The "God Zone"

I hit a bucket of golf balls for the first time in about a year the other day.  I’ve had a shoulder injury that’s kept me from golf for awhile but I still want to hit a bucket every now and then to attempt to keep my rhythm until I can get the corrective surgery I really need.  I love the “feeling” at a golf course, how peaceful and quiet everything is and I always find a nice time of reflection when I’m there.

I stretched a little bit and grabbed my wedge to warm up and hit some nice, easy shots.  I ran through my mental checklist: 

Head down, eye on the ball, keep your right elbow in (my weak spot) nice and easy – don’t try and kill it

And WOW, a beautiful pitch with a high arch that hit and finally came to rest within about 8 feet of the flag I was aiming for, an easy putt into the hole had I been really playing.  I continued to hit nice easy wedge shots and maintained the basics:

Head down, eye on the ball, keep your right elbow in (my weak spot) nice and easy – don’t try and kill it

I worked up in club length and I was hitting the ball really well, I was in the ZONE.  I start thinking to myself that maybe I can blow off the surgery and start to play again.  Just take it easy and don’t push too hard, everything will be fine.  Of course I feel this way because I’m in the ZONE, cracking beautiful shots.  SO I decide it’s time to take out the big boy and check out my distance.  A driver will be my real test.  So I set up the tee and run through my mental check list:

Head down, eye on the ball, keep your right elbow in (my weak spot) nice and easy – don’t try and kill it

Boom!  An amazingly straight shot that comes low off the tee and begins to take altitude even had that awesome sound when the club hit the ball telling me it was a good one.  This is great so I go and get another bucket to crack some more monster drives. 

The drives continue to look good so I decide I’m going to crush a few, give it everything I’ve got, holding back and laying up is for wimps right?  A dozen shots later I’m slicing so bad and balls are flying around in crazy places and oh no, people are starting to stare at me.    I load up my clubs and what’s left of my pride and head back to the car to go back to the office.  About half way there I start to feel something bad, my shoulder really hurts.

Back in my office with pain patch on my shoulder trying to figure out why I did something so stupid, again, a thought hit me.  My shots got crazy because of a lack of obedience to good form.  My shoulder was killing me due to a lack of obedience to my doctor’s order to NOT do what I’d just done.  And the truth is that pretty much every mess I’ve ever made in life was for the same thing, a lack of obedience to something.

Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you.  Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.

Joshua 1:7

To be “in the zone” as a Christian is when we are living a life of obedience to God and His statues as outlined in the Bible.  When walk in obedience to God we allow Him to unfold His plan for our life.  When we walk in obedience to God we follow the wisdom that His Word gives us, not the wisdom of the world.  Our purpose can become sure because our purpose becomes obedience to something other than ourselves, something that can be measured, the Word of God. 

King Saul had it all; a kingdom, respect of his people and even the very hand of God on his life as a result of obedience.  But he lost it when obedience took a back seat to his personal desires.

Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to hearken than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
he has also rejected you from being king.

1 Samuel 15:22-23

If we start looking around our life and trying to find out where God went, we need only look at the time and place we quit following Him.  He’s back there waiting for us if we choose to pick up the walk with Him again

True obedience to God, or anything else for that matter, is when we choose to be obedient to an idea or practice no matter what the short term results may be.  Today more and more people are coming to church and seeking God purely to achieve an outcome that’s beneficial to them.  But God expects our worship of Him to glorify Him, not us.

The parting of the Red Sea, the walls of Jericho falling, all the people the Apostles healed; even a coin found in a fishes mouth to pay a toll.  All of these and many more great things were accomplished by man, but only in obedience to God’s direction – obedience to Him.

Be obedient to God and hold Him accountable for the results!  That’s just the way He wants it.

 Be encouraged my friends,

Jeff

Where do you get your stength?

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Philippians 4:13 KJV

That was one of the first pieces of scripture I committed to memory after I was saved. As a freshly minted Christian I used that verse often as a prayer through difficult times. Whenever the heat in life got turned up a bit I would find myself repeating those words over and over in my mind. I took comfort in those words often and after time I became a little more “spiritually mature”, a deeper prayer life began and new verses took my attention and developed meaning for me. It wasn’t until I went through some trials and found my way back up, out a valley or two before I really took grasp of the meaning of this scripture.

It’s effortless to cry out for help in troubled times, and just as easy to forget where help came from when things turn around. The Israelites wandered the desert for 40 years and had no choice but to place their faith in God during that time. God provided their food daily in the form of manna and they followed a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, trusting their direction to the Lord. And just as they were on the border of the Promised Land, able to see the “land of milk and honey”, God issued a warning...

“Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them”.

Deuteronomy 4:9 NIV

God knew that it would be easy for the Israelites to forget how difficult things had been given the relative luxury they would soon have. In an act of supernatural wisdom He gave them the advice, don’t forget where you came from and make sure your children know how tough it was. But history and the Bible both show us that they did indeed forget to honor God, lost everything but eventually turned to Him again. More than once.

And that brings me back to Philippians 4:13, which when taken into the proper context, closely resembles the advice given in Deuteronomy. Paul didn’t offer the exhortation of strength in Christ as a plea for strength it was a definitive statement. In J. Vernon McGee’s Thru the Bible Commentary Vol. V, he states the following:

“When Paul says all things, does he literally mean all things? Does it mean you can go outside and jump over your house? Of course not. Paul says, “I can do all things in Christ”—that is, in the context of the will of Christ for your life. Whatever Christ has for you to do, He will supply the power. Whatever gift He gives you, He will give the power to exercise that gift. A gift is a manifestation of the Spirit of God in the life of the believer. As long as you function in Christ, you will have power...Now Paul is not saying that we can do all things. I can’t jump like a grasshopper can jump. When I was in school I was the high jumper, but I can’t jump anymore. You see, I can’t do all things, but I can do all things which God has for me to do from the time He saved me to the time He will take me out of this world." (McGee, J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Nashville: Thomas Nelson)

While the verse sounds and looks good on a James Avery bracelet, Philippians 4:13 is a statement of fact we should strive to make ourselves, after rejoicing in Christ through all the seasons of our life. If you find yourself struggling to find the strength you need in Christ, may I suggest the following?

Dear friends, God is good. So I beg you to offer your bodies to him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing. That's the most sensible way to serve God. Don't be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him. 


Romans 12:1-2 CEV

Living the Christian life isn’t easy; it’s impossible in our own power. Seek God in a way to secure the fact of Philippians 4:13 in your life!

Be blessed today,

Jeff 


Weren't you worried? Just a little bit...

In the wake of the end of the world being predicted and shown for the nonsense it was, I’ve had several people at work and even church on Sunday; ask me “Weren’t you worried, just a little bit”?   And my answer, “Not at all”.



I can answer that question with absolute confidence for three reasons

1.      I am supremely confident in my eternal destination.

2.      I know for certain that no man will know the time or place that Christ will reappear.

3.      I understand how to identify false teachers.

And after I make these statements I get the same question, every time…  “How can you be so sure”?  And people usually think I’ve lost my mind when I answer, “Because God told me”.

I can be sure of my eternal destination because the Bible says:

…because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Romans 10:9

ü  Done that!

I can be sure that anyone who tries to predict when the world when end or when Christ will return is wrong because the Bible says:

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

Matthew 24:36

ü  I don’t give anyone that claims differently the time of day.

And I can recognize false teacher because they teach theory and ideas that contradict the word of God:

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

2 John 9

ü  Harold Camping’s suggestions and theory contradict the very words of Christ Himself.

My eternal destination is secure and I make sure that I’m ready for Christ return whenever that may be but I’m certain it will be on His terms and timing, not mans.  And in my opinion Harold Camping is just one of the many false teachers we will see in a long line of them until Christ returns.  And I can say and believe all these things because of one simple thing, FAITH.

Earlier I said that God told me all these things.  I don’t want to lead anyone to believe that God speaks to me in any manner other than that I believe He will speak to anyone else.  When God speaks to me it is through His Word, the Bible.  He speaks to me because I’ve made a commitment in my life to knowing what God’s Word says about the different things and choices I’ll encounter in life. I believe that anyone who wants to hear God need only to open His Word and ask for God to reveal Himself to them.  And God’s Word tells me that I have the Holy Spirit residing in me to remind me of what the Bible says after I’ve committed to making it’s statues a way of life:

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

John 14:26

But why did Harold Camping’s message get so much airtime and notice?  Because everyone seems to love the idea of having a definitive end date so they can have time to get everything in order.   Make sure the porch is swept real good before Jesus gets here.   Wouldn’t it make things nice and tidy to be able to put the rapture on our Outlook calendar!  People are generally looking for the wrong things from religion in my opinion.  People seem to be looking for a feeling or something mystic and I just don’t see Christianity that way.  Two specific scriptures strengthen my personal position in this matter:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1

…for we walk by faith, not by sight.

2 Corinthians 5:7

A good friend of mine, Michael Perron, has a great saying, “If I want a peace that surpasses understanding, then I must give up the right to understand everything”.  In other words, we aren’t going to understand the way God works all the time.  Michael follows that statement up with an invitation to embrace mystery.  Not the mystery of the unknown but the mystery of the amazing future God has for us if we let Him unfold it, trusting that His direction is the best one for us.  And God clearly outlines His direction for everyone that chooses to follow it.

As Christians it is absolutely imperative that we learn to discern fact from fiction in reference to God because false teaching is only going to increase as the prophetic clock continues to tick.  Knowing the difference between those who speak truth and those who speak lies is a very fine line sometime.  A false teacher will always distort the truth to his ideology.  Satan speaks many times in the Bible and he always uses a distortion of scripture, a lie shrouded in truth.  As Christians today we need to know how to identify the difference on our own.  We need to open the Bible and study the second coming, the signs of that age and most importantly how to best prepare for it.

But most people think that’s too weird for them, they just want to stick with the easier to grasp parts of scripture.  And if that’s your opinion I have a big surprise for you… The whole Bible is about the second coming of Christ.

Don’t believe me?  Open the Bible and prove me wrong.

Chew on that a while,

Jeff

Is all this talk about Jesus really necessary?

Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.

1 John 2:22

Recently I watched an entire 30 minute “sermon” presented by a very well known and popular television Evangelist.  During the 30 minutes I spent with him I laughed a little, felt really good about myself  knowing that I had the idea that God loved me so much repeated over and over.  I also left with the thought that I probably needed to pray a little bit more since I didn’t have all the really wonderful things God had in store for me. (sarcasm fully intended here)  If I just asked in the right way. 

Maybe I’ve been doing something wrong?

For 30 minutes I heard a lot of really good stuff, lots of feel good motivation and go take on the day rhetoric but as the show came to a conclusion one thing was surprisingly absent from the 30 minute pep rally I just participated in…

Any mention at all of Jesus or the finished work of the cross.

So I ask myself and now you, “If a Preacher claims to be a Christian but can complete a 30 minute monologue without mentioning Jesus, has he denied Christ”?

Is a message lacking any mention of sin and its consequences, regardless of how good it makes you feel, really a Christian message?

Does God want you to have all the things you want or does Jesus want to be all that you need, surpassing the need for things?

As simple as it can be put, the Christian message is that Jesus died and suffered the cross, then was raised from the dead 3 days later so that you and I could have access to Heaven.  No more access to God through a system of priest and sacrifices, but access to God through the final and perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  But the single point this whole thing hinges on is the death and the resurrection of Christ.

If Christ wasn’t raised from the dead then there’s a few million people running around this planet that are just a bunch of fools.  I hear the argument all the time that Jesus was just a great man with a great message.  Anyone that would say that is pretty dumb.

There are really only three choices we have to make when it comes to our decision about what we believe about Jesus.

1.       He’s a liar.  In John 10:31 Jesus states with complete authority and no question, “I and the Father are one”.  If Jesus is not the son of God then he’s a liar and created the largest following of fools in history.

2.      He’s a lunatic.  In John 8:51 Jesus responds to the Jewish leaders claiming He was demon possessed by saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." 

3.      He is Lord.  If he’s not a liar and not a lunatic the only choice left is that He is the Lord.

The Christian message seems to have been reduced to the idea of making people feel good.  Make them feel good and then they will come back for more of the deeper stuff.  But what if we only get one chance to let someone hear the truth?  Do we want that person to hear that all they have to do is pray real hard and God might give them a Cadillac or do we want them to hear the full Gospel message and equip them to grasp eternity?

The Apostle Paul said:

If corpses can't be raised, then Christ wasn't, because he was indeed dead. And if Christ weren't raised, then all you're doing is wandering about in the dark, as lost as ever. It's even worse for those who died hoping in Christ and resurrection, because they're already in their graves. If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we're a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.

1 Corinthians 15:16-20 Message Paraphrase

This life is essentially a multiple choice test.  Which answer do you choose; Liar, Lunatic or Lord?

Be encouraged!

Jeff

God's in control! Right?

Too often today we hear news stories about a prominent Church Leader who has been caught in this scandal or exposed for that discretion and I always find myself thinking, “How could that happen”?  How could this man so confidently position to work for our Lord fall so far, so fast?  I can’t be certain but I would have to make some assumptions and at the top of the list would be pride.  C.S. Lewis once said “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you're looking down, you can't see something that's above you”.

David was gazing down upon his kingdom when his eye fell on Bathsheba.  Nebuchadnezzar was walking along the palace wall looking down on the city he had built when God stuck him down to live as beast for seven years.  And all those well known Evangelical Leaders who fell so far forgot the same words of advice God gave Saul.

Only fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you.

1 Samuel 12:24

Saul had only recently been accepted fully as King by the nation of Israel after his defeat of the Ammonites.  In the eyes of the nation of Israel, Saul could do no wrong.  But Samuel gave him the Word of the Lord in the passage above, letting him know to never forget.

·Serve Me, not yourself.

·Never forget that you were looking for a herd of lost donkey’s when I chose you to be king.

·Never forget that the nation of Israel are My people, not yours.

·Never forget to keep the statues and commands that I gave you.

·Never forget that everything you have, you have because I gave it to you.

Not too long after those great words of wisdom were given to Saul he started his downward spiral by being too impatient to wait for Samuel to show up and perform the needed sacrifice to the Lord.   So Saul went outside the Lords direction and decided he would just do the sacrifice to God on his terms, his way.  And why?  Because he was hungry and wanted to eat.

And when I take that all in I see those great Christian Leaders have fallen because they allowed themselves to reach a point in life where the indwelling of the Holy Spirit was taken for granted.  I believe that after a certain amount of consideration and praise they began to look at their Ministry as a creation of their doing and not the work of the Lord.  Seeking God’s will for their life and their Ministry and begin to be superseded by them seeking the trappings of the elevated position in their mind.  In essence, like Saul, they started to consider their station in life on their own instead of prayerfully seeking the counsel of God.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

  and do not lean on your own understanding.

Proverbs 3:5

We have some great examples to learn from in the bible so we can avoid the same mistakes and find a better way to navigate the world.  We can’t learn from those examples if we don’t dedicate a significant portion of our lives to knowing and learning God’s Word. And we’re not going to find the ultimate place that God would have us without talking to Him about and trying to figure it out on our own.

Look to the Lord in all things and recognize His provision in everything you have, the good and the bad.  The good things are a blessing and wonderful but we must embrace the things we see as difficulties and challenges.  Jewelry is polished by progressively finer grades of sandpaper.  The really rough stuff comes out first then the smoother grades create the polish.  Whatever difficulty you may be facing, it’s just God preparing you for the final polish, fellowship with Him!

Be blessed!

Jeff

What are you giving to God?

Solomon was given wealth and riches far beyond anyone else in the Bible.  And Solomon gave us the example to follow to unleash God's blessing in our lives today:

And Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD, for there he offered the burnt offering and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar Solomon had made could not hold the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat.

2 Chronicles 7:7

Solomon honored the Lord by giving a sacrifice larger than the temple was able to handle.  The sacrifice was so large that a previously unconsecrated area of the temple had to be prepared to accept the offering Solomon wanted to dedicate to God.  Many times when we feel that we are giving everything we have for God, He is asking us to look at an area that we haven't yet dedicated to Him.  

Solomon didn't have to look far, the middle of the court was large and an obvious place where the offering could take place.

Defining the area of our life that God is waiting for us to commit to Him is usually as easy as it was for Solomon in the passage of scripture above.  Look for the most obvious place that God is missing in your life and consecrate that area to Him.

Be encouraged my friends!

Jeff