Tag Archives: Christian living

Christian Living, Inspirational, Motivational

“TRUE FRIENDSHIPS ARE HARD TO FIND”

true-friendship“TRUE FRIENDSHIPS ARE HARD TO FIND”

“I have called you friends.” (John 15:15)

Much of what is defined as friendship, today, is the farthest hope we desire to have, with people, from a Biblical world-view. Just yesterday I was getting a haircut and the stylist and I entered into a conversation on the topic of friendship. As an owner-operator not only does his clientele expect a certain level of service and attention likewise his employees are looking, to him, for leadership as well as friendship. While he does set aside time to “team build” he told me he is very careful in his selection of friends to the point where he has to make a distinction between his employees and close social friends.

Truthfully, I have very few friends and I am okay with that because I too have learned the bonds of friendship extend far beyond a visit to the coffee shop or an occasional movie and sporting event. This is not to say I am a hermit or I purposely avoid relationships with others. But what I am saying is I reject what the world, and at times, the church has forced people to accept as a working definition of what friendship is and is not.

Let me give you a personal example: A while back a Christian friend offered me a gift. At first this very generous gift sounded like a blessing but then he followed up his generous invitation with conditions. Can you see what is wrong with this scenario? You have heard similar stories of never letting family borrow money or never tell somebody,  “Pay me back whenever you can” unless you are prepared to end up on an episode of Judge Judy. Gifts are to be gifts, without conditions, and Biblical friendships are to be self-sacrificing not self-serving. If you receive a gift, given with conditions, it is not a gift. Likewise, if you are in a “friendship” that does not possess self-surrender then it will seldom endure.

It is learnt that cialis buy online people rush to do sex just after taking the drug for ED. Even young men love this medicine as it absorb faster in the bloodstream producing better results. cialis bulk The online shops assist in maintaining complete security while getting viagra pfizer 25mg http://www.devensec.com/sustain/eidis-updates/IndustrialSymbiosisUpdateAug_Oct2010.pdf the order and delivering the medicines at the patient’s doorstep. Men are supposed to be well aware that this remedy must not be over-followed or should not be taken without consulting together with General Physician or Urologist. no prescription viagra Earlier this month I titled a blog, You Don’t Get It and You Don’t Have to. But you Have to Respect it! and it’s about a person living and following the call of Jesus on his or her life. That blog, as well as today’s, started me to thinking about how many friends Jesus may have had. How many friends do you think Jesus had? How many people approached Jesus with words like, ‘I will if …’ or ‘Oh well, I suppose I must devote my life to God.’ It sounds like Jesus attracted many “friendships” that lacked the Biblical heart of self-sacrifice.

Have you ever asked, “Why do I have so few friends?” Or have you ever looked over your friend pool and really questioned how many are close and dear? Usually when we are lacking in true friendships we self-examine by saying, “Well, I guess I’m difficult to like?” But more than the “likeability factor” I have come to understand so few people are prepared to abandon themselves to the Holy Spirit, who is able to lead us into right friendships with others based on the joy and truth of Jesus. Honestly, I’m not nearly where I need to be and daily I am reminded how much “ugly me” still exists. But within the context of friendships, led by the Holy Spirit, I now see even my conversations scare people from wanting to be my friend. Certainly going to a movie can be fun or watching a sports event can serve as a relaxing break but the final aim of Biblical friendship is self-sacrifice and laying down our lives for our best friend, Jesus. Few friendships are prepared for that kind of intimacy and honesty.

Jesus stands as our best model of true friendship by setting the example of a life lived in self-sacrifice—“I delight to do Thy will, O My God.” Jesus knew how to go on, with or without, friends because His sacrifice, to the Father, brought exuberant joy. And so I ask myself, and you, have we ever yielded in absolute submission to Jesus? “If Jesus is not the lodestar, there is no benefit in the sacrifice; but when the sacrifice is made with the eyes on Him, slowly and surely the molding influence begins to tell.” (Chambers)

Beware of letting natural affinities delay your walk in Him. Or said another way, be careful of letting “friends” drain you intimate time with the Holy Spirit. Friends are exciting and can even serve as an impressive tally on your Facebook account but how many of these “friends” are built on natural affinities? Love for the Father is not sentimental; to love as God loves is the most practical thing for the believer. When Jesus said,  “I have called you friends.” It is a friendship based on the new life created in us, which has no affinity with our old life, but only with the life of God. This is why I reject what the world and even he church may call friendship and only desire to walk with those who are living a life in the pursuit of humility, holiness and absolute devotion to the Biblical Jesus!

Blessings – JOSHUA

Inspirational, Motivational

WHAT YOUR SPIRITUAL THERMO”STATE” SAYS ABOUT YOU

thermostateWHAT YOUR SPIRITUAL THERMO”STATE” SAYS ABOUT YOU

Much of today’s Christian thought, pulpit speak, blogs and written works seem to focus a great deal on “YOU.” After all “you” are important to God and He does care about “you.” This is all true, you are important to God and He does care about you but have you ever considered how concerned God is about the ugly side of “You?” The ugly side, of us all, is not the side that struggles with sin but the portion of us that tries to justify and persist living in violation of a Holy God.

This past week Jeannette and I had some amazing times of fellowship with other Christians, not from our church, and throughout the course of our conversations our friends expressed their overall dissatisfaction with their personal walk of faith. At the conclusion we left, in total agreement, knowing there needed to be a change and the change had to begin with us. In your home you have a thermostat that will read the temperature of your house as well as allow you to cool or heart your home to your desired level of comfort. Spiritually we too have an index that gives us a gauge as to where we are resting within the plans and purposes of the Father and the Kingdom. It is this spiritual index the Father uses to poll our coldness or warmth towards Him. And when we are indifferent to the Spirit’s prompting it reveals the ugly side of us.

“Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:9) This illustration of prayer, that Jesus uses, is one of an obedient child asking for a good thing. Yet, if we have grown cold or indifferent, even when we go to the Father in prayer, we may ask of Him “good things” without giving thought to our ugliness. (cf. Matthew 5:45.) Oswald Chambers says, “Never say it is not God’s will to give you what you ask, don’t sit down and faint, but find out the reason, turn up the index. Are you rightly related to your wife, to your husband, to your children, to your fellow-students—are you a ‘good child’ there? ‘Oh, Lord, I have been irritable and cross, but I do want spiritual blessing.’ You cannot have it, you will have to do without until you come into the attitude of a good child.”

I have been guilty of confusing my defiance for devotion and my arguing, with the Father, for justification of what I believed He owed me. It was during these seasons of selfishness I discovered I was irritable to the Cross and not checking my own spiritual thermostat. In a short: the ugly me was showing through. Do you remember the story I told of the families Jeannette and I were spending time with? Knowing we were responsible to change the thermostat in our lives; Jeannette invited the wife, of this couple, to join her and several other women for Saturday morning prayer (beginning at 7:30 am). Do you know what her response was? “7:30am Oh, that’s too early!” A quick look at her own thermostat would have revealed she had become too comfortable with an “ugly me” spiritual climate for her life. Sadly, even given the opportunity, many talk about wanting to make the necessary spiritual adjustments but rather keep the status quo.
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Have you ever asked God to give you money, for something you want, when there is something you have not paid for? Have you been asking God for liberty while you are withholding it from someone who owes you something?  Have you not forgiven someone his trespasses; or have not been kind to him; or have not been living as God’s child among your relatives and friends? Such questions and situations challenge the ugly side of us all.

You are important to God! It is the ugly side of us Jesus desires to correct and this will only come through the washing and regeneration by His Holy Spirit. When we allow the Holy Spirit to adjust our thermostat then we, as children of God, will live and walk in His light and truth. Prayer, with most of us, has been turned into a pious platitude. When the thermostat is cold false humility and self-elevated spirituality become the emotional tricks we use, in a vain attempt, to create a mystical communion with God that gives us a temporary thrill. Naturally we are all good at producing fogs and mists that, to the untrained eye and lazy spirit, for a season can look as if God moving in our lives. If we turn up our spiritual thermostat we will see, very clearly, the ugly us. The Holy Spirit will reveal the broken friendships, debt, bitterness, unforgiveness, hate, and temper of mind that needs correcting. Until we are willing to allow the Holy Spirit to change us it is no use praying, while trying to keep the “ugly me” alive. We need to commit to living in Spirit and by the Holy Spirit so our lives become the beautiful workmanship of His hands and our prayer life is one where Jesus says, “Everyone that asketh receiveth.”

Blessings – JOSHUA

Btw…Here is an amazing video from the Skit Guys

Christian Apologetics, Inspirational, Motivational

THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD

download (1)“THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD”

If you ever followed the Beatles music one of their most cherished, and last number one, single was “The Long and Winding Road.” Lyrically it is a sad and melancholic song with an evocation of an as-yet unrequited, though apparently inevitable, love. Later Paul was quoted as saying, “It’s rather a sad song. I like writing sad songs, it’s a good bag to get into because you can actually acknowledge some deeper feelings of your own and put them in it. It’s a good vehicle, it saves having to go to a psychiatrist.”

The purpose of today’s blog is not to make good theology out of a Beatles song. But for some reason I have always connected the idea of the long and winding road to the Christian’s walk of faith which, of course, will lead us to the door of Christ. I, like many of you, have walked on some deeply personal “roads” where all I am left with, at the end of the journey, is Him. Truthfully, until we all face these bends in the road we will also never fully appreciate and understand the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Have you ever said, “I am at the end! I cannot do a thing?” If so, then you also know “It’s not over and He is able.” The Father, Son and Spirit have always accomplished marvelous works, on behalf of the believer, that no one else can ever do.

Here to I want to insert another reality regarding the synergistic relationship we have with the Holy Spirit. As the third part of the Godhead, He (the Spirit) is holy! Are you prepared for a Holy intervention from the Spirit? Are you living a life prepared for His outpouring? The Spirit, and for that matter the Son and the Father, will not pour out as long as the unholy is still touching the holy in our lives. And yet, there are those who still beg and plead for an outpouring knowing, full well, there are unclean and un-dealt areas deep within their lives. As lovers of Biblical truth we cannot live our natural walk as if it is somehow separate from our spirit life. We were designed as a “wholly unit” and to live as a “holy unit” unto God.

Physical causes include neurological disease, cardiovascular disease viagra online samples or any other disorder or disease a patient may be suffering from or has suffered from. tadalafil online no prescription The antibody can interfere with the transmission and implantation of early fertilized egg. The cause may be anything, viagra online the treatment is Kamagra. She will canada cialis online get real sexual satisfaction and seeks more lovemaking episodes. Throughout the journey, on the long and winding road, we discover many unsightly and undisciplined areas, in our own lives, that we must be prepared for the Holy Spirit to drag into the light of the Father’s truth. Repentance does not bring a sense of sin, but a sense of incompleteness. When we repent, we realize that we are utterly helpless; and are in need of His intervention. Have we repented like that? Or is there a lingering suggestion of standing up for ourselves? Perhaps the reason the Holy Spirit cannot come into our lives is because we are not willing to walk down the road of repentance?

“He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire.” John does not speak of the baptism of the Holy Spirit as an experience, but as a work performed by Jesus, “He shall baptize you.” And like the Beatles song the long and winding road, that is lived with the Holy Spirit, is leading you towards an inevitable love (Jesus). As you continue to stay on the journey always take time to check and, if need be, recheck your life and make sure you are living within the lanes where the Holy Spirit is doing everything.

I indeed baptize you with water … but He … shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire. (Matthew 3:11)

Blessings – JOSHUA

Btw….Just in case you never heard the song, Enjoy! “The Long and Winding Road”

Christian Apologetics, Inspirational, Motivational

POVERTY THAT COUNTS FOR SOMETHING

poorPOVERTY THAT COUNTS FOR SOMETHING

Our age, unlike any other, is fascinated with stars, celebrities and fame. TV shows such as American Idol, the Voice, America’s Got Talent, etc…are all built on the opportunity of instant stardom. Every “heart-warming” montage is designed to make you connect with a “nobody”, and pull for them, so they can be a “somebody.” Also this same desire, for fame or recognition, has seeped into the culture of “church USA” and helped create an entire wave of “superstar” ministries, ministers and Christian musicians. But have you ever stopped to consider the Bible notices things which, from our standards, do not seem to count? “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” literally—Blessed are the paupers— is an everyday reality for most Christians. The facts still remain for every “successful” ministry the majority of the Gospel message is still carried on the backs of the poor and unnoticed.

The preaching of today is apt to emphasize strength of will, beauty of character and the cosmetic changes people can quickly notice. Even in our sharing, of the Salvation message, the phrase we hear, ‘Decide for Christ,’ is an emphasis on something Jesus never trusted. Jesus never asks us to decide for Him but to surrender to Him. This is a very different reality from how many live, preach and hope for today!

“At the basis of Jesus Christ’s Kingdom is the unaffected loveliness of the commonplace. The thing I am blessed in is my poverty. If I know I have no strength of will, no nobility of disposition, then Jesus says—Blessed are you, because it is through this poverty that I enter His Kingdom. I cannot enter His Kingdom as a good man or woman, I can only enter it as a complete pauper.” (Chambers)

True character, of those in love with the Biblical Jesus, speaks for the King and Kingdom in way that never exalts self over Jesus. The Father must always rise above even the glitz and glamour we want to use to speak of Him. Let me provide a brief example: Every 4th of July there are parades, cookouts, fellowship and most of all fireworks. But how many people really stop to think about why we are celebrating this holiday? Sadly many are so enamored with the festivities they miss the truth of the day while believing they have celebrated the event in good fashion. Likewise, this can happen in our churches today. Millions can attend church in love with the lights, music, buildings, outreaches, missions, pastors and even personal relationships but miss the point of why they are gathered in the first place.
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Who are the people that have influenced you most? Not the ones who thought they did, but those who had not the remotest notion that they were influencing you. In the Christian life the implicit is never obvious, bold or even attention grabbing, if it is, it ceases to have this unaffected loveliness which is the characteristic of the touch of Jesus. We always know when Jesus is at work because He produces, in the commonplace, something that is very inspiring.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit.”  (Matthew 5:3)

Blessings – JOSHUA