What has God prepared for you?

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. (I Corinthians 2:9-12)

What can you imagine with your mind's eye? Is it something grand and glorious, or are those imaginations limited by what you perceive to be your 'talents', 'abilities', or 'treasures'? We sometimes 'dream big', but when it comes to actually believing in what we see with our mind's eye, we discount the possibility of it ever coming to pass. It isn't that we are to 'dream' things into existence, but when God plants a vision within our heart, we are to do all we can to see his purposes come to pass. That could mean our faith is challenged a bit, because we don't know fully what he will be doing in and through us, but it doesn't mean we just sit there and let the dream pass us by. We give ourselves fully to the vision and then see what God will work out in the areas where we lack talent, ability, or treasure!

God's deepest secrets for each of us are realized when we say "YES" to Jesus. His Spirit's presence within us isn't there to give us 'visions' and then to allow us to falter as we step out in faith. If we think too long on what God asks us to do, we will begin to 'falter' in our steps, though. We will lose the momentum created by the vision or dream. If you want to see God's best in your life, you act upon what he places in your heart to the best of your ability and then allow him to work out the rest. Does that mean we will see instantly what he has purposed or planned for us? Not always, because there are times when the vision needs a bit of time to develop within us. We aren't fully at the point where he can bring everything to pass right at that moment - we need to allow him to develop our character so we can really engage with his purposes fully.

We see in part, while he sees the bigger picture. We possess some of the talent, while he will need to infuse that talent with his supernatural ability. We aren't 'fulfilling the dream' - we are just participating as active partakers in the vision in whatever way he asks of each of us. Does that make us a little uneasy at times? Yes, simply because we don't always feel like we are 'in step' with him, especially when we don't feel we possess the talent, ability, or treasure required. I have learned that the vision or dream gives isn't always going to match my feelings, though. Sometimes it is much bigger than I 'feel', while at others, it is much smaller. When it is much smaller than I might 'feel' like it should be, I have never been disappointed, though. Why? The smaller dreams seem to set us up for some other dream down the road.

We might not fully understand God's heart at the moment, but when we take the big or small vision he gives and place it in his capable hands, we begin to see God's expansive goodness and grace at work in and through us. As God tells us, "People without a vision perish". The dream is important - don't discount it - embrace it! It might be a tiny step that leads to the biggest 'achievement' we could ever imagine! Just sayin!

Christmas memories

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree. (Roy L. Smith)

And we know that the Son of God came so we could recognize and understand the truth of God—what a gift!—and we are living in the Truth itself, in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. This Jesus is both True God and Real Life. (I John 5:21)

We might forget this truth, but Christmas is the very best of times to celebrate the love of God. It is also the best of times to celebrate each other - family and friends coming together to celebrate the joy of the season, but also to celebrate each other! It is a time to create memories. I don't know about you, but the gathering together seems to be less and less as the family grows up and we all seem to have our own 'direction' to travel in life. Memories are made in the moments - so take the moments this holiday season to make them. 

Jesus is our greatest gift - the one we receive ourselves and the one we can give to others. It is unlike every other gift - we don't give it away - we give it while still retaining that great gift for ourselves! This 'gift' of Christ actually is an unending gift - able to help us live in truth. Recognizing truth amidst all the lies around us - what a gift! To understand truth - what a gift when all around us seems so confusing and confounding. Don't hold back with this gift - share it!

If this last two years has no opened our eyes to the shortness of life and the ability of things way outside of our control to create tremendous chaos, then I don't think we had our eyes open! There is hardly a neighborhood that hasn't been affected by great loss as a result of an ugly and devastating virus. Moments may have been lost forever for some. Regrets abound. What memories will you make this Christmas season? Will they be memories that bring you great joy over the years, or will they be memories of regret for lost opportunities? 

Rather than regretting the missed ones, let us make them in ways that will last forever. Let's share the hope of Jesus and then let him begin to open the doors of his blessing in the lives of those we touch this season. Just sayin!

But I want this....

I know Louis L'Amour was not really trying to wax philosophical when he said a good beginning make a good end, but he hit the nail on the head! The roughest beginnings can make for a very bumpy ride alone the way. The easiest beginnings can help us to get along the trail a little quicker, but the trail always has its own twists and turns, making the journey sometimes a little tougher than we first suspected it would be!

God’s way is perfect. The Lord’s promise always proves to be true. He protects those who trust in him. There is no God except the Lord. There is no Rock except our God. God is the one who gives me strength. He clears the path I need to take. He makes my feet as steady as those of a deer. Even on steep mountains he keeps me from falling. (Psalm 18:30-33 TLB)

Despite the beginnings, God's presence can make the journey bearable until it ends! There is no greater beginning than to begin with God - even if the start is a little rough around the edges. Most of us just need to get to the place we actually "start" - we just talk about beginnings and don't ever step up to the gate! Here's something I learned a long, long time ago - we get nowhere if we don't take the first step! We can spend a lot of time "admiring", "imagining", or "dreaming" of what we want to do, but until we actually step out to do it, we are just daydreaming!

God's ways are perfect - even when ours are a little messed up around the edges. His promises will prove true - even when the journey makes it a little unlikely that we will get out 'unchanged' or 'unscathed'. The moment we move from imagining the end and begin to take the steps to trust in what we come to call the beginning, the more we learn how very faithful God is when we place our trust in him.

I don't want you to miss one very important part of our passage today - "He clears the path I need to take." It isn't always the path I want to take. It isn't always the path you want me to take. It is the path which NEEDS to be taken. God knows what we NEED just as much as he knows what we WANT. Those two aren't always the same, are they? I want to be fishing. I need to be at work. I want to eat chocolate. I need to eat an apple. I want to be independently wealthy. I need to work for a living. Yup, those two aren't always the same!

Trust is the basis for any "good beginning" - making the "ending" more likely to be "spot on" for what we need in our life. What or who we trust in is one of the most important things we can establish prior to stepping out. We begin well when we have our trust rightly placed - even though we may not know the ending. We place our trust in a whole lot of dreams and fail to recognize those dreams aren't actually going to keep us for the "long haul" of the journey. The path we need to take may actually be contrary to our dreams - learning to trust God to refine the dreams so the dream matches the need is key to taking the "right" first steps! Just sayin!

Not another bad dream!

Have you ever been unsettled by a dream?  You know the kind I mean - those which either awaken you in a start as though you were falling some great distance, or in which you find your heart beating as though it were going to burst from your chest at any moment!  I think we may have all had these on occasion, but if they are a steady thing for us, it may be time to consider the cause of those dreams.  I have been around people who believe it is possible to attach meaning to each and every dream.  I guess I am not that superstitious or "believing" in the "reading" of dreams, but I do know this for sure - when I watch some thriller movie which leaves me on the edge of my seat throughout, I look for "bad men" under the bed!  It is only natural!  What goes into the mind has a way of playing tricks on the mind.  Be without something long enough and you might just crave it a little - to think upon it is not some supernatural occurrence, but rather a normal thought!  Bad dreams come from too many worries - now this is a true thing.  Spend hour after hour pondering the hard things in this life and you will find it almost impossible to drift into the quiet repose of a restful night's sleep!

Bad dreams come from too many worries, and too many words come from the mouth of a fool. (Ecclesiastes 5:3 ERV)

If we were to examine what scripture has to say about worry, we'd find reminders such as: 

• Matthew 6:25-34 "Don't worry about the things you need to live - what you will eat, drink, or wear....you cannot add any time to your life by worrying about it..."
• Proverbs 12:25 "Worry takes away your joy, but a kind word makes you happy."
• Ecclesiastes 5:12 "Those who work hard all day come home and sleep in peace. It is not important if they have little or much to eat. But the rich worry about their wealth and are not able to sleep."
• Philippians 4:6 "Don’t worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need, always giving thanks for what you have."

These are but a few of the scriptures which point out the futility in our worries. They are concerns placed on the wrong shoulders - ours!  When we worry, we are imagining all the possibilities about how "we" will handle the problem at hand.  We are attempting to shoulder the weight of the issue at hand rather than leaving that issue on the shoulders of the one who has not only the strength to bear it, but the wherewithal to handle it once and for all!  

Imagine a life without bad dreams - wouldn't that be a good thing?  Imagine a life without worries - wouldn't that make your heart skip a beat for a totally different reason than those bad dreams do?  Just as too many words come from the mouth of a fool (and we have all experienced that one), too many worries result in restless nights of sleep.  If we don't put those anxieties where they belong (on the shoulders of Jesus), we will continue to shoulders burden too big for us to handle, too hard for us to solve, and too great for us to bear up under.

The things we need to live - clothing, food, shelter, etc. - all things which are best left in the hands of the one who actually provides them!  It is true - worry takes away our joy - consuming us with the weight of the issue.  We don't have time to enjoy life if all we do is stumble through it with the weight of our worries clearly upon our own shoulders.  Maybe this is the revelation we need - we are stumbling (at best) through life as long as we try to handle our life's issues. Who knew the issue even before it came?  God.  Who has all the resources to address that issue (no matter how big or small)?  God.  Whose words are powerful, consistently trustworthy, and never spoken in vain?  God's.  Now, that we have settled those few facts, isn't it senseless to carry these things into our slumber?  Just sayin!

No pizza before bed!

Ever had one of those nights when you just tossed and turned, sleep eluding you at every turn?  You drift quickly into a little bit of a snooze and then without warning, you are wide awake again - free to choose another position, try another pillow, or just gaze into the black space of night at nothing.  Yep, I think we may have all endured those nights, but maybe we it has been a while since you had a dream which disturbed you deeply - the type where you awaken in a state of alert, almost panic, perhaps feeling like you were falling, jumping to alertness in an instant.  Those type of dreams leave you a little shaken - not so much because you awoke suddenly, but because the impression of the dream (real or imagined) sticks with you for a while.  Now, most of us will just lay there in bed a little while, allowing our heart rate to return to normal, the sweat on our brow to dissipate, and the slumber return. Very few of us will respond to the dream by hiring the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and fortunetellers to interpret the dream for us.  If we are doing this, then just a word of advice - you might want to find out what God says about these types of "mediums" - for their "advice" is not from him!  Instead, we try to mull over the "memorable" parts of the dream and make a little sense of it if possible.  In turn, we might just realize we shouldn't eat pizza before bed, or watch those scary movies that leave you on the edge of your seat.  

In the second year of his reign, King Nebuchadnezzar started having dreams that disturbed him deeply. He couldn’t sleep. He called in all the Babylonian magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and fortunetellers to interpret his dreams for him. When they came and lined up before the king, he said to them, “I had a dream that I can’t get out of my mind. I can’t sleep until I know what it means.”  (Daniel 2:1-3 MSG)

The mind is made for imagination, so when it lays hold of something it finds disturbing, it runs with it!  Before long, the imagined thoughts can seem like a reality (a prediction of sorts) - sometimes this is the case, but most dreams are just imagination of our mind manufactured by what we have taken in, held onto, and then our minds mesh it together into some "story" of sorts.  We need to learn to discern between "imagined" and "reality" in our minds - for not every dream has a meaning we need to "interpret", nor does every imagination have a secret root we need to uncover.  When a dream disturbs us enough to alert us out of a sound sleep, the first place we should be turning is to God himself.  When we do, we are asking him to sort out the imagined from the real.  He may very well show us the entire thing was imagined based on the intake we have been allowing into our minds.  He may point out an opportunity for our "re-focus".  He may also show us we need to be doing something, involved in something, going a certain place, or engaging with a certain person in order to accomplish something for his purpose. Dreams can have "hidden meaning", but I don't think all dreams are to be the subject of interpretation!  Some just need to be discounted as "pizza induced"!

If something gets us to the place where we are disturbed deeply, it is best brought into the presence of Jesus.  No magician, medium, or fortuneteller has the answer to what is disturbing us.  It amazes me how often man will turn to another man for answers to his questions rather than go to the one who formed the question in our minds in the first place!  The source of interpretation of dreams when we go to man with them is simply man or the closest thing to man - the devil himself.  In Old Testament times, there was this term "necromancy" - the consulting of mediums.  In the Old Testament Law, God clearly instructs Moses to tell the people of Israel to avoid consulting with the mediums (Leviticus 19:31).  It was the darkest form of fortunetelling of the time - the "communing with the dead".  Clearly God had in mind the protection of his people, as divining of spirits, or conjuring up spirits really opens a man to Satan's activity.  In fact, God wanted man to be totally aware that Satan's activity is not to be trusted, because his purpose is not to bring truth, but to lend additional confusion and take one's eyes off of God himself.

James 1:5-8 states:  If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.  In other words, if you don't have an answer to what is bothering you, don't go to the devil, but go to God himself - he will give to those who ask. God's purpose is to give us more light - Satan's purpose in divination or speaking through spirits is to give us just a little taste of darkness.  Satan doesn't want us to know truth, but wants to validate our fantasies, cloud our perception, etc.  Look at the passage again and you will see in the reading of the second chapter of Daniel that the King had to ask the mediums to both tell him the dream and the interpretation.  They didn't know the dream!  They wanted him to tell them the dream and then they would craft the "best interpretation" for him.  Doesn't that sound a little hokey to you?  It does to me!  Most of the mediums you will ever observe use this technique to get just enough information out of you to know where you "hot buttons" are.  For example, if they sense you are a single person, kind of lonely, they will give you great hope that your dream centers on finding Mr. or Mrs. "Right" - the love of your life is just around the corner.  They will affirm what you already hope for so desperately.  Necromancy is nothing more than the manipulation of truth with the subtlety of lies.  Let's not open ourselves up for that one!

So, the next time you find yourself troubled by a dream, don't take it to man for interpretation - take it to the feet of Jesus.  You will probably be amazed by just how clearly he wants to speak into your life - even if it is to advise you not to eat pizza before bed!  Just sayin!

You a dreamer?

Good words and good works are both a source of wonderful blessing in our lives.  The godly have learned something about plodding ahead without clear direction - aimless wandering usually producing nothing but heartache and unwanted challenge.  They have also learned a great deal about relationship exchanges where words fly and consequences of "unchecked" words makes for many a sleepless night.  It probably goes without saying, but we learn more by our mistakes than we do by avoiding them - simply because the mistakes seem to be more common than the ability to side-step them in time to avoid them!  As we have observed in our study, the life of wisdom is one marked with light and joy.  Light which provides illumination before we actually take the misstep; joy because we have learned to step into the tracks left by the one who walks before us (Jesus)!  Too many times, our focus remains inward, not outward.  As this is the tendency of our hearts, we experience a great deal of "heart-sickness" we might otherwise avoid if we just got our focus corrected.  Inward focus leads to alienation - first from God and then from others.  It is a hindrance to every "good step" we might just want to take, so learning to redirect focus is paramount to avoiding all manner of heart-sickness.

Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick, but a sudden good break can turn life around.  (Proverbs 13:12 MSG)

This morning, I'd like us to consider the idea of "deferred hope".  As scripture aptly puts it, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick..."  Hope is more than just expectation - it is the honest belief that what we desire can come to fruition. If I hoped to be a millionaire, but only played the lottery or signed up for every sweepstakes that came along, I'd say I was living with a whole lot of deferred hope!  On the other hand, if I actually took the monies I earned from my job, invested it wisely and consistently, I might just grow a little closer to the reality of being that millionaire.  The difference between the two is the focus - one is counting on the easy way out - the other is determining the course may be a little rugged, but worth the ride.  

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when dreams come true, there is great joy and a sense of life.  A hope is a longing - something we desire and have a dream of fulfillment.  There is an expectation of fulfillment - attainment being the ultimate end.  The thing longed for may not be the best for us, though.  So, sometimes deferred hope is really an wake-up call to get us to see the thing longed for so desperately is really not what will provide the best of outcomes for our lives.  We see delay in fulfillment as God saying he doesn't want us to have something (or someone).  In truth, God may indeed be saying just that!  Yet, there are times when God says it is not the right time - the dream still lives on, but the timing of the fulfillment dwells at a point yet to be determined.  Either way, hope can be crushed.  When we hear a clear "no", it can be very hard to accept.  When we hear a "wait a while", it can rob us of our joy.  We have to learn to accept the "no" as an attempt on God's part to protect us from damage down the road and the "wait a while" as a way of God getting us fully ready to receive the blessing.

Both of these are struggles for us, right?  Both can lead to "heart-sickness". One thing is apparent in scripture - dreams and aspirations are a part of our make-up.  God actually created our brains, emotions, and hearts to dream big and aspire to great things.  All God asks is for us to allow those dreams and aspirations to be realistically founded in God's will - to live without these dreams or aspirations is to live devoid of emotion and faith.  If you pair this idea of having dreams and aspirations realistically founded in God's will with the reminder to actually ask for what it is we desire, then you might just be coming a little closer to understanding how God intended for things to work! James tells us:  You crave for something and don’t get it, you are jealous and envious of what others have got and you don’t possess it yourselves. Consequently in your exasperated frustration you struggle and fight with one another. You don’t get what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And when you do ask he doesn’t give it to you, for you ask in quite the wrong spirit—you only want to satisfy your own desires. (James 4:2-3 JBP)  It is in the "listening for the leading" that we understand the doors which are open to us and those which remain firmly shut.

A person of good sense is respected - not because they have some status which makes them receive elevated attention, but because they have learned to choose wisely and to walk uprightly.  They have learned to avoid the dreams and aspirations which do nothing more than act as snares in their lives.  The wise (godly) have learned to "listen for the leading".  They dream big, but don't allow those dreams to define them.  They are defined by one greater than their dreams - the creator of those dreams.  Jesus did great works on this earth - but before leaving here, he reminded his disciples they would do even greater works!  It became his joy and delight to illustrate for us the possibilities of big dreams and gigantic aspirations - as long as those align with God's will for our lives!  The willingness to allow God access to our dreams is sometimes a little frightening to us - because we somehow think he will squelch them.  Yet, if we read what scripture says, he delights in giving to his children.  As long as what we dream won't hinder our walk with him, he probably won't find fault with our dream!  When we align our dreams with his purposes - we can dream bigger than we might imagine!  Just sayin!