It Is Time For You to Renew?

Isn’t it amazing how quickly renewals happen? It seems like you just joined and it’s already time to renew your subsciption or license, membership or affiliation. If you don’t renew you will be cut off from all the benefits of that organization, service, or priviledge.

The same is true in our walk with God. We are constantly in a need for renewal! It seems like our attitudes and thoughts are our greatest testimony against us, which is why, in the book of Ephesians, Paul warns us to RENEW!

Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Ephesians 4:23 NLT

 

The operative word in this verse is “let”; we must LET Holy Spirit do the renewing that we so desperately need. He won’t barge in and change things for us, we must surrender and LET Him do what is needed.

Are you willing to LET Holy Spirit renew your thoughts, your attitude today? Have you considered how badly you need it to happen?

Is it time for you to renew?

Just Stay Calm

Zero

That’s the number of times that my worrying and stressing out has helped me or anyone else. Why do we assume that anxiety produces good results? From the way we seem to rely on worry as a “go-to” when things get a little crazy, you’d think that we’ve experienced some fantastic positive reinforcement for freaking out.

1 Bajillion

That’s the number of times I have freaked out when things have seemed to be outside the scope of my control. In reality, each time I stress out and pretend that God hasn’t been more than enough for me is an indictment against my faith. What does it really say about what I have learned about God? How about you? What have you learned (committed to your understanding and thoughts) about God’s faithfulness?

Back to zero.

That’s the number of times that God has NOT forgiven me for doubting Him.

The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm. Exodus 14:14 NLT

Fact #1: we are in a spiritual battle

Fact #2: on our own, we are incapable of defeating anything spiritual, even the smallest demonic imp is beyond our abilities without God.

Fact#3: God promises to fight for you. Not against you. FOR you, in your favor, on your side, to your benefit… God will fight for you! Have you ever had someone fight for you? It feels great to know that someone else values you enough to go to bat for you, doesn’t it?

The Requirement

Look at all He asks of us, “Just stay calm.”

Imagine that you are trying to save a drowning victim. While you are working to save them, against the water and their weight, as you are kicking, and swimming, all you ask is that they stay calm as you bring them home safely.

Oh, how we struggle, fight and scream when God is promising to keep us safe until we arrive home safely. Like a child who resists being buckled into their car seat, we seem to forget that God is FOR us.

What would your life look like if you stopped freaking out? How much energy, time, and money might you save if you would “just stay calm”? What drama would you keep yourself from if you determined that God is fighting for you?

Let’s stop imagining this kind of life and “just stay calm”.

He Who Hesitates is Lost

Our grade school band instructor, Mr. Moore taught us, “He who hesitates is lost”

This meant if someone messed you up, or you made a mistake, and you stopped playing, you would become lost in the music.

The band would play on but you would be stuck in the past and if you kept trying to play the same portion of music over and over, it would sound awful and out of place! So our instructor told us to wait for the rest (when the other trumpets stopped playing) then you could join in the song again.

How about you? Are you stuck in the past because someone messed you up, or you made a mistake? Are you still playing that portion of the song over and over?

God doesn’t want you to live in the past!

In Isaiah 43:18 we read, “Do not live in the past events, pay no attention to the things of old” HCSB

If you’re stuck in the past, playing that same old bit – it’s time to wait or REST in the Lord, look and see where He is moving, then …

Join us in the song.

Taking the Name

• Exodus 20:7 (ESV)

  “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

The thought occurred to me this morning as I was making breakfast; what does it really mean to take someone’s name. Is it simply a matter of using someone’s name out of context or flippantly as I had been taught in Sunday School, or is there something deeper than that?

In our culture, when a wife and a husband wed the wife takes the last name of the husband. Whatever sort of name the husband’s family had made for themselves was now at the wife’s disposal as well. Any influence his name carried, any wealth attached to his name was now all hers too.

When my wife and I wed, she once was known as a Johnston and became a Jones. She took my name. This meant she was no longer the same person she once was; she was connected with me and my reputation, character, and integrity. It also meant that she and I were intertwined by common goals and interests.

As Christians, we take the name of Christ, we bear His name as our identity. We are accepted into God’s family and adopted with full rights and an inheritance with an expectation that we should be kingdom-building, a common goal.

I’m sure many don’t struggle with taking the Lord’s name in vain in terms of using it as part of a swear or curse, but I wonder how many people have “taken the Lord’s name” by calling themselves “Christian” meanwhile refusing to be part of His mission?

We’ve been given spiritual power, influence, and gifts to minister to a sick and dying world. Calling ourselves a Christian without living like Christ would definitely be considered “taking His name in vain”.

Have you taken His name in vain?

This could be an excellent time to live up to the name you’ve been given and work together with Him to build His kingdom!

p.s.    I’m aware that this verse is specifically dealing with how we “use” His name in our speech but scriptures can deal with multiple issues at once, thus an alternate application for this verse. Isn’t His Word amazing!?

Where’s That “Reset” Button?

There’s no doubt about it, we needed to reset. Things weren’t just bad, they were terrible. The fighting wasn’t getting any better, there was no way to “quick-fix” our way out of this one. We were both right in our own way; it wasn’t that we were unwilling to do whatever it took to save our marriage, we just didn’t know what was needed to bring peace back into our home.

Kim, in her boundless brilliance and mercy offered a “reset” button. I don’t know if it was an approved marriage counseling technique or a therapist approved approach, nor do I necessarily recommend it for everyone, but this was a turning point for us.

We agreed that the terms of the “reset” were simple – we were moving forward just as if nothing had ever happened and we would never revisit the situation again. All was forgiven, words were to be forgotten, and we would move forward.

To this day, I certainly don’t remember precisely what the fight was about, nor do I care to remember; what I do know is that my home was no longer a war zone, the marriage was a union again, and I was crazy in love with my wife.

This was such a beautiful picture of God’s mercy towards us. All that was required of each of us (flawed humans) was faith that we loved each other, despite our grievances towards each other, and the acknowledgment that all had been forgiven, allowing us to move forward.

Romans 5:1                                                                                                                                            Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

That word “justified” has been explained to mean “just as if” I never sinned. I find that to be a brilliant play on words.

In the same way as a broken marriage was saved because we had faith that we loved each other, our faith in God – faith that acknowledges He loves us and forgives us because He sent Jesus to die for our sins – causes justification.

There’s a great deal theologically that can be drawn from this small passage, but in short there are three things we can immediately draw from this:

1. God offers a reset button – which makes things “just as if” you never sinned.
2. It happens only through faith in Jesus – which involves repentance and confession of faith in Jesus
3. You can restore peace in your heart with God – which means your no longer working or fighting against God.

 

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions about how to hit that reset button.