

Maybe God is allowing us to face things in order to shape us.  Maybe he’s removing things from our lives because he knows its dead and will be unproductive.  Or maybe, He’s allowing us to face our “issues” because He knows we can deal with it and by doing so we’ll be a better and more improved person for having gone through it.  Whatever the reason, He knows that because we were able to face the pruning process, we’ll have a better “harvest” and be able to yield a higher quality life for others to see. 

When we take matters into our own hands we can ruin what God has in store for us.  When we try to make a rose bloom without waiting for nature to take its course, we’ll end up with missing petals and a mess on a stick.  However, if we allow time to pass and the rose to absorb what’s needed to grow, bud and then bloom what we end up with is a beautiful site that can fill a room with a sweet scent. 

Timothy Spell sings a song written by Frank O’Brien called When God Unfolds The Rose.  The chorus of the song says, “When God unfolds the rose He always gets it right.  When the petals are in place oh, its such a beautiful site.  God knows when to hold on and the perfect time to let go.  So let God have his way and watch God unfold the rose”.  

We have a choice to make.  We can allow God to hold our hand through the pruning process and let him unfold our life into a beautiful, sweet smelling rose.  Or, we can chose to do things our way and end up with a mess on a stick.  The decision is ours to make….I think I want to be a beautiful rose for others to enjoy. 

Just my thoughts on a page….

Your Bulb Blown? Renew It!

I went into the kitchen to get something to drink and as I turned the light on, a bulb blew out.  I climbed on the counter, unscrewed the light from the fixture and looked closely at the bulb.  It was dark at the bottom and had a loose wire causing it to make a clanking noise when you shook it. 

As I was looking for another bulb to replace it with, it hit me.  This bulb is useless.  It’s served its purpose of providing light in the kitchen and as of right now this bulb has no purpose. 

As I held that cold bulb in my hand and looked more closely at the effects providing light had on it,  immediately my mind went to the scripture in Matthew 5:14 that reads “You are the light of the world.” If you stop and think about it, being a “light” can be a very tiring, demanding job; but rewarding at the same time. 

A bulb puts off heat and uses energy from another source for it to work.  Just like the bulb, we use energy to perform and in order for us to “work” properly we must get our power to operate from another Source.  Unlike the bulb, if we use the Source correctly, we can re-new our strength daily and by renewing our strength daily with God we’ll never burn out. 

My daily prayer and Bible reading are required if I’m going to be an effective light to the people I work with, the citizens of the city in which I live, and the daily random person that I meet while I’m out and about.  There has got to be something that says, “There’s something about that guy that glows” when I walk into a room.  I don’t want to be gloomy and drabby and have this scowl on my face that causes everyone around me to feel sad, gloomy and depressed; which is how a blown bulb causes the room to appear….dark and depressing. 

So, you ready to renew your strength and allow God to use you?  Psalms 51:10 says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit within me”. Isaiah 40:21 says, “But they that wait(serve) upon the Lord shall renew their strength…”.  Let God renew you today and allow His Spirit to shine in you like a newly placed light bulb…one that burns BRIGHTER AND STRONGER.

You Ready??!!

Just my thoughts on a page…

Be Ready For Anything In 2013

It’s the beginning of a new year and we’ve all made new resolutions, new goals and set out to accomplish new task in 2013.  I’ve often said with the setting of new goals come new challenges and oppositions.  I forget who it was that told me, if you set goals or make plans to accomplish something, keep it to yourself.  They said, the enemy will throw everything he can at you to keep you from achieving those goals and accomplishing what it is you’re trying to achieve.  I believe that’s true, but even if you kept it to yourself the enemy will still throw opposition at you.  He’s not blind, deaf or stupid; however, he is defeated.  

How do you keep the enemy from opposing your every move?  If I knew the answer to that question I’d probably be a rich man.  It’s his job to keep you from accomplishing your dreams, achieving your goals and seeing things you set out to do come to pass.  He was removed from his position of authority and cast down to earth to roam as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may destroy.  He’ll never stop trying to kill your dreams and goals and nether should you. 

I have a Pastor friend of mine, Rev. Mark Foster,  who has started off this year with the theme of “Believe 2013”.  I think that’s one of the answers to achieving success…you’ve got to believe.

1)      Believe in Jesus Christ.  If you believe in Christ and trust His words, you’ll never go wrong.

2)      Believe in the Word of God (the Bible).  Remember how Jesus was tempted after He fasted 40 days and nights?  What did He use to overcome Satan…The Word!

3)      Believe in yourself.  Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me”. 

I know that the enemy is trying his best to keep each and every one of us from achieving what it is we want to accomplish.  But remember, he’s already defeated and if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ you’re already a winner.  Just keep pushing on.  You’re going to get there.  Don’t stop just because you’ve been hit with opposition. 

I don’t know why, but the story of Job and the temptation of Christ are two areas that stand out to me when I think of how the enemy tries to destroy what we’ve worked so hard to achieve.  Although both had two completely different issues and circumstances, they both come out on top…literally.  Job had more than he started with and Jesus was literally on top of a mountain, being entertained by angels when the enemy left. 

What was their secret to overcoming the opposition the enemy threw their way?  They didn’t believe what the enemy had to say or show them as fact.  They trusted in what they knew God had already accomplished in their life and what the Word of God promised. 

You’ve got goals, right? You’ve got plans to accomplish, right? Don’t think for a moment the enemy isn’t going to show up at some point and try to tempt you by showing you how great something can be.  He will, and you’ll be standing there, just like Jesus with a decision to make. 

I mentioned earlier that Pastor Mark started the year with the theme of Believe 2013…one of his quotes from Facebook is “Your decisions determine your destiny”.  We’ll have decisions to make in 2013 because we’ll all have opposition to face in 2013, but it’s what you do and the choices you make when faced with those oppositions that will determine your success.  Keep believing…In Christ, in His word and in yourself.  Remember, 1 John 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

Just my thoughts on a page…