Stay The Course

I like traveling. Not so much the driving long distances part, but I enjoy different types of scenery. I travel for my job a lot and usually my goal is to get from home to my work location as soon as possible. I always map out my trip using one of my online apps and I normally choose the fastest route. Along the way, I sometimes pass signs along the route showing me historic sites or scenic views. It is really hard for me not to stop because I love history. But I know if I stop, it will take me longer to get to where I am supposed to be. It is a distraction for me.

We face distractions every day. In our jobs, in our marriages, in ministry and just in everyday life. In fact, there are more distractions today than there ever have been.

Cell phones are one of the greatest distractions because they give us information and entertainment on command. Employees get fired because they look at their phone more than they do their job. Husbands and wives don’t communicate because they are both paying attention to their phones while sitting right next to each other. Marriages break because phones give unlimited access to porn.

Ministries crumble because of comparison to other ministries. Pastors fall because of affairs within the church, or they are caught watching porn. We see it happen on the news and all around us. People stop going to church because of the gossip being talked about by the church members.

All because of distractions. Distraction from responsibilities. Distraction from relationships. Distraction from purpose. And distraction from the one thing that really matters….Jesus.

Luke 10 tells us about the day that Jesus was in Jerusalem preparing for his last days on Earth. He stopped by Martha’s house in nearby Bethany. Martha’s sister, Mary, was there and when Jesus arrived, Martha began cooking a meal. As she was getting everything ready, she looked over and saw Mary sitting on the floor in front of Jesus, her eyes and ears fixed on everything he was saying. And Martha got upset and wanted to know why Jesus didn’t care that Mary was not helping her in the kitchen. Jesus replied to Martha, ““you are worried and distracted by so many things, but only one thing is necessary and that is what Mary has chosen. It will not be taken away from her.”

Distractions.

During World War II, allied ships sometimes had to travel through waters that were surrounded by enemy ships. Even though the enemy posed a threat, they were no match for the US and British Naval powers who were much faster and more powerful. The allied missions were usually to get to a strategic position to protect territory or take back territory which had been attacked and taken.

The mission was simple: to get from one point to the destination as fast as possible. Many times, the enemy would fire upon the ships to get them to try to maneuver away from the course they were on. They knew that if they could get the allied ships distracted, then they could slow them down enough to delay them from reaching their destination.

Thus, the phrase “stay the course” was born.

No matter what the enemy was doing to distract the allied ships, their instruction was to get to their destination as soon as they could. They were called to “stay the course” and not allow distractions to prevent them from doing so. As I was taught in high school geometry, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

As Christians and ministers of the Gospel, our primary mission is to tell people about Jesus. Pastors also have a responsibility to lead people toward Jesus. One thing. Just one thing matters.

When we let what the modern church down the road is doing to get people in the door, or what someone in that church is saying about other people or how many more people that church has in service, then we are choosing MORE THAN ONE THING. And those other things are keeping or delaying us from getting to where we are needed to be in order to protect the territory.

Stay the course. Get to the destination as soon as possible. Don’t let the distractions make you change your course. Focus on the ONE THING.

^“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” – Philippians 4:8

NO GREY

My wife gets onto me about leaving partial bottles of water around the house and in my car. She has a valid point. I am getting better about finishing the bottled water at home. But I have an excuse for not finishing a bottle when it is in my car.

Sometimes, if I am going to drive somewhere, I will take a bottle of water from the refrigerator to drink on the way. There is nothing like getting into a hot car during the summertime and taking a big drink of ice-cold water. The colder the better. And there is nothing more disgusting than picking up that partially full bottle after it has been sitting in a hot car for a while, pouring a big gulp into your mouth and suddenly realizing that it is not cold anymore. It is not even room temperature.

Now the water is warmer than warm; somewhere between room temperature and hot is what is known as “lukewarm”. Nasty. It makes you want to spit it out.

In the Book of Revelation, God uses the Church of Laodicea as an example of becoming “lukewarm”. He was pointing out their actions. He wasn’t describing their water.

Revelation 3:15-16 says “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!”

In that age, room-temperature water was considered dangerous water. It bred bacteria easily. There was no chlorine or other chemicals to sterilize it. Cold water came from a flowing spring or river, and hot water was something which had been placed over a fire and cooked or cleaned. Anything in between was usually suspicious and sometimes worthless.

One of my mentors and Sunday School teachers growing up in Shawnee, Oklahoma was a great man by the name of Dale Gibson. Dale often taught from books and tied the readings to the Bible verses. He explained that in the late 1800s, there were some politicians who claimed to support one party but voted for the other. They were called “Mugwumps”. They were also known as “fence straddlers” or people who had a foot on either side. As Dale explained with the above verse, they were lukewarm.

One of the things I truly admire about my wife, Donna, is that she sees so many things as black or white. If it is a rule, it is to be followed. That is why she is so good as a leader in her profession. The people who work with her or for her know exactly what to expect. There are no grey areas or blurred lines.

Matthew 6:24 talks about the grey areas in life.  “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

That same expectation was required of the Church of Laodicea and it is required of us too. Not my rules. God’s rules.

If we go to church on Sunday and act like Christians, then during the week our actions look just like what the rest of world is doing, then we are just like the “Mugwumps”. We are “grey”. We are “lukewarm”. And the outcome of being “lukewarm” has scary consequences.

God put the exclamation mark at the end of that sentence for a reason. “…I will spit you out of my mouth!” I would say that He is serious.

Don’t Hit The Snooze

How many people still have an actual alarm clock? Maybe the kind that you have to wind up with the two bells on top? Maybe you plug it into the wall? Maybe it is the kind that has a digital readout in those big, bright red glowing numbers that looked like monster eyes when you woke up and looked at them with blurry vision (OK, that was traumatic for me when I was younger). Those were always the most annoying kind because of the loud noise they made. They worked, but I always woke up in a foul mood because of it.

But today, everyone uses their phone as an alarm. You can customize the alarm sound and set multiple alarms with names. You can set one alarm to start to wake up. Then another to be your fist snooze. Maybe 3 or 4 to be more snoozes. But you have one alarm that you know that you know that you know it is absolutely the last chance to leave. Your final warning.

Dalaney, my bonus daughter, uses her phone as her alarm. Most school days, I hear it going off in the next room as I am drinking my coffee. And it just keeps going and going and going. Same sound over and over and over. It drives me nuts!

Dalaney has two dogs that sleep with her BJ (a mixed breed) and Dipper (Chihuahua). If any stranger comes near the house, they both start barking suddenly and loudly. And they bark especially loud when they hear someone knock at the door. (You know what I’m about to say next, don’t you?)

I never even have to get up out of my chair. The wall behind me is also her bedroom wall.

I bang on it three times, but before I get to the second one, those dogs are coming unglued, jumping off the bed and running to the door to tear up whatever they think that is knocking. And, at that very same moment, I can hear Dalaney usually say something like “What are you dogs doing?” or “Lay down!”.

But, the important part to me is that she shuts the alarm off. Mission accomplished.

Even then, she keeps hitting the snooze and sometimes she falls back asleep anyway and by the time she wakes up, she realizes that she is late. That’s when I get asked “Why didn’t you wake me up??”

You see, she didn’t turn the alarm off when it started because she was used to the sound of it. She had heard it many times and it was nothing that caused panic enough to wake her up. Or, she thought that someone else would wake her up if she didn’t wake up. That’s called “being a teen”.

I believe that in this day and time that God has been sounding an alarm for a very long time. And because some people have heard it over and over, they either have been ignoring it or they keep hitting the snooze.

Sometimes that works, but sometimes it doesn’t. And, when it doesn’t work, the snooze eventually stops and you end up being late to where you need to be.

There is a time coming very, very quickly where God is going to make the snooze button stop. That day will be when He tells His Son, Jesus Christ, that it is time to step out on the clouds and call for His bride. It is the day that the midnight alarm will go out that cries “The bridegroom is here! Come out to meet Him!” (Matt. 25:6)

And those who hear the alarms and arise to meet Him will go into Him for the wedding feast because they were ready and didn’t hit the snooze button.

And verse 10 gives us a sad, depressing truth. “And the door was shut”
The door was shut. And not only was it shut, but it was locked from the inside so that nobody else could enter. It is too late.

The next verse says that the ones who kept hitting the snooze over and over again because they thought that they had plenty of time ran to the door, banging on it and yelling “Open the door! Let us in! We’re here! We’re here!” You see, there will be many who will frantically rush around at the last second thinking that if they hurry fast enough, they can make it. But, it will be too late beause the door will be shut.

At that time, many will be asking their friends and family “Why didn’t you wake me up???”

Verse 12 will make the whole room get quiet because it ends the discussion for those outside who are banging and clawing at the door. The Groom says something with a broken heart that He never wanted to say…”I don’t know you.”

Have you been hitting the snooze button instead of getting up when the alarm sounds and getting ready? Have you prepared yourself to be on the INSIDE of the door or do you keep hitting the snooze thinking to yourself “just 15 more minutes”.

You see, we are ALL invited to the wedding dinner. Every single one of us have an open invitation. But, not all of us will be inside when the door is shut. Where will you be?

Distraction or Direction? The One Thing

^{Luke 10:38-42}

³⁸ As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹ She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

⁴¹ “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴² but few things are needed—or indeed only one.Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

When I was about 8 or 9 years old, I had the privilege of spending a lot of time with both sets of my Grandparents in Shawnee, Oklahoma. On my Mother’s side of the family, my Grandparents lived on a beautiful 15 acre place with a lake and lots of trees right in town. Their home was a large custom built single story house with a big porch.

We loved to take the cane poles down to the lake and fish for mostly perch because there were so many of them. Once in a while, we caught a bass, but we always threw them back in.

There was a lot of shoreline to walk on pretty days, but we had to also watch for snakes.

One sunny spring day, my Grandfather, Pop-Pop, and I were walking around the lake just passing time and enjoying the scenery when suddenly, Pop-Pop stretched his arm out to stop me. “Don’t move”, he said. I looked at him puzzled. “There’s a snake”, he said. I looked in front of me to see a very big and long water moccasin sprawled out on the ground ahead about 20 feet away.

“Stay really still and be very quiet while I go get my gun.” he whispered. “Don’t move at all and keep your eye on him”. I was on point like a bird dog.

As he slowly backed away, he began to make his way to the house, which was about as far as the length of a football field. I followed my Grandfather’s directions, staring at the snake as it laid still in the grass near a tall cedar tree. I did not move and neither did the snake.

After a few minutes of a staredown, I heard my Grandmother, Muzzy, yell from the house, “Mike! Are you alright?!!” I turned my head in her direction to let her know that I was OK as I stood perfectly still but took my eyes off of the snake to acknowledge her. I saw my Grandfather walking briskly toward me with a rifle in his hand.

As I looked back toward the snake, it had disappeared! Just that quick, I turned my head and it was gone. Pop-Pop showed up with the gun and began looking for the snake too. All at once, I saw him raise his .22 rifle. I followed the barrel with my eyes and saw the snake on a small limb in the top of the cedar tree, ready to drop if we walked by.

“Stand back!” my Grandfather warned me. I took one step back as he shot and the snake fell dead to the ground. Pop-Pop was a bonafide expert marksman and had the medals to show for it.

Snakes still give me the

I tried to follow the DIRECTION given to me by my Grandfather, but when my Grandmother yelled to me from the house; it took my attention away and became a DISTRACTION.

When God has given us DIRECTIONS through the Holy Spirit and His Word, it is so important to stay focused. But, there are so many DISTRACTIONS in the world. We are facing one right now in the COVID-19 pandemic.

For some people, it has caused widespread panic and fear. For others, it has been a DISTRACTION from normal patterns and habits. But, for others, it has become a time to focus even more on what God wants to say and look to Him for DIRECTION.

It is looking more and more like we may be locked down in our homes and if that is what helps, then that is what I will do. Even at home, there are many things to distract me. The internet, TV, my phone. But I also have an opportunity to seek God. An opportunity to pray for our world. An opportunity to listen to what God is telling me. THAT is the ONE THING that is most important. That is my DIRECTION from God Almighty.

Martha was distracted by everything going on around her in the home to make sure things were just right. She was no doubt busy getting things done. But Mary, dear Mary, sat in one place, listening to what Jesus was saying. Listening for direction in her life. It was the most important thing she could listen to. The one thing that truly mattered.

Don’t let the problems going on around you to become a DISTRACTION. Use this time to listen to Jesus and hear the ONE THING that matters. Listen for His DIRECTION.

“It isn’t about God’s plan for your life. It’s about your life for God’s plan.” – Mike Higley

No excuses!

John 5
The Healing at the Pool
1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

Read verse 6 again. There is something to grab there. Did you miss it? I almost did, but its too good to pass by. You see, Jesus didn’t ask the man if he wanted to feel better. Jesus didn’t ask him if he wanted his situation in life to improve. Jesus didn’t ask him if he needed some help.
Jesus asked him if he wanted to get well. Big difference.

We can go to church to feel better and never get well.
We can go to church to fix a problem, but leave unchanged.

We can go to the altar and ask God to take our problem away, walk out the door after church, and go right back to the problem on Monday.

Am I stepping on some toes? I should be. Mine hurt too.

This man was at the pool every single day with all of the other people who had disabilities. He was in his comfort zone. If you want to feel comfortable, go to the place where there are other people with the same problems. You fit in there, just like this man. He fit in.

And we are all guilty of making our church our comfort zone. Our pool. And “our” pew becomes our mat in the same place every Sunday. We can ask people to church, but why can’t we take Jesus to them? Its easy to talk about Jesus when we around other people talking about Jesus. It’s a different story when we are one-on-one at work with people who NEVER talk about Jesus.

But, when Jesus asked this man if he wanted to be well, the man responded with the only answer he knew. He had been this way for 38 years. What would possibly be different for the 39th year?

We get used to dealing with life the way it has always been. “Some things never change”, we say. “I’ll never have the things that I want. I’ll always be broke. I’m not smart enough to get that job. I guess I don’t deserve to be loved like I want to be. My kids will never respect me. My parents did it that way” We get used to things being the way they are because that’s the way they have always been and we feel powerless to change them.

And so we settle.

This man gave Jesus all of the natural and worldly reasons as to why he could not get to the water. And, he was right. He had no one to help him. And, because of his own limitations, he could not get to the water before everyone else. He was waiting on an angel to come down and stir the waters for him.
We all have reasons. We all have excuses.

Your breakthrough will come where your excuses end.

Read that again.

And, Jesus already knew this. He knew this man’s limitations. That is why He came to him instead of one of the others there. Jesus knew that this man had the least amount of hope of things ever changing in his life.

He knew that the man could not get to the water, so He brought the Water to him!!!!

Pretend that the man is you and Jesus has bypassed everyone else with problems and walked right up to you. Now, pretend that He asked you the same question. Jesus didn’t ask you if you wanted things to get better. He didn’t ask you if you wanted an easier life. He didn’t ask you if you wanted him to help you get out of that situation that is making you miserable. He asked you if you wanted to be well. He asked you if you wanted Him to fix it all.

So, look at what Jesus did next. The lame man didn’t even tell Jesus that he wanted to be well. Jesus knew that he did. He knew that the man had given up on anything changing in his life. The man was waiting for his miracle to happen. He was probably crying and begging God for it every day.
If you are begging God for something….if you are pleading for your breakthrough…..then listen closely. You don’t have to beg Him for something that He already has purposed for you. When God decides to do a work in your life, He will find you and make it happen!

Jesus said three things:
1) “Stand up” – Something this man had not done most of his life. Not only had he forgotten how it felt to stand up mentally, but his muscles had forgotten how as well. Something as simple as putting his feet flat on the floor, tightening those leg muscles, and pushing against the ground had not happened in a long time. And all at once, it happened.

2) “Pick up your mat” – That comfortable place that this man had been sitting in for 38 years was no longer a part of his life. He would no longer have to sit in that place waiting for his miracle. So now, not only has he stood up, but Jesus told him to bend over and get rid of his old life. You see, in order to start the life that Jesus has for you, you have to vacate the life that you had before. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! “

2) “Walk away” – There is no need to go back to the way that your life was before because the new way of life will take you to places and levels you have never experienced before. When you walk out of your church on Sunday morning, your life should be changed. You should be walking into places as a different person and it should show. I can imagine the looks on this man’s family and friend’s faces as he walked by on the street, carrying his mat, looking at them with a big ole smile, and waving as he walked by.

Do your friends, your co-workers, your family see a difference?

So, tell me. Are you ready for breakthrough? Do you want to be well?

Maybe you are waiting for God to change your situation and God is waiting for you to walk away from the situation you are hurting in right now. it is Just like the man who felt like he was stuck in his current problem.

Maybe while you are waiting for God to come down, God is waiting for you to get up.

Slip-N-Slides, Baby Shampoo and Army Men

Have you ever had something wrong with you like physically and didn’t really want to go to the doctor, so you Googled your symptoms? If you haven’t, don’t do it! It turns out that Google decided I had a terminal ailment and I only had a few months to live. I started thinking about planning for the end of my life; making a will, writing letters to my loved ones, planning my funeral, etc.

Not long after that, I went to the doctor for an annual checkup and told him what was wrong. He determined that I was not going to die, but that I was just getting older and had a common ailment called Sciatica, which caused some pain in my hip and leg. Stupid Google.

It turns out it was caused by an injury I had some years ago trying to prove to my youth group that I could do everything that they could and my body would hold up to it. (Long story that involves a Slip-n-Slide, baby shampoo and some plastic army men).

It’s rarely a good idea to examine yourself when it comes to physical ailments, but the Bible tells us something different about our spiritual ailments.

2 Corinthians 13:5 tells us this. “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you– unless indeed you fail the test?”

In other words, stop and take an inventory of your relationship with God. Is it exactly what you want it to be? Is it what God wants it to be? Are you hungry for more? What can you do to make it what you want it to be? I mean, if there is no fruit showing, then it is not what God intended it to be.
Those are all test questions which you have to ask yourself and pass in order to have the relationship with God that you want.

What makes that friend qualified? Someone who knows the Word of God and knows what the answers to the test questions are. Someone who cares enough about you to tell you when you are changing spiritually. Someone who trusts you to tell them the same things. You need someone who encourages you to be better in Christ and that you can encourage them too.

As Proverbs 27:17 says “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.”

Examine yourself, make changes, and find someone who will sharpen you!

IT’S TEST TIME!

Seven Words

Someone needs to hear this right now.

You are in a situation right now and you feel like you are stuck there. You feel as if there is no easy way out of it. It almost seems hopeless because you are afraid of failing or you are worried about how it will affect other people or what they will think of you.
“Just get out of it. Walk away”, your friends and family say. And I know you. We have all responded this way…”Its easier said than done. You don’t know my situation”.

Here is what God showed me this morning. The first step is to open your eyes to how bad it is. God will do this for you. When Jesus was presented with the blind man, he didn’t just tell the man to open his eyes and he would see. And He didn’t tell the man to rub some mud on his eyes so that he could regain his eyesight. Jesus did it for him! God opened the eyes and made the man realize that there is a better way of life. In fact, if you are in the situation you are in and wanting to get out, God has probably already opened your eyes to what it really is.

Now, that your eyes have been opened, the next step is to walk away. This is the part that is easier said than done. And that is because YOU have to do it.

John 5: 5-8

“5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.”

See the difference? This man felt like there was no way out. He was waiting on someone to do it for him. Maybe someone had seen him laying there and told him just to get up. Easier said than done.
But this time, Jesus didn’t give the man mud. He never even touched the man. He simply looked at him, asked him if he wanted a better life. Then Jesus said seven short words…….“Rise, take up your bed and walk.”

Jesus handed that man the reigns to his own life. He put him behind the wheel. He gave the man the power and authority to get out of what appeared to be a hopeless situation. But, we all know that nothing is impossible with God.

Jesus did not grab him by the hand, lift him up and take him out of it. He told the man that HE would have to take the first step. He would have to to rise up and leave the hopeless situation behind him. The farther he walked away, the smaller the problem became in the rear view mirror. And eventually, it would be gone forever.

Listen to me right now. God is telling me to tell you this. RISE UP!! You have been given the power to walk away! You don’t have to wait on someone else to make it happen. You don’t have to look for someone to help you get up and get out. You can do it based on the power of what Jesus did! You can make it just as easily DONE as SAID! I will say it again! RISE UP!

The Shocking Truth

  When I was younger, I spent a lot of time with my Grandparents. You know how it is with Grandparents. They rarely say "no" and look for ways to spoil you. Growing up in Shawnee, Oklahoma, my Grandparents were small business owners of an auto parts store. This was before the chain auto parts stores, like Autozone and O'Reillys came to town. The store was right in the middle of downtown Shawnee and they offered delivery service in an old 1950 Chevy 3/4 ton pickup spray painted orange. They offered speedometer repair and, at one time, even sold radios. There were no computers to look up the part you needed...only a long row of parts catalogs. You could buy a Coke for a dime and peanuts or jellybeans for a penny. Of course, the real treat was to be able to buy a Coke and a handful of redskin peanuts to put in the bottle with the Coke. There was nothing like that taste anywhere else.

  Their customers, both on the phone and in the store, were well taken care of and kept us busy because of it.




  I remember the building so well, like I just walked through the door there yesterday….the smell, the layout, the massive storefront windows, the ringing of the old crank cash register, the massive safe, and where the parts were located on which aisle and which shelf. I can recall so may details about that store because there were a lot of great memories created there.




  I usually spent the weekends with my Grandparents and since the store was open on Saturdays until noon, I went with them.

  This particular Saturday, my Grandmother was somewhere else. I don't remember where, but she was not there. It was just my Grandfather, myself, and the customers. Sometimes I answered the phone "Hawk Auto Supply" and would hand it to my Grandfather unless he was busy. I always loved to do whatever he did, although it was many years later that I learned to look up parts for customers.

I was a very curious boy at six years old and always wanted to know how things worked. It wasn't enough for me to know that they existed. I wanted to know about the inside of them.

This particular Saturday, I was curious about what you could do with a paper clip if you bent it into different shapes and how it fit into different objects. My Grandfather was busy waiting on customer, so I began to explore with my paper clip.

  I remember sitting on the floor, with the back of my Grandmother's desk on one side and a large display case on the other. I was out of view from my Grandfather, who was busy. I guess I was a little too quiet at the time because I remember my Grandfather suddenly asking me in the booming voice that only he had, "Mike! What are you doing?!!" I calmly replied, "Getting ready to put this paper clip in this electric thingy on the wall". His next words were more than just booming. They were sheer panic and anger, enough to put the fear of God in me. "Get away from there!!" he yelled. I could hear him running across the wooden floor as his steps got closer. I stopped what I was doing and turned around just in time to see his massive hand reach down to grab my arm. My Grandfather was a large man and it didn't take much to pick me up. "Get over there and sit down now!", he said. I did and I stayed there for the rest of the morning.

  Even as adults, we sometimes make decisions based on curiosity or desire. We feel like we are wise enough to decide what makes us happy and what doesn't. And, even as adults, there are friends and family around us who see what is happening from a different perspective and try to warn us of something bad happening. "Why can't they just be happy for me?", we say. The answer is that they DO want you to be happy, but they see things that you may not see. They see things from their own experiences and want to stop you from getting hurt or "putting that paper clip into the outlet". And many times, the people who love you don't say anything because they feel like you won't listen anyway or that you will just get mad at them for not supporting you in what YOU want to do.




  The Bible tells us how we should handle personal situations with the people we love. We are not supposed to just watch them do it and especially if their sin is going to cause them pain. Not only does their sin hurt them, but the Holy Spirit witnesses that sin and it can affect other people as well.




James 5:19-20

19 My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, 20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.




And, the Bible is also clear about what happens if we are warned and choose to continue in sin anyway. Those sins WILL be exposed by the Holy Spirit.




Ephesians 5:13

"But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them."




  There is a way to speak to someone about their sins and the danger of continuing in them. But, sometimes, you just it takes a "What are you doing?!! Get over there and sit down!" to prevent us from something even worse.

But I can’t see it!

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

 Several things jumped out at me this morning as I read this verse.

 First was the word “NOW”. Now is a word that separates a timeline in our lives. It is today. Not yesterday and not tomorrow. In order to grasp the full meaning of faith, you have to realize that it starts today….right now! You make a choice to have faith more than once a day. It doesn’t just happen. It is a choice to be made in every situation of your life.

 Second was the phrase “not seen”. I always had faith in what I COULD see; what was right in front of me. That’s easy. Or, I would only focus on the picture that I had in my mind about what I wanted to happen or the outcome of the situation. I could see the ending as I wanted it to turn out. Steven Furtick said it best. He said “The opposite of FAITH is SIGHT.” Think about it.

 Faith is letting go of what I SEE or what I WANT to happen, and making myself available and vulnerable to what GOD wants to happen, no matter how painful the process is or what the outcome is. It is saying, “Okay God. I have prayed for this to happen for a long long time, and sometimes it seemed so close to happening the way I thought it would. But now it seems so far away. I claimed that I trusted you, but in reality, I didn’t. Now it’s Your turn. I want what you want.”

You see, I always still tried to control the outcome. And I became bitter and mad when I couldn’t. Recently, I let something get to me when I heard that people were talking about me and to me about things that other people were saying about me, whether they were true or not. So, instead of praying about it and letting God handle it, I took matters into my own hands and tried to defend myself. I said things to people and friends that I shouldn’t have. And to those of you who I said things to, please forgive me. I am sorry for that and won’t be doing that again. I may have lost some very dear friendships because of my actions. I should have just kept my mouth shut and let God fight my battles. But, I dropped my guard for a moment. And when I dropped my guard, I dropped my faith.

Lesson learned.

“Father, please forgive me for dropping my faith and teach me to focus on what you want…not on what I want. Because your ways are better than my ways. And your thoughts are higher than my thoughts.”

Dad and the Chess Lesson

My family has always been into playing games. Games of any kind. My Grandparents used to have a game night where we played a card game called Pitch. I don’t even remember how to play anymore. My brother, sister and I used to play backgammon a lot. We had game nights with the neighbors. And my Mom loved almost any kind of game, especially if it was a card game. I miss that.
And one game I never learned or had a desire to learn, was chess.
That makes the dream I had not long ago seem even stranger. I rarely remember my dreams and some of them are just dreams. They don’t really mean anything. Then there are those that have a meaning and this was one of them.
I had a dream that I was young and my Dad and I were playing chess. Actually, he was trying to teach me how to play. I know how the pieces move, but I know nothing about the strategy of the game.
I remember being discouraged because he won every game. No matter what I did, he was in control of the game. He knew so much more than I did and was always several steps ahead of me. My frustration began to set in and I was ready to give up. The game was not fun anymore. I felt like I was fighting a losing battle.
In the middle of one of our matches, I had to get up to go to the bathroom. When I came back, we continued playing, even though my attention span was fading. I was not only frustrated, but I was mad as well because I felt like I was wasting my time.
And then it happened. I won the match. I got to say “checkmate”! I had no idea that I had won until my Dad pointed it out to me. All at once I had a new hope. My frustration was gone and I had a desire to keep playing.
In my dream, it was revealed to me that while I stepped out, my Dad moved the chess pieces around to make sure I could win. He knew that I was about to give up and rearranged the situation to make sure that I would be able to claim a victory. It didn’t happen like I expected it to, but I was so happy that it did.
That dream gave me a word that I need to give to someone today. I don’t know who you are or what you’re going through right now, but I want to tell you this…Your circumstances and situations in your life right now may be making you feel like you want to give up. To throw in the towel. Because it seems like no matter what you do, you cannot win. All the odds are stacked against you. You are frustrated.
I am here to tell you that during your frustration and sadness, God is moving the pieces around in your favor. He is setting you up for victory, even when you are down in the valley and feel like you’re never going to get out! It may not be exactly how you expected it, but it will be better than you expected.
He sees that you feel like giving up, but God is going to make sure that you see the hope that He is about to make happen right now. He wants you to keep moving forward to the new thing that He has for you. Don’t give up. Forget the past. He is moving the pieces around. He has placed the right people in the right places for you. Don’t doubt this season that God has you in! Your next season is right ahead of you and it is better than you can ever imagine!