There is an old Hindi proverb that says, “He who cannot dance puts the blame on the floor.”
In this life, taking responsibility is always harder than not taking responsibility.
It’s easier to stay bitter than to choose forgiveness. To give into temptation than to over come it. To eat every piece of candy at Christmas, than to have a little discipline and just take a few bites.
It’s easier to watch TV than to exercise. To spend money than it is to save and to give it away. To gossip rather than remain silent.
Yet, every human must take responsibility for their own actions.
But blaming gets in the way.
We blame the temptations that surround us, the people who discourage us and the hurts that have scared us.
Blaming is the “kryptonite” to taking responsibility.
I know people who have made blaming an art form to avoid responsibility.
They avoid things like discipline, hard work, love, forgiveness, perseverance, even success, to focus on whom they can blame and why they are the victim.
Jim Roan writes, “You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstance, the seasons or the wind but you can change yourself through the power of God’s grace.”
My mother is a great example of responsibility.
She was born during the depression, her father left her at a very young age, and then, while her mom was searching for an identity, gave her up to be raised by her strict Irish grandmother.
There was dysfunction all around her.
There was alcoholism and broken relationships.
She had a lot of excuses to not take responsibility for her life.
She had a lot of reasons to be bitter.
She never had a “real” relationship with her mother except for an awkward, reversal of roles relationship, where as I was growing up, it seemed like my mom was more her mother and her mother more the child.
She never had contact with her real dad.
With dysfunction all around her, she decided that as an adult, she would break the cycle and do life differently.
She made a choice that she would stay away from the things that brought destruction all around her during her childhood.
My mom and my Dad have been married over 55 years, and her commitment to family, while experiencing the loss of two grown daughters, her faith in God and her devotion to serving others is entirely inspiring.
When I hear people try to blame their situations on the hurts, dysfunctions and abandonment’s of the past, I have to feel for them, cry with them, understand their pain, but then I have to tell them my mom’s story.
SHE HAD A CHOICE.
She chose the road less traveled.
It’s always harder to take responsibility than not to, but it’s always more rewarding.
The gift my mother was given at a young age, in the midst of all that turmoil, was she was introduced to the love, truth and Grace of God.
And while there was brokenness all around her, she allowed Him to be her healer, wisdom, strength and Heavenly Father.
Ernest Hemingway in his book “A Farewell to Arms” writes, “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are stronger at the broken places.”
My mom has allowed the broken places in her life to become the places where God was honored most.
There is nothing glamorous about taking responsibility for our lives. It just comes down to hard work.
Donald Trump is famous for saying, “When we want to do something, we find a way, but when we don’t we find an excuse.”
Michael Angelo who spent four years lying on his back, painting the ceiling of the Sisteen Chapel wrote this “If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.”
Author and pastor, Charles Swindoll writes, “What is the sign of maturity? It’s taking responsibility for your life and using it to serve others.”
“For we are each responsible for our own conduct.” Galatians 6:5
My heart has been broken with the recent tragic events in Newtown, Connecticut.
Words are hard to come by and emotions are hard to control.
I am holding on to this promise for them that, “God is close to the broken hearted and he lifts up those who are crushed in spirit.”
The closest way I can explain how I am feeling is what Jeremiah recorded in the ninth chapter of his book: “Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.”
I told my church over the weekend that I was thankful for them because we could grieve and pray together, in community, for the families, leaders and people of Newtown.
It really struck me how important being a part of a healthy community is.
The Apostle Paul gave this wisdom to the Romans when he said, “Rejoice with those who are rejoicing. Mourn with those who are mourning.”
We stay in dark places when we grieve alone.
Something supernatural and healing happens when we grieve in community. It is hard to explain, but I felt it this weekend.
Many in Newtown have expressed how knowing the nation and the world is grieving and praying with and for them has helped their wounded, stunned hearts.
But there is something else about being a part of a healthy community that is very important.
The healthier the community, the less of these kinds of tragedies will happen.
Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity has stated that, “For a community to be whole and healthy, it must be based on people’s love and concern for each other.”
Yet, many communities are not whole or healthy.
While people are more concerned about their own “bottom line” and cities wanting the “homeless” to go somewhere else, communities will not be whole or healthy.
While the media continues to exploit children with violence and sex and the philosophy of the day is to incarcerate rather than rehabilitate, communities will not be whole or healthy.
With the low prioritization of the mentally ill and the ignorance the impact that broken families have on social and economic health, communities will not be whole or healthy.
If we keep thinking that technology is the answer while people have never been more isolated and lonely, communities will not be whole or healthy.
And if we continue to be a nation of “survival of the fittest”, even though the scriptures tell us to “love the least of these”, communities will not be whole or healthy.
Charles Dickens said a long time ago, “Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.”
There is a lot of discussion about what “laws” do we need to change to make sure this never happens again.
We don’t need more laws, we need face to face “soul encouragers” helping those in their community who are hurting and struggling to be “brave and true.”
Laws divide and polarize and keep us from getting to the heart.
Jesus didn’t come to change laws, he came to change hearts.
I don’t have any problem debating whether we need better, more or less gun laws. I like a good debate and I think they can be enlightening for both sides.
But thinking laws will solve this complicated, multi-layered issue is like talking about what size of rain gutters should I get while a category 5 hurricane is approaching my house.
This is also not about trying to go back to the ‘good old’ days.
The rhetoric of going back to the ‘good old’ days is a weak argument, since the ‘good old’ days were full of racial bigotry and women having few rights.
This is not about going back, but rather moving forward.
This is about moving forward towards different priorities.
This is about a high level commitment and understanding how important community is. To paraphrase William James, “A community is only as strong as its weakest link and life, after all, is all about community.”
We cannot continue to live in our locked up homes, thinking that if we don’t look out our window, then we are safe and not responsible for what we do not see.
This is a dangerous lifestyle and it compromises healthy communities. Martin Luther King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
We must move forward committing our lives to the greater whole.
We must move forward to a new way of living.
Where a child’s protection will trump a companies profits.
Where a forgotten senior citizen is remembered and celebrated.
Where the homeless are befriended and empowered.
Where the rich learn from the poor.
Where the single mom is valued and lifted out of poverty.
Where the addict is embraced and equipped towards recovery.
Where the mentally ill are understood and assisted.
Where broken families are given tools to help them repair.
Where everyone in the community is treated equally, with deep respect.
Where everyone is on “common ground.”
It is what the scriptures call JUSTICE.
We must move forward.
“You shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach,
The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.” Isaiah 58:12
There are a lot of things that cannot be guaranteed.
Will I live a long, healthy life?
Will I make a lot of money?
Will my candidate be elected?
Will I find the love of my life?
Will I get that dream job?
Will I be labeled “successful” by my peers and family?
I can’t guarantee those things for you.
You can’t guarantee those things for you.
No one can guarantee those things for you.
God doesn’t guarantee those things for you.
There are 4 things God guarantees for us, everyday, if we embrace them.
They do not depend on the right circumstances, the right candidates or the right economy.
They are secure and cannot be taken away.
The first guarantee that cannot be taken away is…
…the GIFT of being uniquely created
Viktor E. Frankl wrote this while in a Nazi concentration camp, “Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone’s task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.”
Everyday you can wake up and know that God uniquely made you for something greater than yourself.
You cannot be replaced. You are deeply needed.
You have unique strengths and talents that God has planned from the beginning of time to be used to bring hope and healing to this broken world.
No circumstances can take this GIFT away from you.
Everyday you wake up and look in the mirror, remind yourself that you are one of a kind, and God wants to use your talents, passions and experiences to make this world a better place.
Everyday you can live with the GIFT, hope and confidence that you are not an accident and you were created for this moment and this time in history to do something great.
Do not play it small. Do not wonder why you are here.
You are here on purpose. You are one of a kind.
Embrace this gift!
The second guarantee that cannot be taken away is…
…the JOY of forgiveness
There is nothing more paralyzing than the regret, pain and grief of past mistakes and sins.
Our self esteem plummets as we live with the consequences of what our past transgressions have brought to us.
Depression, addictions and other destructive behaviors try to mask the pain of our past.
Yet…you are no different than anyone else in the room.
You are no better or worse than the people to your left or to your right.
You are not a better or worse sinner than the people in your neighborhood.
You do not have the “corner market” when it comes to irreversible sins.
God sent his son Jesus to die for the sins of the world, and you are not an exception to the rule.
God is bigger than your sin.
God’s love for you is greater than your regret.
When we come to God with our grief, he is there to replace it with his forgiveness and that is a JOY we can embrace and live with everyday and nothing can take that away.
Someone once said, “After grief for sin there should be joy for forgiveness.”
C.S. Lewis said, “I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise, it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him.”
Knowing we are forgiven by God is the biggest step towards mental health.
Forgiveness is the greatest need for the human race.
The third guarantee that cannot be taken away is…
…the OPPORTUNITIES of today
Bill Keane said something deeply profound when he wrote, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.”
We are often so consumed by the regrets of the past or the worries of tomorrow that we miss the OPPORTUNITIES of today.
Scriptures remind us over and over that, “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
They remind us to, “Remember how short our lives are so we should treasure and live each day wisely.”
They remind us that everyday, “God’s mercy, grace and power is offered to us, to do His will, to be His light.”
Everyday that we wake up and have breath is an opportunity to experience the abundant life God has offered to us.
Everyday is an opportunity to grow, learn, celebrate, laugh, cry, serve and love a world that desperately needs it.
“For God so loved the world…”, and it changed everything!
When we use every opportunity to “love the world…”, it changes everything, mostly ourselves.
Paulo Coelho, author of the powerful book “The Alchemist” wrote, “When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”
The fourth guarantee that cannot be taken away is…
…the PROMISE of tomorrow
We can live fearlessly everyday, embracing our uniqueness, celebrating our forgiveness and boldly loving in difficult places because of God’s promise of the future.
The Apostle Paul showed us that “No eye has seen, or mind can comprehend what God is preparing for those who love Him.”
He also reminds us that, “Nothing can separate us from God’s love.”
The Apostle John saw that we can live with the security that one day, “There will be no more disease, sorrow, pain, tears, abuse or regret.”
Jesus taught us that as we celebrate our uniqueness, are born again by forgiveness and love the least of these, that we are investing our lives in things that will last forever.
As we live in a fragile, painful world that does not have a lot of guarantees, the scriptures teach us that as we grieve because of disease, war, abuse and broken promises, that we should grieve with a powerful hope that has been promised to us from the beginning of time, that in the words of Pablo Neruda, “You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.”
Everyday we can offer our uniqueness, be freed from our sins, be energized by our daily purpose and can walk around with a silly grin, not because all things are well, but because…”it may be dark in the night, but joy comes in the morning!”
Each generation seems to boastfully declare they are the last one before God makes all things right.
I do not know the answer to that one.
When asked that question, Jesus said he didn’t know the answer either.
Because we do not know, our job is to know what is guaranteed in this life and to pass it on to the next generation.
That is our job. This is our opportunity.
Let’s make sure the children around us and children around the world know that there are 4 things that are guaranteed and cannot be taken away.
The GIFT of being uniquely made.
The JOY of forgiveness.
The OPPORTUNITIES of today.
The PROMISE of tomorrow.
Carl Sandburg once said, “A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.” I couldn’t agree more!
Most of our lack of contentment has to do with COMPARING.
When we compare what we have to what those around us have, we will never be content.
Living a life of discontentment affects our own personal happiness, our relationships, our finances and many times our moral choices.
Your life is unique.
You are one of a kind.
God made you and picked you and gave you a purpose that is like no other.
Your looks, skills and resources are original.
God does not want you to be like someone else.
He wants you to be YOU!
Your unique purpose is needed in our world.
You cannot be you while you are trying to be like someone else.
C.S Lewis very wisely wrote in Mere Christianity, “We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. Nearly all those evils which people put down to greed or selfishness are really far more the result of pride.”
Our obsession with riches really is an obsession of what I have compared to what others have.
The apostle Paul said some encouraging and powerful words when he said, “Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.”
Finding contentment in America is like fitting a camel through the eye of a needle. Hmm? Someone much smarter than I said that once.
Most of our problem with comparing ourselves to others is that we don’t really know who we are. We feel lost. We feel like we need to attach ourselves to what the world says is important in order to feel valuable.
Once a human finds out WHO THEY REALLY ARE, they then begin to find the real contentment that they have been searching for.
Our perspectives, hopes, dreams, priorities change when we realize WHO WE ARE!
Fred Craddick tells this story about the time he was vacationing in Tennessee.
Fred and his wife were seated at a table in a restaurant when an old man came up to them and asked, “Are you folks on vacation?”“Yes,” said Fred, “and we’re having a good time.”
“What do you do for a living?” the old man said. Fred was trying to get rid of the guy and he said, “I’m a preacher.”
“Oh,” the old man said. “Then let me tell you a preacher story.”
He pulled up a chair and sat down.
“I was born an illegitimate child. I never knew who my father was. That was very hard for me. The kids at school made fun of me and they called me names. When I walked around our little town I always felt that people were staring at me and asking that terrible question, ‘I wonder who the father of that little boy is?’”
“I spent a lot of time by myself and growing up I didn’t have any friends.”
“One day a new pastor came to town and everybody was talking about how good he was. I’d never gone to church but one Sunday I decided I’d go hear him speak.”
“He was good. So I kept coming back. But each time I went to church I’d come in late and I’d leave early so I wouldn’t have to talk to anybody.”
“Then one Sunday I got so caught up in listening to the sermon I forgot to leave early. The service ended, people stood up and I couldn’t get out the door. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder.”
“When I turned that big tall pastor was looking down at me. He asked, ‘What’s your name boy? Whose son are you?’”
“When I heard that question I just shook. But before I could say anything the preacher said, ‘I know who your family is. There’s a distinct family resemblance. Why, you’re the child of God.’”
“You know, mister, those words changed my life,” he said. The old man got up and left.
The waitress came over and asked me, “Do you know who that was?”
“No,” said Fred. She said, “That’s Ben Hooper, two term governor of Tennessee.”
A man learned he was the child of God and it changed his life.
All the depression and all the cuts and hurts and rejection he’d had through his life were eliminated by the power of God’s love.
And no longer could people diminish his sense of dignity because he was a child of God.
David wrote in the psalms “God is the Father of orphans, champion of widows, He makes homes for the homeless, and leads prisoners to freedom”
Paul wrote to the Romans, “So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, ‘Abba, Father.’ For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs.”
That elusive virtue called contentment happens when we realize who and whose we are and that we have been called to a greater purpose and calling than just acquiring things.
We have been called to represent our Heavenly Father to a world that desperately needs to know about His love.
Mother Teresa said these beautiful words about our highest calling of representing God here on earth, “Hungry for love, He looks at you. Thirsty for kindness, He begs of you. Naked for loyalty, He hopes in you. Homeless for shelter in your heart, He asks of you. Will you be that one to Him?”
My son’s girlfriend, Pauline Hassan is a hero in my life. Her mother was born in Sudan, and Pauline was a young girl when they moved to San Diego to escape the persecution and danger of her war torn country.
I believe we can learn from her and her family about how right priorities and hard work can lead to a contentment in America that is greater than just how much money we can make.
They remind me to always make my life purpose greater than just about myself.
The news organization Al Jazeera interviewed Pauline and her mother Agnes talking about “Living the Modern ‘American Dream’”.
It is a very inspiring interview.
I am proud to know Agnes. I am proud to know Pauline.
“He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.” The Apostle Paul
Mike does not remember much about his childhood.
He was raised in a small town where his mother was addicted to pain medications.
Shoving deep issues under the carpet became an art form in Mike’s family.
Mike’s dad never hugged him, told him he loved him, or showed any emotion at all toward him.
“Being in a small town, everyone knew everyone else’s business and I was embarrassed of my mom and her addictions and I was embarrassed of our home.”
In Mike’s teens he stayed away from home and went the wild route, drinking and smoking and doing drugs.
“I guess not feeling loved you’re going to find love somewhere and I found it in music, girls, drugs and alcohol.”
Mike spent 3 weeks in college and then was gone at 18.
The military lottery was happening and he was lucky number 13.
Mike was drafted quickly. He spent 6 years in the army.
After 6 years Mike came home, got married, had two sons and went to work as a machinist to pay the bills and raise his kids.
Mike didn’t know how to have a healthy relationship and his marriage ended badly.
He moved to Southern California to start all over again.
“I knew about God my whole life but I had no clue what it meant to have a relationship with God. We used to call people Jesus Freaks who would say, ‘Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?’ I’d always say, ‘Yeah’ to shut them up. But I never knew what that meant”
Then Mike met his future wife, and when they got serious they decided they probably needed God in their relationship if it was going to last. Mike did not want to repeat his past.
“I didn’t want to screw it up and with my past you know I could have screwed it up pretty easy. And so I didn’t want to go that route again. I knew there had to be something, a much better way of doing it.”
Mike married his beautiful new bride and they started going to church and learning about God.
And then Mike and his new wife, Mavis, discovered that her son was addicted to cocaine and they began investigating recovery programs.
He went into rehab and they were told to take him to a program called “Celebrate Recovery”.
They went to “Celebrate Recovery” and that’s where Mike and Mavis truly found God’s Grace.
“I saw what God does. I saw miracles. I’ve had people say, ‘God doesn’t do miracles anymore,’ and I just don’t believe that because I see them all the time in Celebrate. I saw miracles left and right. Working the 12 steps has changed my life. They have given me the tools to not only help myself, but also my marriage, my relationships and ultimately the steps have taught me how to help others. As a follower of Jesus, I have now dedicated my life to serving and saving others. My vocation pays the bills, but my life calling is to help people heal and overcome.”
Mike and Mavis, started and our currently the directors of my churches Celebrate Recovery Group.
Mike and Mavis, as volunteers, tirelessly serve our community “comforting others with the same comfort God has given them.”
They are making a significant difference.
We are far more powerful than we realize.
During the last months of WWII, the British conducted daily bombing raids over Berlin.
One night after a successful bombing raid, as they were heading for the safety of England, the bombers were attacked by a large group of German fighter planes.
Five bullets slammed into the fuselage of the bomber near the gas tank, but there was no explosion.
Miraculously, they were able to make it back to their base and get safely off the plane.
A few hours after they had landed, one of the mechanics showed up in the crew’s barracks.
He had found five bullets inside the fuel tanks, crumpled but not exploded. He handed them to the pilot.
The pilot carefully opened the shells and to the crews amazement found each one empty with gunpowder.
Inside one of the bullets was a tiny wad of paper.
When he unfolded the paper, he found a note which read, “We are Polish POWs—forced to make bullets in factory. When guards do not look, we do not fill with powder. Is not much, but is best we can do. Please tell family we are alive.”
When every follower of Jesus lives with the philosophy of “comforting others just as God has comforted them,” no matter how small or insignificant it may seem, then we will see the miracles that we have been praying for.
It may not feel like much, but all God asks is to do the best we can do.
Mike and Mavis could be overwhelmed by the brokenness of addiction all around them, but instead they are offering comfort and hope in seemingly small ways, and yet hundreds have found sobriety and faith because they are simply comforting others with the same comfort God has given them.
During a British conference on comparative religions, experts debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith.
They began eliminating possibilities.
Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form.
Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death.
The debate went on for some time until C.S. Lewis wandered into the room.
“What’s the rumpus about?” he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity’s unique contribution among world religions.
Lewis responded, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.”
After some discussion, the colleagues had to agree.
The notion of God’s love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity.
The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish covenant, the Muslim code of law—each of these offers a way to earn approval.
The 5th and most foundational thing every church should do is to be a large, generous distributor of Grace.
Grace dares to make God’s love unconditional.
Grace makes it possible to start over again.
Grace makes it possible for new beginnings.
Grace makes it possible to move forward.
The Apostle Paul who once was the king of religion, experienced life transforming Grace and said, “I am still not all I should be but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead…”
So many people live with hidden shame, mistakes from the past, failures of deep consequence and they seem stuck, not able to move towards the future.
I was working at a coffee shop not long ago and a gentlemen working next to me struck up a conversation and asked me what I did for a living.
I told him that I was a professional body builder, but I pastor on the side.
He believed the pastor part and told me he hadn’t been to church in years.
I asked, “What has kept you away?”
He said a divorce, a drinking problem and the way he was treated by the church when he was going through those difficult times.
He said, “I don’t really need to go somewhere and feel judged. I know I’m a screw up!”
We preceded to have an hour long conversation about Grace.
He asked me a great question. He said, “If Grace is the difference between Jesus and other religions, then why don’t churches teach it and live it?”
I told him because we haven’t made Grace the highest priority. It falls in the middle of the other many things churches try to do.
I told him that at the church I go to we teach on Grace all the time because it is so multi-faceted that you have to keep looking at it, living it, celebrating it and teaching it.
Philip Yancey writes “Grace makes its appearance in so many forms that I have trouble defining it.”
“I am ready, though, to attempt something like a definition of grace in relation to God.”
“GRACE MEANS THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO TO MAKE GOD LOVE US MORE—no amount of spiritual calisthenics and renunciations, no amount of knowledge gained from seminaries and divinity schools, no amount of crusading on behalf of righteous causes.”
“And GRACE MEANS THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO TO MAKE GOD LOVE US LESS—no amount of racism or pride or pornography or adultery or even murder.”
“Grace means that God already loves us as much as an infinite God can possibly love.”
Grace is inclusive. Religion is exclusive.
In WWII, a group of soldiers were fighting in the rural countryside of France.
During an intense battle, one of the American soldiers was killed.
His comrades did not want to leave his body on the battlefield and decided to give him a church burial.
They remembered a church a few miles behind the front lines whose grounds included a small cemetery surrounded by a white fence.
After receiving permission to take their friend’s body to the cemetery, they set out for the church, arriving just before sunset.
An old priest, body betraying his many years, responded to their knocking.
His face, deeply wrinkled and tan, was the home of two fierce eyes that flashed with wisdom and passion.
“Our friend was killed in battle,” they blurted out, “and we wanted to give him a church burial.”
In very broken English the priest replied, “I’m sorry, but we can bury only those of the same faith here.”
Tired after many months of war, the soldiers simply turned to walk away. “But”, the old priest called after them, “you can bury him outside the fence.”
Cynical and exhausted, the soldiers dug a grave and buried their friend just outside the white fence. They finished after nightfall.
The next morning, the entire unit was ordered to move on, and the group raced back to the little church for one final goodbye to their friend.
When they arrived, they couldn’t find the gravesite.
Tired and confused, they knocked on the door of the church.
They asked the old priest if he knew where they had buried their friend.
A smile flashed across the old priest’s face. “After you left last night, I could not sleep, so I went outside early this morning and I moved the fence.”
JESUS DID MORE THAN MOVE THE FENCE, HE TORE IT DOWN.
RELIGION SAYS, SOME DESERVE THE INSIDE, SOME DESERVE THE OUTSIDE.
Accepting and living in Grace is the only way for us to have compassion and to see Grace in others.
Compassion means “to suffer with”, to endure with, struggle with, and to partake in hunger, nakedness, loneliness, pain, and broken dreams in the human family.
The question has been asked, “What makes a genius?”
The answer is, “The ability to see.”
To see what?
The butterfly in a caterpillar.
The eagle in an egg.
The saint in a selfish person.
Life in death.
And suffering as the form in which the incomprehensibility of God himself appears.
There has always been a debate in the church world about what is deep.
People leave churches because they are looking for something deeper.
What they usually mean is that there is not a certain version of the Bible being used, or there are not certain songs that are being sung, or there is not enough solemn judgment coming from the preacher.
What is the definition of deep? Compassion.
Because compassion means accepting Grace for yourself and seeing Grace in others.
Matthew Fox writes “Compassion is a spirituality of meat, not milk; of adults, not children; of love, not masochism; of justice, not philanthropy. It requires maturity, a big heart, a willingness to risk and imagination.”
To rephrase C.S. Lewis, religion is all around us and it has led to wars, division, judgment and death.
Religion has given God a bad name.
When a church lives in and offers Grace, people are healed, sins are forgiven, relationships strengthened and people are truly alive.
Grace gives God his name back.
Grace is the only thing the church has to offer that no one else can.
If a church wants to grow in depth and compassion, it should make Grace its #1 priority.
These are a few of my favorite verses on Grace. Share with me some of yours.
“But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.” Acts 20:24
“Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.” Romans 6:14
“You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich.” 2 Corinthians 8:9
“My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” Ephesians 2:8-9
“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” Hebrews 4:16
“There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28
“When you put on a luncheon or a banquet,” he said, “don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. For they will invite you back, and that will be your only reward. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you.” Luke 14:12-14
“Don’t be afraid!” David said. “I intend to show kindness to you because of my promise to your father, Jonathan. I will give you all the property that once belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will eat here with me at the king’s table!” 2 Samuel 9:7
Vanessa was born into a broken world on November 3rd, 1989.
She was loved, but she didn’t love herself.
When she was 2, her father died in a motorcycle accident in Southern California.
Her mother was 21 years old with 2 small children, no job, no education and life became chaotic.
Sadness, anger and regret filled their lives, though no one ever talked about it.
Vanessa learned at a very early age to stuff deep hurts and play the part of a happy kid.
She played a lot of make believe, numbing herself to the reality of sadness, loneliness, pain and guilt.
Her other coping skills were eating too much and hurting herself.
Vanessa and her family went to church occasionally but her perception of God was that “He had a lot of rules that, if broken, would send me straight to Hell. The whole thing just wasn’t appealing.”
Her mother met a man and the family moved to Colorado and Vanessa felt like she was starting a new life with a new dad.
Everything seemed perfect until at the age of 10, she was molested by a 40-something-year-old neighbor, but she never told anyone about it, not realizing that anything out of the ordinary happened.
Vanessa’s mom got engaged, Vanessa’s mom got cancer, Vanessa’s mom’s new fiancé could not face the storm and he left.
Once again, Vanessa faced abandonment.
While her mom was getting medical treatment, Vanessa and her sister would stay up all night and began to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana.
They moved back to California and the partying intensified.
When she entered high school her life was spinning out of control though on the surface you would not know.
She was in honor classes with high grades, involved in water polo, swimming, school plays, dance class, journalism, a statistician for wrestling and assisting with school rallies.
Yet getting wasted, smoking weed and stealing prescription drugs became an everyday occurrence.
Vanessa began to sell marijuana and was arrested and had to do community service.
Her sophomore year she got pregnant and had a miscarriage, yet, this was not her bottom.
She began to get into heavier things and then she discovered the drug of her choice, meth.
While still putting on a pretty good show on the outside, her mom caught her doing meth and she revealed that her dad had completely lost himself in the meth pipe.
The night he died, her mom caught him smoking and kicked him out of the house and that is when he crashed his motorcycle.
Vanessa felt lied to and ran away and did not finish the last 2 months of school.
Her mother reported her missing, thus violating her parole, and she was arrested and spent 2 ½ months in jail and sober.
When she got out, she got accepted to college and had great intentions of being a good student but quickly got involved with alcohol and weed.
“My disease was much stronger than my ambition.”
Vanessa jumped around from one high to another and ended up in Las Vegas where her dad’s friend Ryan lived.
She moved in with Ryan and “I found my usual low-life crowd and began selling weed, coke and x. I was then introduced to the pimp and prostitution game.”
“They appeared to have it all; little did I know they were just great actresses. I got myself a pimp, who was also a drug dealer.”
“That day, I sold my soul.”
Things went from bad to violent to worse and Vanessa eventually left her pimp but she kept selling drugs and was re-introduced to meth.
6 months later, smoking meth daily, she lost everything, cut off her long beautiful hair and went into seclusion.
He mom called the morgue often to find out if she was alive.
“The toxins of the drugs were seeping out of my pores. I would pick at my skin all over my body. My once flawless complexion was constantly covered in sores. I spent my 21st birthday getting high in a closet.”
On the night of November 17th, 2010, someone turned Vanessa in on a $10,000 bounty.
It saved her life.
She got lost in the system, a blessing in disguise, and for 21 days she reflected on her life and her choices.
“I looked into the foggy jail mirror and saw a grimy creature I didn’t recognize. God told me in a faint, gentle whisper, ‘This is not what I want for you. This is not who you are.’”
That night she wrote a poem titled, “Surrender”, begging God to deliver her from this insanity.
Under house arrest she immersed herself into recovery and followed the rules like her life depended on it. And it did.
“One day, as I was contemplating what the God of my understanding was to me, Jesus appeared. I have always been a cloud watcher. There He was wearing the crown of thorns, like an image I’d had on a postcard as a child. He was smiling at me and I could see that He was so proud. I had more hope that evening than any other moment of my entire life!”
Vanessa learned that the root of disease lies in obsession, compulsion, self-centeredness and lack of faith.
She moved to California and arrived in Placerville with a new ankle monitor.
Her mom mentioned that her church offered several recovery groups.
Vanessa thought, “Oh great! They are going to shove religion down my throat.”
A recovery meeting called “Celebrate Recovery” was meeting that night and so they came to the church and Vanessa experienced something she had not experienced before.
“That first night at Celebrate Recovery, I felt warmth and a hope I didn’t recognize. Everyone was so welcoming and loving. I began to attend church services and I started volunteering. I soon realized that Green Valley Community Church was not a religious church about judgment or being better than, but it was a Jesus church about relationships and acceptance.”
”One thing I knew, I had finally found home.”
“I learned that God is a father to the fatherless. He offers grace and forgiveness and peace. I began to like myself.”
”I got off house arrest, I got to flip a sign at Easter reading ‘Road to Hell” as my old life and “Road to Recovery” as my new life.”
Vanessa is an inspiration and a miracle and now helps young people recover from their hurts, hang-ups and habits.
Celebrate Recovery and my church’s commitment to help those dealing with hurts, hang-ups and habits has once again drawn us very close to the heart of God.
Jesus stated that he clearly came to “Heal the broken-hearted and set captives free.”
When people say that God doesn’t do miracles anymore, then they have never been a part of Celebrate Recovery.
Our Celebrate Recovery program was started by a couple who was rejected by another church when they wanted to start the program.
The church told them that they weren’t sure they wanted people with serious issues and addictions coming into their church.
Their sad loss was our gain.
Celebrate started small and as the leadership grew, so did the program.
7 years later, hundreds have overcome, healed, found God and been baptized.
When you go to a Celebrate Recovery service, ours is on Thursday nights, what you experience is what real church should be.
Each service includes true celebration, safe relationships, honest assessment, humbling confession and gut wrenching transparency and a sense of freedom and purpose that is contagious.
It is about as pure of a church as you will find!
We have now started “The Landing” which is Celebrate Recovery for teenage and college students.
It is a safe landing place for students to come and heal, build healthy relationships and start good habits.
Every church should help people overcome.
The 4th thing every church should and must do is be fully committed to “Celebrate Recovery.”
Vanessa’s life scripture is from the book of Lamentations where the prophet Jeremiah says, “I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed. I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—the feeling of hitting the bottom. But there’s one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning. How great Your faithfulness! I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over). He’s all I’ve got left.”
Every church should have funeral and grieving ministries that love and care for families during some of their darkest times.
Tom looks a lot like Santa Claus, plays the acoustic guitar a lot like James Taylor, and teaches children a lot like no one else.
A group of us from my church took a trip to West Africa and we were able to witness Tom’s amazing skills teaching local and global children about how special they were and how they were loved by God.
When we would walk through small villages, Tom would lead the way playing his guitar.
Children would appear out of nowhere, yelling, “Papa Noel! Papa Noel!” and before you knew it, the children were singing brand new songs, following their new found friend.
To say that Tom has a gift is an understatement.
To say that Tom was made by God to teach and invest in children is an obvious statement.
To say that Papa Noel’s joy and smile comes easy is about not knowing about the hole in his heart.
Five years ago, Tom lost his soul mate, the love of his life, his wife, a phenomenal teacher in her own right.
He lost her to cancer, a long, heroic fight that they fought together, and when she succumbed to the dreaded disease, Tom found himself exhausted, alone and wondering if life would ever make sense again.
He would tell you that there has never been a greater marriage.
And he would tell you that there has never been a greater pain.
To this day, every once in a while, I can see that look in Tom’s eyes, the twinkle in those baby blues is a little subdued, and I will put my arm as far around Papa Noel as I can.
I will ask him, “How are you today my friend?” and he will say, “It is a sad day. But I will be ok. My heart just hurts. And the sky is a little gray. But God is good.”
Every church should have funeral and grieving ministries.
This is what my church’s funeral and grieving ministries look like:
The family and friends who have experienced loss will sit with staff and volunteers to plan the service with the church offering everything they need such as live music, pictures, DVD production, food planning and post grief share options.
When the service happens, all the family has to do is celebrate a life and grieve a loss.
They do not have to worry about any of the details, so they can be there in the moment with the freedom to mourn.
After the service, the family and friends move to our café where food is provided as people share a meal and tell more stories and the healing of sad hearts begins.
We have seen miracles happen in that café where family members who have not spoken in years for many reasons are reconnected and reconciled.
After the service is over, we offer a grief share class 52 weeks a year, where healthy grieving is learned and a new community of friendships are forged.
90% of our funerals are for people who are not connected to a church.
We charge nothing.
Oh, and by the way…every church should do this!
It is one of the most difficult and blessed things we do.
But let me warn you, Grace is messy!
And let me warn you, when a church begins to do this, it will never be the same…and you will never want to go back!
I remember meeting with some leaders from a church that wanted to start doing funerals.
They seemed eager to learn until we told them we do not charge.
You could see them add up the costs.
I told them, “It is called faith to do the right thing when you are not sure how it will work out.”
We also told them that some funerals get a little messy and raw.
We did a funeral several years ago for a family that lost a 43 year old father.
This family was a little rough around the edges and for the first time seeking God during this crises.
During the reception, with about 100 people eating, the family asked us if we could put in a DVD of some pictures they didn’t show during the service.
The DVD started with pictures of birthday parties, fishing trips and camping when all of a sudden a stripper at a bachelor party appeared on screen and we froze. (We now have a new policy: “Do not show pictures we haven’t looked at yet!”)
One of our young men volunteering in the kitchen, was sweeping, looked up, saw the picture, looked back down and kept sweeping. (Good job young man.)
Before we could do anything about it, the picture was gone and pictures of birthday parties, family gatherings and hunting trips appeared again.
Another one of our volunteers, in her seventies, saw the picture, and said, “Well, this is why we do what we do.”
I love her! She gets it.
I do not have time to tell you all the healing that has happened through our funeral and grieving ministries, but it is one of the most important things we do!
Last year we held 55 funerals.
This year we are on the same pace.
Every funeral brings heartbreak and healing. Hurt and hope. Loss and redemption.
It is a ministry very close to the heart of God.
I started this post by telling you about my friend Tom(Papa Noelle). The first time I met Papa Noelle was at his wife’s funeral at my church and now Tom is part of our church helping others heal.
I am a much, much better person because I know him.
Every church should have funeral and grieving ministries that love and care for families during some of their darkest times.
Check out tomorrow as I share part 4 of “5 Things Every Church Should Do.”
The second thing every church should and must do is to lead the way in caring for the homeless.
And I am not talking about occasionally doing something nice for people who do not have shelter.
I am not talking about dabbling in niceness with a yearly thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Though, that is a good start.
I am not talking about doing flybys where the homeless live.
I am not talking about waiting to see what the local government is going to do for those who are homeless and then complain that they are not doing enough.
I AM talking about fully engaging in discovering what the true needs are for those without shelter.
I AM talking about building long term relationships with people who for many diverse reasons have found themselves in this difficult situation.
I AM talking about the church leading the way, by example, in investing in people who God has mandated us to take care of, by providing food, clothing, shelter, life skill classes and more.
I AM talking about the church inviting the homeless into their church services, treating them like the very brother and sisters they are.
God instructed the church in Isaiah 58 to:
”Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.”
Then God gives us amazing promises and blessings to us if we do those things:
“Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal.”
”Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the LORD will protect you from behind.”
“Then when you call, the LORD will answer. ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.”
“Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities.”
“Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes.”
Pretty cool promises and blessings if we get involved in the things God is passionate about.
Over the years God has blessed the church I go to, not because we are more holy than others, and not because we are smarter or better than anyone else.
I think God has blessed my church because it tries to take the words from Isaiah 58 seriously.
Every Saturday morning there is a service held in our Café, where a lesson is given, a free breakfast is served, groceries and fresh vegetables from our organic garden are given and clothes are offered to those who are in need.
On average, each Saturday morning, around 250 breakfasts are served, 150 bags of groceries are taken and around 1500 articles of clothing are given away.
This happens while relationships are being built and volunteer pastoral partners pray with families who are going through difficult times.
Focusing on others needs also allows our faith to grow and our priorities to change.
On one weekend, during the middle of winter, our clothing director told me that they needed men’s shoes to give to men who were spending a lot of time out in the elements with inadequate protection for their feet.
I announced at our 4 weekend services that we needed men’s shoes and not the stinky, worn out shoes that we eventually get rid of. I told them we need nice shoes that will bring warmth and dignity for our guests.
It was one of the most memorable weekends I have been a part of.
Men, as they were leaving the services, were taking off their shoes, their nice shoes, many worth over $100, and leaving them in our lobby and walking out to their cars in the pouring rain.
Over 200 pairs of shoes were left that day. One man told me that as he drove home in his wet socks it helped him have greater compassion for those who live out in cold, wet conditions.
He told me it challenged him to simplify his life and to be more thankful for how blessed he was.
One family, after one of the services, drove to a local sporting goods store and bought a couple dozen pairs of tennis shoes and brought them back quietly and left not wanting to get the credit.
Not all the people attending our Saturday morning breakfast are homeless, but these resources help people prioritize their finances keeping them in their homes.
But for those who are homeless, it allows them to eat a warm meal, hear a hope-filled message and begin to build healthy relationships.
It helps them make connections to resources, people and classes that will help them get back on their feet and find shelter.
Steve and Kelly Stockwell and Tom and Janice Carney are leading the way in how the church should respond to the plight of the homeless.
They have helped put a face to the reality of homelessness and have helped us understand the complexity, challenges and even the prejudices and wrong stereotyping that those without shelter face.
This last year during the winter season, several churches in our area created a rotating shelter, where those who wanted shelter could stay at the designated church for the evening.
Our church hosted our guests on Thursday and Friday nights. What a blessing it was for us. I think it was a blessing for them also.
Thursday nights worked well because we have Celebrate Recovery on those nights, so those who struggle with hurts, habits and hang-ups could show up to the service, learn, grow, heal and overcome, and then stay on campus and have a warm, dry place to sleep.
Friday nights worked well because our guests would spend the night and then wake up to our Saturday morning service, which we call “Common Ground” where they would receive that warm breakfast, groceries, clothing, prayer and love.
One man, this last winter, had found himself homeless because of addictions. He was a self-proclaimed agnostic, and then he began to watch how churches were opening their doors to him and praying for him, and he was blown away.
By spring, attending Celebrate Recovery he became a follower of Jesus and is now making amends with those he had burned bridges with.
One of my concerns about having a central shelter in a community is that many times it gives the local church an out.
I have talked to people in other communities who run shelters and they have trouble getting churches to get involved.
And if they do, they have a few people come to the shelter, but they do not have the homeless come to the church.
I think the power of community, healing and hope will happen when the church begins to open its doors and services to those that have been marginalized and forgotten.
This is just my opinion right now, but I don’t think we need to spend millions on a shelter when in every community, shelter and hundreds of thousands of square feet have already been built.
It is called the local church.
How many square feet in local churches sit there empty 90% of the time?
Don’t get me going on this one, but we don’t need more shelters, we need to open the doors of the shelters we already have.
It is time for the church to truly be the hands, feet and shelter that God has asked us to be.
It is time to reintroduce the meaning of “sanctuary.”
We have enough square feet.
We have enough shelter.
We have enough resources.
But do we have enough faith and guts to invite these precious people into the places we worship?
It is time the church leads the way.
It will be messy.
It will be blessed.
It is where we meet Jesus.
“Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes.”
The second thing every church should and must do is to lead the way in caring for the homeless.
Check out tomorrow as I will write about the third thing every church should do.
There is a Turkish proverb that says, “If speaking is silver, then listening is gold.”
WHO YOU LISTEN TO WILL DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF YOUR LIFE.
Everyday there are voices screaming in our heads and the question is, “Which ones will we listen to?”
One person said it like this, “I have voices in my head, but they’re all speaking Spanish, and I have NO idea what they’re saying.”
WHO YOU LISTEN TO WILL DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF YOUR LIFE.
The psalmist wrote, “I will listen to you, Lord God, because you promise peace.”
Proverbs states that, “A smart person will listen to God and increase wisdom.”
It goes on to say that, “Whoever listens to God’s voice has security and has no reason to be afraid.”
It continues, “Listen to me and you will find happiness.”
Jeremiah wrote, “Call to God and listen to him and he will tell you things you don’t know anything about.”
It seems like a no-brainer to listen to God’s voice with those promises, but the problem is, there are other voices competing in our heads every day.
The truth is we will hear the voice of what we love and focus on the most.
At home, my T.V. can be on, with no one really paying attention until George Clooney’s voice comes on and my wife stops dead in her tracks and runs toward the screen.
There can be a lot of noise in the house, but if hunky George comes on the T.V. she will somehow hear his voice and stop everything else she is doing.
Why does my wife hear Georges voice above every one else?
Because we hear the voice of who and what we love and focus on the most.
I hate George Clooney.
What voices do you listen to?
What voices do you trust?
What voices are the loudest to you?
One of the loudest voices in our head is the VOICE OF OUR CULTURE.
The voices of our culture tell us to worry, hoard, don’t forgive and climb over people to get to the top
They tell us who is important, beautiful and successful.
Our culture shouts out very clearly who is valuable.
These voices lead to the death of dreams, joy, hope, relationships and many times the death of our spirit.
Proverbs tells us that “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.”
Another voice that competes in our head is the VOICE FROM OUR PAST.
Phrases like, “You have blown it”, “You have burned too many bridges”, “You had your chance”, “Why would it be any different now”, and “You will always be this way”, scream at us all day long.
Another voice that is debilitating is the VOICE OF OTHERS.
It is amazing how hard it is to forget words like, “You are fat.” “You are stupid.” “You are ugly.” “I wish I would of never had you. “Why can’t you be more like your sister?”
Besides the voices of our culture, past and others fighting for supremacy in our head, there is another voice at work full time and it is the VOICE OF THE ACCUSER.
Jesus said, “…he is a liar and the father of lies.”
The accuser will use whatever voice he can to lie to you.
He will use the voices of the culture to lower your self-esteem and cause discontentment.
He will use the voices of your past to make you lose hope for the future.
He will use the voice of others to keep you from dreaming big.
And he will use his voice to condemn, judge and tell you are unforgivable and it is too late.
I was just recently talking to a 19 year old young lady, who had been abandoned by her father, was involved in substance abuse and had compromised her values through many broken relationships.
She was listening to the voices in her head that were telling her that she was worthless, ugly and that God was done with her.
She felt it was too late and she had made too many mistakes.
She felt scared, alone and very fragile.
She was hurting so bad.
I talked to her about changing the voices she listened to in her head.
I told her to begin to listen to God’s VOICE OF VALUE that says “You are not an accident and you are wonderfully and fearfully made.”
I told her to begin to listen to God’s VOICE OF SATISFACTION that says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.”
I told her to begin to listen to God’s VOICE OF WISDOM that says, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, you will hear a voice saying, “This is the road! Now follow it.”
I told her to begin to listen to God’s VOICE OF HEALING that says, “I have come to heal the brokenhearted and set captives free.”
And then I told her to begin to listen to God’s VOICE OF INVITATION that says, “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.”
I asked her, “Will you hear God’s voice?”
And then I said, “What is really amazing is that God will hear your voice…”
I read her Psalm 116:1, “I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.”
She decided that day to begin to change the voices she listened to.
Today, God is changing, healing and bringing joy and purpose to this beautiful young ladies life.
WHO YOU LISTEN TO WILL DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF YOUR LIFE.
Will you take a few moments and listen to God’s voice speak to you through scripture:
For those who are tired, God says,
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 (NIV)
For those who have been abandoned, God says,
“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5 (NIV)
For those living with shame, God says,
“…as far as the east is from the west, so far have I removed your transgressions from you.” Psalm 103:12 (NIV)
For those searching for significance, God says,
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT)
For those seeking salvation, God says,
“I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.” John 11:25 (NLT)
For those needing wisdom for the future, God says,
“Call to me, and I will answer you; I will tell you wonderful and marvelous things that you know nothing about.” Jeremiah 33:3 (GNT)
For those figuring out what success is, God says,
“If you try to save your life, you will lose it. But if you give it up for me, you will surely find it.” Matthew 10:39 (CEV)
For those tempted to take short-cuts in life, God says,
“People with integrity walk safely, but those who follow crooked paths will slip and fall.” Proverbs 10:9 (NLT)
For those needing financial wisdom, God says,
“Give freely and become more wealthy; be stingy and lose everything.” Proverbs 11:24 (NLT)
For those who are buying into the cultural phrase that if it feels good do it, God says,
“Save yourself for your wife and don’t have sex with other women.” Proverbs 5:17 (CEV)
For men looking for ways to be a better husband, God says,
“Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it.” Ephesians 5:25 (GNT)
For those sorting out their priorities in life, God says,
“Seek first God’s kingdom and what God wants. Then all your other needs will be met as well.” Matthew 6:33 (NCV)
For those who are looking for good investments, God says,
“Caring for the poor is lending to the Lord, and you will be well repaid.” Proverbs 19:17 (CEV)
For those who are looking to be blessed, God says,
“Be generous and share your food with the poor. You will be blessed for it.” Proverbs 22:9 (GNT)
For those who are feeling weak, God says
“My grace is enough for you. When you are weak, my power is made perfect in you.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NCV)
For those who are wanting to be productive, God says,
“If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 (NIV)
For those who are discouraged, God says,
“Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 (NLT)
For those who need refreshing, God says,
“The Lord’s love never ends; his mercies never stop. They are new every morning;”
Lamentations 3:22-23 (NCV)
For those who want to be great, God says,
“If you want to be great, you must be the servant of all the others.” Matthew 20:26 (CEV)
For those who love to worship, God says,
“I’ll tell you what it really means to worship the
Lord. Remove the chains of injustice. Free those who are abused! Share your food with everyone who is hungry;
share your home with the poor and homeless. Give clothes to those in need; don’t turn away your relatives.” Isaiah 58:6-7 (CEV)
For those who want to meet Jesus, God says,
“Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me.” Matthew 25:40 (CEV)
For those who need God to narrow it down to what is most important, God says,
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and most important command. And the second command is like the first: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ All the law and the writings of the prophets depend on these two commands.” Matthew 22:37-40 (NCV)
And to all of those who have lost someone close to them and need the hope of heaven, God says,
“Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” Revelation 21:3-4 (NLT)
WHO YOU LISTEN TO WILL DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF YOUR LIFE.
