No more doom and gloom

Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)

If there is one message that rings true in Psalm 23 it is that God is always with us. No matter what trouble comes, fear that emerges, anxious thoughts that grip us, or the deepest, darkest places that attempt to consume our peace, God is with us. The shepherd uses both the rod and the staff to direct us, keep us, and protect us. The staff to guide us. The rod to protect us. Sheep need both - the shepherd knows this very well.

Fix your eyes on the shepherd, not the 'wolf' that comes to steal and destroy. We won't be overtaken by the 'wolf' because the shepherd knows he is there, already has a plan to deal with him, and is ever vigilant to protect us. When our eyes are on him, the 'wolf' is no longer our focus. God is bigger than our 'biggest' issue. Too many times, we embrace the 'issue' instead of our shepherd. The sheep have learned to 'herd close' to the shepherd when they are afraid. Why? They know he cares so greatly for them that he will fend off any attack on their behalf.

Goodness and mercy follow his sheep. That means there is no room for fear or dread. What do the sheep do when threatened by the wolf? They cry out! They alert the shepherd that they feel threatened, that their peace has been disturbed. His immediate response is to acknowledge that he already has things well under control and is alert to the danger. When our eyes are fixed on the wolf, doom and dread, anxiety and restlessness become our constant state of mind and body. When they are fixed on Jesus, goodness and mercy envelop us, giving us deep peace even in the midst of threatening circumstances. Just sayin!

Restore my peace, God

I must calm down and turn to God; only he can rescue me. He is my Rock, the only one who can save me. He is my high place of safety, where no army can defeat me. (Psalm 62:1-2)

We have talked many times about the protection of God, but I would like us to focus today on what our psalmist reminds us here: WE must calm down and WE must turn to God. When all is spinning like what seems to be 'out of control', we can never forget that God controls what we cannot see, hear, or even imagine with our finite minds. It is our responsibility to trust - plain and simple.

Sometimes we need to be reminded to just settle down, refocus, and listen. To calm oneself down is an art form, especially when turmoil of all manner keeps coming your way. You might 'want' to calm down, but the things that keep happening just seem to take their toll on your emotions. You find yourself spiraling out of control faster than you thought you would, all because your emotions were perceived quicker than your faith was!

To truly calm down, one must turn to God - in other words, we have to get our eyes off of what is spinning out of control and focus on who still remains in control. This might mean we stop the 'madness' of the moment in spite of feeling all the tremendous pressure to just keep on going. Remember this - God never works in the frenzy - he isn't a God of chaos. He works in the littlest ways, the stillest moments, and the quieted hearts!

Satan wants us to continue in the frenzy - God tells us to calm down. Satan is never happier than when our focus is the stuff that gets us all anxious - God is happiest when we nuzzle up to him and allow him to show us how this storm is to be conquered. We might turn to God, seeking his help to actually 'calm down', but we must be the ones to admit we are spinning out of control. We need to recognize our peace has been disturbed and take the steps to see it restored. Just sayin!

Joyful or Happy?

Think about what we have in Christ: the encouragement he has brought us, the comfort of his love, our sharing in his Spirit, and the mercy and kindness he has shown us. If you enjoy these blessings, then do what will make my joy complete: Agree with each other, and show your love for each other. Be united in your goals and in the way you think. (Philippians 2:1-2)

What is it we have 'in Christ' that we didn't have without him in our lives? For one thing, we have been given more than just forgiveness as we might think of it. When we forgive someone, do we forget the offense? No, there is a lingering remembrance. With God, there is no remembrance of the sin. When I was in grade school, the teacher would use the chalkboard all day, erasing with those black erasers. It left a tell-tale white residue on the board. At the end of the day, I enjoyed 'cleaning' the board with the soft 'shammy-like' eraser that removed all that residue and made the board look like new. I think of grace as God's 'shammy-like' eraser - removing not only the sin, but all the residue it leaves behind.

What are the enjoyments of grace? For one thing, we live with a clear conscience. We enjoy the privilege of walking away from sin, knowing we don't have to follow that path any longer. We also enjoy the power of Christ's protective covering over our lives, knowing we don't need to fear temptation, but can speak God's powerful name in the moment of temptation and receive all that is needed to avoid it. We enjoy each other's fellowship, drawing from one another's experiences in Christ. These aren't just 'meager blessings', my friends. They are tremendous blessings, undeserved and unrestricted. We should relish each one, thanking God often for them.

What are our goals once we come into Christ's love and grace? I think they might just lead us into a desire to live in harmony with each other, but how do we get from being selfish, self-centered individuals to the place where we actually desire to live in unity, learning from each other, and uplifting one another? We lay down our 'agendas' for the way things have to be in order for us to be 'happy' and focus on the tremendous joy of living in grace. Happy people aren't happy for long - simply because their happiness was based upon a moment, a certain person's treatment of them, or some 'fulfilling' experience. Joyful people find contentment in being sustained in the hard times, while enjoying the elation of the better times. How? In Christ all things are a blessing - hard stuff and easy stuff alike. Just sayin!

Peace producing plan

While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart. (Francis of Assisi)

People who work for evil make trouble, but those who plan for peace bring happiness. (Proverbs 12:20)

What is your 'plan' moving forward? It doesn't really matter that you have made a mess of the plan up to this point - it matters what you will do moving forward. Our planning is important - God's plans are more so. What God plans can change the heart of a man - our plans merely change 'things' around us that may affect our heart, but rarely does it change our heart for good. We need God's plans worked out - especially when we have made a mess of the plans we imagined!

Plan for peace - get your heart right with God - them move on. The more we turn our plans over to God, the more we may find those plans have been affecting our heart (our inner man) in some ways that have actually kept us from realizing all God has for us. Sometimes we need that 'adjustment' that God does in order to turn from our plans and trust his plans fully. Will we always understand his plans? Absolutely not! We can trust them, though. Plan for peace - bring your plans to God, leave the ones there that don't align with what he purposes, and step out into the ones he has prepared for us in advance of us asking for his wisdom.

People who work for evil will make trouble in this world. Do all the planning yourself and you are likely to be planning to make 'trouble' even though you don't realize it. It will be easier to step on each other's toes, creating chaos, and inciting others to rebel when we are reliant upon our own plans as the way we will 'do business' in life. God's best comes when we are willing to lay down those plans, submitting them to his scrutiny, and then executing the plan he reveals. Will his plans always be dramatically different than ours? Not always, but when we submit them to him, we have a much better chance of them producing a peace within us as we move forward in executing them. Just sayin!

Got a troublemaker in your life?

Some people are just troublemakers. They are always thinking up some crooked plan and telling lies. They use secret signals to cheat people; they wink their eyes, shuffle their feet, and point a finger. They are always planning to do something bad. But they will be punished. Disaster will strike, and they will be destroyed. There will be no one to help them. (Proverbs 5:12-14)

If you have ever had a troublemaker in your life, you know just how hard it can be to around them for any length of time. You just want to turn and run when you see them because you know nothing good is about to come of the encounter. Wisdom would suggest we avoid them entirely, but we all know it is impossible to never encounter them at all. So, what do we do when we encounter a troublemaker in our lives? If we want to learn how to deal with them, we need only look as far as Christ's example.

Jesus was surrounded by members of the religious leadership, thinking they knew more than he did, always trying to find fault with what he said or did. He didn't just rebuke them and move on - he cared too much for their lost souls. He didn't just 'take it' either - for he knew those of weaker faith needed to hear the message of hope he brought. He answered each one of their unfounded claims with dignity and grace. He didn't shy away from them, he purposefully placed himself in a position where they'd be. 

We also have the instruction given by Paul in Philippians 4:5 to let everyone see our gentleness and kindness, to pray and give God the worries of that relationship or encounter. I have 'shot up' many a quick prayer to him when encountered by a troublemaker, asking not only for wisdom in 'handling' the moment, but to have God intervene in the actions of the troublemaker. When we trust God to 'shut it down', we might just find there comes a 'lull' in the troublemaker's actions that suggests God is intervening. 

We don't want these individuals in our lives, but Galatians 6:1 tells us to always be gentle and attempt to 'make the individual right again' in the relationship. They will cause havoc with the greatest of ease, but our response should always be one of gentleness and grace. When encountered with that 'double-barreled defense' they might just find they have very little sway in our lives. A troublemaker who cannot stir up the trouble they hoped to create is actually undone by such a response. Just sayin!

A calm spirit

He who has knowledge spares his words, and a man of understanding is of a calm spirit. (Proverbs 17:27)

Have you ever had so much internal agitation that you found it hard to talk rationally or act responsibly? There is nothing our enemy likes more than for that type of agitation to take over within us. Confusion is a great tactic to keep us in a muddle and cause us to be paralyzed with fear. Worrying does us no good, but that is what confusion brings - worry upon worry, until we are either not able to take action, or worse yet, we take action that is impulsive. The consequences of both are alarmingly similar - we stumble around in our confusion and find ourselves feeling pretty helpless and sometimes even hopeless.

Our passage reminds us that “a man of understanding is of a calm spirit.” How on earth can we enjoy a calm spirit when everything is coming at us at break-neck speed and in a disorderly manner? What some of us have yet to realize is that actually living with a calm mind requires training. We don't just gain a calm mind by osmosis! It requires us to get into scripture, allow it to get into us, and then we rehearse it time and time again. We pray scripture - especially when confusion abounds. This is why God tells us to bring every thought captive - training our minds to focus on him, not the confusion that abounds.

A calm spirit is desirable, but is it achievable? Yes, with every action we take to bring thoughts captive and to recount the promises/teaching in God's Word. Peace isn't going to come into confusion until we allow it access. Most of us have a hard time always being in a state of a 'calm spirit', but we can certainly focus on developing one. Knowledge is good - wisdom is better - understanding is awesome. We get all three the more we study what God says, how he acts, and then take steps to move when he moves. A calm spirit isn't hard to find - it is found in the presence of the one who brings all peace. Just sayin!

My troubled emotions

Fear is a powerful emotion that some say can actually paralyze you - putting you in total "stall mode" while the world moves on around you.  If you have ever experienced that heart-pounding, sweaty palms, shaky legs kind of fear, you know just how many scenarios run through your head making it almost impossible to exercise clear or rational thought at that moment.  Fear produces an anxiety response physically - it just isn't the emotional upheaval going on inside our heads.  

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. I trust God, so I am not afraid of what people can do to me! I praise God for his promise to me. (Psalm 56:3-4)

Scripture comes complete with stories of men and women in positions of great peril, emotional upheaval, and even life-threatening circumstances of both their own and others doing.  We all struggle with similar emotions and the physical responses which come along with them.  We don't stand as uniquely "different" when it comes to the life-challenges we face.  Most of the world faces similar stuff to us, just in a different sector of the world.  I know what it means to be emotionally and spiritually deprived of those things your life just yearns for.  We can all associate with each other's fears in one way or another, can't we?

Sometimes we need a little "self-talk" to remind us that we are not doing this alone - we have God on our side and we just need a little reminder that he is there alongside us.  David actually used praise to get his mind off the issues at hand and to refocus his attention on the one who would walk him through to the other side of the challenge he faced. Self-talk might involve a little refocusing of our attention off of our own abilities and efforts, squarely focusing on the abilities and efforts of the one who is in control of the circumstances in the first place. The moment we begin to remind ourselves of where it is we have placed our trust, the more we will begin to see the basis of our fears not being well-founded. When we remember God is our foundation, nothing can rock that foundation.  We begin to see that all the fear we have mustered up inside is really not a lack of "nerve" or "chutzpah", but a misplacing of our trust.

The basis of fear is really a lack of trust.  This may seem a bit over-simplified, but the opposite of fear is faith - faith is based solely in trust.  We sit on the stool, believing it will hold us upright because we trust those four legs underneath us to do their "job" or "part".  The stool's legs exist for one purpose - to hold the stool upright.  The seat on that stool exists for one purpose - to hold the weight of the one perched on it.  Faith is placing the weight of our world squarely on the "perch" of the one who has the ability to hold up under that weight.  If we lack the trust in his ability to hold us up under that weight, we never move toward firmly resting in him.  We avoid or try to create a new "stool" upon which we will place our weight (our trust).  If we want to overcome fear, we do so by refocusing our self-talk.  Instead of focusing on why we cannot do whatever it is we need to do, we need to crawl up on the perch of God's rest.  There, and only there, will we find rest for our fear and peace for our troubled emotions.  Just sayin!

Tap into this

Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness! The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what good is wealth—except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers! (Ecclesiastes 5:10-11)

I don't think there is anyone who wants to look back on their life only to realize the majority of the activity they performed was merely to 'make money'. The average wage-earner in the United States holds about 12 jobs in their lifetime, spending about 4.5 years per job, meaning we work about fifty years or so. If all that work is without any rest, the body, mind, and soul of a man is taxed by the end! Too much rest makes for a different outcome - we might even be labeled as a little 'lazy' and 'foolish'. The balance comes somewhere in the middle, but it should never be to the detriment of our relationships - including our relationship with God!

True happiness is kind of an elusive thing for many. We somehow equate 'happiness' with some state of 'being' that we work hard to attain, but seldom find. It is much better to put oneself in the place of finding peace and forgiveness in relationship with God than it is in finding wealth and privilege in this world. Wealth won't open heaven's doors. Privilege gained in this world won't give us 'heavenly status'. If we want true 'wealth' and 'heavenly status', we find it in an intimate relationship with Jesus.

If the principle of 'the more you have, the more others will find ways to use it for you' holds true, I wonder if the more grace and peace we have works the same way? If we are filled with grace, will others tap into it, realizing they both need and desire some of what we have? If we are overflowing with love, will others draw from the recesses of that love and find their lives are transformed as a result? Maybe the 'wealth' we need is more of Jesus - so when others come looking for what it is we have, they find the best resources they can 'tap into'! Just sayin!

We'll never make peace with ourselves

C.S. Lewis reminds us, "God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing." I think we look a whole lot of places for happiness - from within relationships to the things we purchase. We look for peace but find circumstances and attitudes that don't really support it. How are we to find peace if it is so elusive? Romans 8:5-7 tells us, "Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will." Perhaps the only way we find true and lasting peace is to allow peace to actually enter into each of us by saying 'yes' to Jesus!

The sinful nature wants to dominate us - to invade our thoughts, form our attitudes, and influence our actions. Allowing our sinful nature to be at the helm in our lives will surely never produce peace - it is at war with God! No wonder Jesus promised us the gift of his Spirit residing within, for we need his direction to defeat negative and damaging thought. Until our thought life is dealt with, all the work we do to 'create peace' in our lives, let alone seek happiness, will be worthless. I don't know about you, but I don't like seeking worthless things. I once heard someone say we had to make peace with ourselves before we could find peace in this world. I would challenge that thought and say until we make peace with God, allowing him to replace our sinful nature with his new nature, we won't really ever know true and lasting peace.

Thomas Merten tells us, "We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves, and we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God." All the efforts of mankind to 'find' peace in a set of circumstances, believing if we 'fashion things just right', we will be at peace with each other is kind of 'pie in the sky' thinking. We are never going to find peace with each other until we find peace with God - period. What is one of the biggest things that keeps us from finding peace with God? It is likely our pride. We don't believe we have the need for him in our lives - it is as though we see him as a 'crutch' some need to lean upon, but not us. I have had several knee injuries in my lifetime, resorting to the use of crutches to allow healing to occur. I will tell you this - were it not for the 'crutch' supporting the weight of my body, my leg would never have healed!

Sometimes we need to admit we don't know what we don't know. Those who think they have no need for God in their lives are really deceived - either by themselves or by the thoughts of others. All of mankind was made with a 'hollow space' where God's Spirit should dwell. To lean into our own pride and say we have no need for God to fill that space because we can 'fill it' some other way is foolishness. Remember, the fool is the one saying he has no need for God. (Psalm 14:1) If you have ever had one of those toolboxes that have all the cut-out shapes for each of the tools, you know you cannot put a hammer into the slot for the socket wrench - it doesn't fit. So, why would we ever try to put something else into the 'space' in our lives that was made specifically for God's presence? Just askin...

Piling on?

O God, listen to my cry! Hear my prayer! From the ends of the earth, I will cry to you for help, for my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the towering rock of safety, for you are my safe refuge, a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me. Let me live forever in your sanctuary, safe beneath the shelter of your wings! (Psalm 61:1-3)

There will always be times when we feel a little overwhelmed. Following Jesus doesn’t ensure there will not be a deluge of problems on occasion that seem to almost close in on us. It could be argued that God expects us to call out when we begin to feel them closing in, but I’d like to propose that he wants our contact with him to be so deep and intimate that he can ‘hear our heart’ even before he hears our words. The heart can betray what we are feeling or sensing sometimes quicker than our words can express. I have felt overwhelming fear on occasion, unable to utter even one word, but then found God’s peace just settling in over me like a warm blanket on a chilly day. How does that happen? He heard my heart’s cry long before I was even able to acknowledge the need for his intervention. There is just something about dwelling in his presence that allows this to occur. We may not understand it fully, but we can live in it thoroughly.

When overwhelmed by life’s circumstances, we often don’t feel like we have a good vantage point from which to take in what is happening. We can feel like the weight just keeps piling on, the pressures keep escalating, and the attacks keep coming. It is as though we don’t even want to peek our heads out from under the covers because we are afraid we will be a target for some new attack. David said when he felt like that, he asked God to lead him to the towering rock of safety – his presence. We might just need to make that our cry in times of desperate struggle – that God would lead us into his presence, shutting out the noise of this world and let us rely upon him to ‘cover over us’ with his protection. David also told us this place of safety wasn’t just to be a place we frequented on occasion – it was to be our place of dwelling (living there forever).

How do we get to the place of dwelling in his presence so intimately that our heart’s cries are heard, and our protection is understood? It may not come all at once, but the more we take time with him, the more we will find his presence never leaves us nor forsakes us. We just ‘know’ he is here with us – making it all that much easier to express things to him with our heart and not just our head. Just sayin!

Don't lament, repent

You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, that I might sing praises to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever! (Psalm 30 11-12) 

If we stop to consider what sin does to the emotions, physical body, and even our spirit, perhaps we'd describe it much as being in a state of great loss and mourning. It strips us of our joy, but it also strips us of our hope. We wallow in our downfall much as the mourner 'wallows' in the extreme sorrow over their loss. Mourning involves a deep ache for what was lost - there is an internal agony that often makes its way to the surface. Sin has a way of stripping us down - laying us bare, causing us to bemoan our losses, agonizing that we don't have a 'way back'. We might be incapable of finding our 'way back', but God has already set the 'way back' into motion - we just need to call out for his mercy.

As some may be able to relate, sin leaves an agony that is hard to describe. The 'mental' aspect of sin is hard on both the body and the spirit. It leaves us tormented and in deep misery - unable to see our way past it and 'wallowing' in the mire of it. For a while, we 'mourn' out loud - as though lifting our woeful lament would be enough to 'do penance' for our sinful actions. Yet, all the woeful lament is doing is creating more and more turmoil deep within our soul. We can lament our sin, or we can repent of our sin. There is a big difference - one just keeps us wallowing in the mire, while the other lifts us out, cleans us up, and clothes us with garments of great beauty. Grace's garments are most beautiful when they adorn the sinner's now clean body, soul, and spirit!

Look again at our passage - God is the one who 'disrobes' us of our clothes of mourning and replaces them with those 'grace garments'. We cry out, but God does the work of clearing away the mess within our emotions, bringing renewed strength to our bodies, and creating a right spirit within. Our response is to sin and dance before him. Does the mourner dance? Not at all, for the depth of the sorrow is like an anchor that keeps him tethered to the place of bemoaning his sin. Does the one who has been lifted from the pit of sin dance? You betcha! For the soul set free is unable to refrain from the display of the joy that comes when the soul is set free from the misery of sin's darkness and mire. Just sayin!

A person of great privilege

Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. (Romans 5:1-2)

We don't 'get right' with God - we are 'made right' with him. This work is accomplished by faith, never by our works. All that was needed to make us right with God was done by Christ Jesus. One of the things we may miss in this passage is this 'place of undeserved privilege' we each enjoy as a result of Christ's finished work on the cross. We might think a person of 'privilege' enjoys extreme wealth, social standing, and easy access to things they want or need. We wouldn't be far off with this definition, except for that part about 'social standing'. Being a Christian doesn't always elevate us to the top of the social charts, does it? In fact, there may even be a 'slippage' in our 'social standing' with friends or family just because we make the choice to be a follower of Christ.

Then Jesus turned to his disciples and said, “God blesses you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours. God blesses you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied. God blesses you who weep now,
for in due time you will laugh. What blessings await you when people hate you and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil because you follow the Son of Man. When that happens, be happy! Yes, leap for joy! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. (Luke 6:20-23)

Will the followers of Christ choose him for the wealth and fame, or for some other reason? I believe it is the latter, for in choosing Christ, we make a choice to live a life of service, not one of being served. Am I saying a believer will not have earthly wealth? Not at all, but they will not be motivated by it, or live for the accumulation of that wealth. Am I saying the believer will not have 'easy access' to the things they need? Absolutely not - for Christ cares for each of our needs as though they were his own. What I am saying is that a believer is not seeking more from this world, but they are seeking to enjoy more of God's goodness and grace in their lives. Their focus is not on what the world affords them in the way of fame, wealth, or enjoyment, but rather on the peace, love, and hope God brings as we press into him.

We actually enjoy an 'undeserved privilege' right here and now, but we live far below that privilege in Christ Jesus. Why? We seek what the world offers us before we seek to enjoy more of this privilege. It all comes down to where it is we find our fulfillment - joy, peace, and hope. If it is in the things of this world, we will live very disappointed lives. If it is in Christ, we shall soar high above whatever this world affords. Just sayin!

I need a bit of peace here

 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

I imagine one of the hardest things we can 'learn' in life is the act of trusting when you aren't too sure what is going on around or within you. Some of our worries and anxieties are because there are numerous external forces at work that we see, but may not fully understand. At others, our worries are much more 'covert' - we 'feel' them, but we don't have a clue why they are there. These can be a result of circumstances, but they can also be a result of some internal conflict that is putting our emotions through their paces.

How does one get to the place of 'not worrying' when life seems to be creating chaos, or our emotions are in a muddle? If you are like me, your first inclination may be to withdraw a bit in the midst of emotional chaos - choosing a place of solitude until you can get through the turmoil. I find myself sending up a few quick words of prayer, seeking God's wisdom to recognize the source of my worries, and then I just listen. That may seem a bit passive to you, but God never fails to bring peace when I 'settle in' to his presence and just let him have his way.

His peace is a great guard over our hearts - this means our emotions don't have to run amuck in our lives. We can go to him, drawing close through prayer, praise, and recalling his Word, then just listen to hear his stillness 'speak' into our lives. God's voice is 'still' and it is powerful. We must not circumvent this stillness - it has more power than any amount of 'busyness' we can put ourselves through in order to 'escape' our emotions and worries. If we desire peace, we find it in him. If we want power, it is never in the things we sheme to do to counter our worries - it is found in the stillness of his presence and the 'refilling' of our lives with his love, joy, and absolute peace. Just sayin!

A position of power

I come to you for protection, O Lord my God. Save me from my persecutors—rescue me! If you don’t, they will maul me like a lion, tearing me to pieces with no one to rescue me. (Psalm 7:1-2)

We began to look at the power of a truly 'defensible position' yesterday - the best of all being 'in Christ'. As we examine the need for a defensible position, we might find there are a number of reasons we would cry out to God for a place of refuge. Perhaps one of the reasons we seek a refuge is because of the slander and gossip of others around us. We might not realize the damage of gossip and the destruction to the reputation whenever someone sets out to slander and individual. We could be on either side of that coin - the one being gossiped about, or the one engaging in the gossip. The first needs a defensible position - a place of protection and refuge; the latter needs a 'come to Jesus' meeting!

David was not without his share of both. In fact, he had people who would falsely accuse him of many things, some right from within his own family. It is hard to stand strong in the midst of those types of 'wordy attacks', isn't it? It is even harder when those 'attacking' with their words and insults don't know the whole truth of the matter. Imagine what it might have been like to be a king back in those days. There would be some who would immediately see the benefit of this 'chosen king' to be the ruler of the land, but then there would be others who would never be content to allow him to rule. In other words, they would compete with him for a position of power. 

Most of the damage done by gossips and slanderers is meant to 'depose' the one they are targeting from some 'position of power'. It might be as simple as not being the employee the boss seems to 'like best', or not being the 'favored child' in the family. It could be that the gossip starts out 'innocently', but before long, the intent can turn uglier, especially when the person doing the gossiping is actually targeting the 'position of power' for themselves. God tells us our position is 'in Christ' - indeed a position of power. No wonder Satan chooses to attack us so much! He has always wanted that position and just like a spoiled child, he sets out to do whatever it takes to attempt to 'depose' us from that position.

It stands to reason that he would use words to attack us. Why do I make that supposition? The old adage, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me," really isn't true, is it? Words can cut deep. They can scar - leaving deeply felt pain for a long, long time. Maybe that is why God asks us to 'manage' our words well - to allow the Holy Spirit to 'filter' those words, applying his touch of grace to them. Satan uses lies because he knows truth won't topple us. God uses truth because he knows it is the only thing that keeps us free! We might not escape the attacks of gossips and slanderers, but we do always have a refuge that we can run to where we will find truth and grace in abundance. Just sayin!

A troubled heart?

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.” “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!” (John 14:1-7)

Trust is a learned thing - if it is violated enough, it can be harder and harder to trust the next time. Jesus gave his disciples absolutely no reason to mistrust him. He was always there, especially when they needed his help. He came in the middle of the storm, quieted the waters, settling their fears. He stood up against those who would resist his 'movement' and guided their steps. So, why would their hearts be troubled now? Perhaps it was the announcement that he was about to leave - making them feel like they were about to be abandoned. The thing they forgot was that he would never abandon them - though not physically present with them, he would send his Holy Spirit to assure them of his presence with them.

Even after all their time with him, they still were unclear as to his real 'purpose' - to redeem the world. They probably didn't quite understand his 'leaving' to make a way for others to 'enter in'. That seemed a little counter-intuitive to them. He came, so why wouldn't he stay? They didn't understand his 'coming' required his 'dying' and his death required his 'resurrection'. That complete cycle had to be finished - not just the coming and hanging around with them part. I am the way - pretty clear there, but they still questioned his meaning. Isn't it just like us to question even the simplest of instructions?

What I would like us to see this morning is not so much this struggle the disciples had that day, but the very real struggle man of us has on a consistent basis. The struggle? Troubled hearts. How is it we find ourselves in the pickle of troubled hearts? The answer is right there in the first verse - we 'allow' or 'let' our hearts to be troubled. We allow impure thoughts to enter into our minds and wonder why our hearts feel a little 'dirty'. We let unkind words to flow from our 'hurt minds' and wonder why we feel like we are all alone in this world. What we allow will continue to bring influence within.

I think this is why scripture reminds us that every thought must be taken captive - not allowing them to take hold in the first place, giving them exactly ZERO access to our minds, actually means we will deal with less 'trouble' internally. The more we focus on what we allow to have access to our minds, especially those thoughts of Christ's goodness and grace we like to ruminate on from time to time until they are 'all-consuming', the more we will find our hearts 'settled' and 'at peace'. Think of him more, allowing his presence to consume you, and you will soon find the 'troubled heart' begins to know less 'trouble' and more 'ease'. Just sayin!

Sin-Bogged Shoes

You have changed my sorrow into dancing. You have taken away my sackcloth and clothed me with joy. You wanted me to praise you and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever! (Psalm 30:11-12 ERV)

Some days I just don't feel like dancing, how about you? There are just times when the weight of all that I am feeling 'plants my feet' in one spot and I just muddle through. The more I muddle in the muddle, the more weight I feel. If you have ever walked through a particularly muddy section of land, you would likely have noted how quickly the mud attaches itself to your shoes. Before long, those lightweight shoes begin to feel like lead boots! Sin is kind of like that - we muddle through it and wallow around in it long enough and we will find we get 'weighed down' by the 'attached dirt'. The more we try to move, the harder it becomes to actually take big steps in the right direction. 

God's greatest joy is when one of his children actually look down at those mud-bogged feet and then turn their eyes to him, asking for his help to be freed from the 'bog' of sin. Too many times we think we must 'muddle through' on our own, but if we want to be free, we might need to leave those 'sin-bogged shoes' right there in the bog! God is more than capable of lifting us out of the bog, but he doesn't want us to take those sin-bogged shoes with us! They only serve to hold us back from the freedom he wants so badly for each of us to enjoy. Maybe that is why repentance includes being 'redressed' through God's grace.

Redressed by grace means we shed the sackcloth - the torn, dirty garments of our old nature - allowing his Word to wash us clean, then taking the 'fresh clothes' he offers. Joy, peace, hope, love - garments he gives us through grace. Remember the story of the wineskins? Jesus said we don't 'patch' the old wineskins with new patches - we replace the wineskins or risk the new wine being lost when the patches don't hold! Too many times we ask God to do a 'patch job' in our lives, not really wanting to shed the old and take on the new. Truth be told, we are trying to control how God gives us his grace. We want it on our terms, holding onto the old baggage, while attempting to take on the new nature.

I cannot tell you how much God's silence in those moments of me holding onto what he tells me to leave behind have affected me through the years. That silence 'speaks volumes', doesn't it? It is as though God is just waiting for us to realize walking around in those 'sin-bogged shoes' won't cut it anymore. He waits and he watches, allowing us to get a bit more mud on those already bogged soles. Not because he wants to, but because he wants us to want to be rid of whatever weighs us down, free to take on the beauty and joy he provides when we finally do. Just sayin!

In and At Peace

It was Eisenhower who said, "We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it." How ironic is it that we pursue peace, yet find it amid the battle? Some believe peace comes in the absence of 'warfare' or 'turmoil', but let's challenge that belief a little today. God's peace is available at all times - peace with mankind may take a bit of work on all our parts. Inner peace is amazing but living at peace with one another is pretty doggone awesome, too! How does this type of peace come about? By listening to God!

I will listen to God the Lord. He has ordered peace for those who worship him. Love and truth belong to God’s people; goodness and peace will be theirs. (Psalm 85:8-10)

How do we listen? Isn't listening done with more than our ears? Some may not think so, but we listen with our eyes, hearts, and minds. We see and we respond. We 'feel' and we reach out. We think upon and we act. Listening requires we 'hear' employ a great deal of our spiritual senses, as well as our natural senses. Is part of listening actually responding? At times, this is true. We hear a call, and we respond with a corresponding action. God's ask of us is to be obedient to whatever he asks - responding with the corresponding action he leads us to take.

Realizing peace comes at a cost is really what Eisenhower was saying - it takes a fight on the battlefield to get to the place where peace can exist. The cost may be high - so in the pursuit of peace we might just want to be paying attention to what our 'Commander-in-Chief' says! We don't want to just foolishly linger where we can realize unnecessary loss, nor do we want to be out on our own where we can be a sitting duck for our enemies. We want to be 'in God's presence' - through worship, time in the Word, and in fellowship with other believers. 

Peace isn't optional for God's kids. He "orders" peace for those who worship him. How is peace 'felt'? Love, truth, goodness - these are hallmarks of real peace. Where love abounds, wars cease. Where truth prevails, all deception will fall away. Where goodness is the norm, foolishness falls by the wayside. We need God's wisdom to live 'in peace' and 'at peace' with one another. We live 'in peace' because we have his presence within. We live 'at peace' because we pursue his direction for our lives. Just sayin!

Inward or Upward?

Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm. (Robert Louis Stevenson)

I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we’ve been shown the mystery! (Colossians 2:2-4)

Woven into a tapestry of love - not through human effort, but because God binds us together as 'interwoven members'. This should give us a sense of 'belonging' even when we don't feel like we 'belong' anywhere else. This should also give us a sense of being created for a purpose, not just to sit idly by as life passes us by. We are called to work together - not just the physical work some might think of, but that 'spiritual' and 'emotional' work of being united in Christ. Yes, it does require work to live in unity because we have to put aside our differences and come together on the common 'plane' of Christ's love and grace. 

Minds confident and at rest. Yesterday we explored how a mindset can actually drive us forward, or it can keep us locked into a pattern we have allowed to hold us in one position. A confident mind doesn't just 'happen'. Confidence is 'built' - on the power of one bigger than our problem; on the trustworthiness of one stronger than our problem; and on the reliability of one who remains when all else fails. We might not always be 'at rest' in our minds, but that unrest may actually bring us to a place where we encounter whatever it is that is keeping us from knowing God's perfect peace. I was once told that God only disturbs our present so he can improve our future. Rest disturbed today? Maybe God is working on something great in your future!

When our minds are focused - not on something fleeting and uncertain - but on the power and ability of Christ, we are strong. When our minds wander into the territory of our own self-effort and abilities, we can know a bit more than just 'unrest'. We can face fears, a lack of hope, and even a little bit of 'wobbliness' in our stand with Christ. Why? Self-help or self-effort are not enough to bring our minds peace and safety. We need the wisdom of Christ to know full confidence and rest. We don't find that when our focus is inward - we only find it when our focus is upward. Just sayin!

Freedom Robbers

I know I distressed you greatly with my letter. Although I felt awful at the time, I don’t feel at all bad now that I see how it turned out. The letter upset you, but only for a while. Now I’m glad—not that you were upset, but that you were jarred into turning things around. You let the distress bring you to God, not drive you from him. The result was all gain, no loss. Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets. (2 Corinthians 7:8-10)

Any great pain or sorrow that weighs us down and almost keeps us from moving is not meant to keep us down, it is meant to drive us to God. Elements of physical suffering, or some mental anguish might have us under its control right now. Some call this "trouble", while others use a more sophisticated term like "affliction" or "tribulation". It is simply junk we don't want to have to deal with, but somehow it always manages to find us. A plane billowing black smoke, pilot frantically attempting to send out a distress call indicating his location as he plummets to the earth - trouble, affliction, tribulation. The call is something of a plea for someone to notice he is "going down" in hopes he might be rescued at some point if he survives the horrific event. I think there are times we view distress almost in a similar way - as if we were "going down" - so we cry out, hoping someone, anyone will notice us and come to our rescue. Distress might even be "self-inflicted" - like when we make a really bad decision and then feel ourselves plummeting out of control, heading toward a crash. Any unseen force in their lives might cause us distress - like when you just feel pressure but cannot put your finger on where it is coming from, when it started, or how to make it end. The "other person" caused distress could be the entire source of the pressure or affliction we might be enduring. Either way, it appears distress is common among men and women alike, so isn't it about time we learn how to deal with it?

The opposite of distress is peace, assurance, and freedom. We have to learn what steals away our peace, brings us to the place of doubt, and captures us in its clutches so tightly. While trying to identify the cause of distress, we just have to look at these three things - peace disturbers, assurance robbers, and captors of our freedom. Peace is more than just the absence of disturbance! Some of us need a little disturbance once in a while to actually get us moving in the right direction once again. Think of the last time you lazily drifted into the lane next to you on the freeway and heard just a little toot of a horn from a passing motorist in the opposite lane. What did that horn toot provide? It disturbed your peace just enough to put you back on course in your lane again. Not all disturbance is a bad thing. Even the calmest, stillest running brook is moving! If it wasn't, it would be pond-like and scummy. The movement keeps it fresh. Peace really is a state of no longer being at a place of "strife" in your life. In other words, you deal with the antagonists to your peace! Doing this means we have to stop long enough to actually figure out what is impacting our peace - even if it is something we might be doing to ourselves! Remember - it doesn't mean we stop moving - we still need to move, but just in the right "lane"!

Assurance is just a fancy word for confidence or certainty. When the stock market begins to go haywire, housing prices plummet, people make runs on banks and stash hard earned monies into their secret hiding places in their homes just in case the banks are going to go "belly up", and the like. Why? Confidence in the system we depend upon is broken. Those who respond in panic are actually showing where it is they have placed their confidence! When confidence is misplaced, it is easy for it to be "robbed away" from us in what appears to be any kind of "distressing" or "conflicting" circumstance, isn't it? When we understand the strength of our life's foundation is Christ, we stand assured. When we haven't allowed this foundation to be built into our lives as strongly as it should be, we sometimes find ourselves a little less certain when the storms come. Captors of our freedom requires someone or something to be our captor. For a captor to actually do his job, he has to be able to over-power or out-think the one he seeks to take into captivity. It doesn't mean he has the most muscles, or the highest IQ. It means he knows how to use what it is he has at his disposal. They use their abilities to their advantage. They outsmart us by affecting our peace or mucking with our assurance. They over-power us by making us think OUR abilities are insufficient to stand up to THEIRS. Truth is - they are probably right! It isn't OUR abilities they should be faced with - it is CHRIST'S abilities WITHIN US they should have to deal with! If they come face-to-face with those abilities, they don't stand a chance of affecting our freedom in Christ!

Not sure what is bringing you a little distress today but remember what our passage declares: Distress which drives us TO God turns us around. It re-establishes our sense of peace, gives us the certainty we are on solid footing, and puts forward the power of Christ, not the mildness of our own abilities. Just sayin!

No rest for the wicked

I am God, your God, who teaches you how to live right and well. I show you what to do, where to go. (Isaiah 48:17)

It is in this same chapter of Isaiah that we get our saying, "No rest for the wicked". The exact reading is: "There is no peace," says God, "for the wicked." The nation of Israel, delivered from Egypt to enter into a great land of prosperity and promise, chose to walk away from the one thing God asked of them - undivided and unchallenged loyalty to him. In the end, they knew no 'peace' - for they chose to live as the wicked of the land. We make good choices right alongside some not so wise ones, don't we? We do it all the time - choosing 'when' to be obedient and 'when' to live as we want to in the moment. Choice will always be ours - what we do when presented with the 'options' around us is 'learned' - it doesn't always come naturally for us to choose wisely.

God shows us what to do and where to go, but do we consistently listen to his direction? If you are like me, the answer to that one is a resounding 'no'. We know the right way to go - the right choice to make - how to deal with the struggle we are facing with right and 'not so right'. Yet, we choose to forsake the struggle in pursuit of the wrong way! In spite of 'knowing', we choose to go with our 'feelings'. That is how we get ourselves into compromise, isn't it? We lean into our feelings instead of relying upon the wisdom God is giving us. It is God's main goal to give us all we need to make wise choices - we just don't pay attention. Then we wonder why we find ourselves in a place of compromise - not really 'too far gone' - but 'gone the wrong way'. We need a course change.

Live right and well - in accordance with all that is good, proper, and just. When was the last time you were faced with choices that didn't quite measure up to 'good', 'proper', or 'just'? It is probably daily! With all these 'not so good' choices all around us, is it any wonder we need all the help we can get from God to learn to live right and well? We cannot do this on our own - we need to be instructed in how to choose well. Reject his urging and lean into those feelings - no peace for the wicked. Embrace his urging and lean into what he promises us in his Word - peace abounding for the obedient. Life with God isn't like one of those rides where we have tracks to follow that keep us from getting our 'wheels' outside of prescribed track, but we do have ample warnings along the way that indicate we are about to veer! Just sayin!