August 11, 2014 · 7:47 AM

Greater Dreams

I recently heard a preacher say, “Our dreams must be greater than our memories.” Immediately that struck a chord with me. As I continued to think on that phrase and ponder it’s implications, I began to think of examples in the Bible where that was true. I thought of several examples, but the one that stood out to me the most came from the book of Exodus. The Israelites had moved to Israel about 400 years earlier to escape the famine, but they never returned to the land God promised Abraham. Now they had become slaves in a land that was not theirs.

In Exodus 6, God spoke to Moses to tell the people that He would deliver them from slavery and would take them to the land He promised Abraham. When Moses told them what God said, they didn’t even listen. Verse 9 says, “They didn’t even hear him – they were that beaten down in spirit (MSG).” The dream of being free had been forgotten, but God wasn’t done. He wanted to revive that dream. He kept at them until they began to dream again. It culminated with them walking out of Egypt and heading for their Promised Land.

It didn’t take long after they were freed for their memories to become greater than their dreams. In Exodus 16, they began to cry out, “Why didn’t God let us die in Egypt where we had lamb stew and all the bread we could eat?” They forgot that dreams require sacrifice. It’s hard work to make a dream become reality. Instead of putting in that hard work to realize the dream, they did something much easier, they remembered how easy it was before. Given the choice of working hard to achieve their dream or to relax and go back into slavery, they would have rather chosen the later.

It’s easy to sit in judgement thousands of years later, but are we really that different? We have each been given unrealized dreams that we are no where near accomplishing. Why? Because it’s easier to sit and talk about the vision for our life than to accomplish it. It’s not hard to dream. It’s hard to make it a reality. As soon as it gets hard, we start remembering how “good” we had it before. The dream we were given by God gets overpowered by our selective memories of the past. We agree to forfeit our freedom for a meal. So we turn back to go the Land of Ease instead of to the Promised Land.

The dream God has given you will not come without sacrifice. It will not bloom unless it is tended to. It requires you to get up from where you are, to take that step of faith you’ve been afraid of and to move in the direction God tells you to go. It won’t be easy, but nothing good ever is. There will be roadblocks along the way, but don’t let them stop you. Keep the dream God has given you at the forefront of your mind. Don’t let the enemy bring up old memories. Keep pushing them back until you’ve arrived at your destination. When you get there, those old memories won’t be the ones that will make you wish you had never left, they will make you glad you did.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

August 8, 2014 · 8:03 AM

Out Of Balance

It’s Free Friday! Today is the day you let go of the things in your life that keep you down or hold you back from all God has for you. To celebrate, I’m giving away a copy of “A Balanced Christian Life” by Watchman Nee. Keep reading to find out how to enter.

I had a car once that when I hit a certain speed, it would start bouncing all around. I took it to the shop to find out what was wrong with it. I was worried that something was really wrong with the car because of how badly it had been shaking. They drove it and came back with a diagnosis. The tires were out of balance. They removed them, added weights and then out them back on. The car drove like a dream after that for a while. When it happened again, I knew whys needed to be done. I had to get it balanced again.

Our lives are like that car. When things are out if balance, life gets shaky. Things start to fall apart and the road gets bumpy. We think there are things that are badly wrong, but the truth is that we are simply out of balance. We have to make corrections in our life that bring balance back to it. We have to stop and move things around so that life can be smooth again. The problem is that so many of us just deal with the bumps because we are afraid of the cost to get it back in balance.

When you look at Jesus’ life, He lived a balanced one. It wasn’t all ministry all the time. He took time to go to weddings, hang out with friends and have dinner with those who invited Him. He spent time ministering in the synagogue, but He also spent time ministering outside of it on the hillside. He poured Himself into thousands at a time and then He also had a small group of close friends He would minister to privately. He found balance in all He did because He knew how hard it is to maintain the necessary relationships on life if you are out of balance.

I am a person who is constantly on the go. It’s difficult for me to slow down or to stop and spend one on one time with people. It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s that I don’t have the time. If you’ve ever said that phrase before, maybe your life is out of balance too. Your the type that will drive life until the wheels fall off. I don’t think that’s really what God expects from us though. He built us to take rest. He built us to slow down and enjoy things because when we don’t, our relationship with Him ends up suffering. We go so busy doing things that we forget to enjoy life. We get so stressed that we can’t sleep. We have so much going on that we miss the things that are really important.

Take time today to see where God wants to bring balance to your life. Ask Him what things you need to let go of and what things you need to pick up. There are things that are ok for you to worry about and things that you need to let Him worry about. He has made His offer to us of swapping burdens. In Matthew 11:28-30 He said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yolk upon you… For my yolk is easy to bear.” It’s time we gave God the things that wear us out and rest. He wants to give us balance, but we have to give Him the things that are keeping us out of balance.

If you would like to win “A Balanced Christian Lifr” by Watchman Nee, go to the Devotions By Chris Facebook page and “like” it. I will randomly pick one person tomorrow (August 9, 2014) who has liked my page. If you have already “liked” my page, you are already entered for this drawing. I would appreciate it if you would invite your friends to like my page so they can receive encouragement from God’s Word too.

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

August 7, 2014 · 7:49 AM

The Valley Of Blessing

In II Chronicles 20, several armies declared war against King Jehoshaphat at the same time. It says he was terrified when he heard the news. He immediately began to beg The Lord for guidance and asked everyone to fast and pray with him. The people came to Jerusalem to pray with him and to be ready to fight this vast army that had risen up against them. While they were praying, a man spoke up and said, “Don’t be afraid! The battle is not yours, but God’s.” He also told the people they were to march out to the battlefield, but that they wouldn’t even have to fight.

When they showed up to the battlefield, the other armies had been fighting each other and not one was left alive. The Israelites walked through the valley and gathered up all the spoils. It took them three days to collect it all. On the fourth day, they decided to call that place the Valley of Blessing. After that, no other armies wanted to face Israel and the story ends with, “Jehoshaphat’s kingdom was at peace, for his God had given him rest on every side.” Not only had God fought his battle and given him the spoils, He gave him peace and rest.

When I think of valleys, I don’t think of blessings. I think of difficult times, dark times, hard times, wandering aimlessly, and pain. What I see in this story is that God can take our valleys and turn them into blessings. We don’t have to be terrified of them because the battles that we face there are not ours, but God’s. He is the one who goes before us. He’s the one who fights on our behalf. We look at the odds and think, “There’s no way.” God looks at the odds and think, “Nothing is impossible for me.”

I like that King Jehoshaphat had the people meet him in Jerusalem. The very name of that city means “God will see to it”. They were reminded of that while they were praying and fasting about what to do in the valley. They knew they were out numbered. They knew there was no way for them to win the battle. Fear had taken over. In the middle of all that anxiety, God reminded them that He would see to it. All they had to do was show up ready to fight. When they acted in obedience to the Word of God, their enemies were defeated and they gathered the spoils. What should have been a valley of defeat turned into a valley of blessing.

You don’t have to be afraid of whatever valley you’re facing today. God sees that the odds are against you. He sees the impossibility of your situation. He wants you to turn to Him in prayer so He can remind you that He will see to it. He will be the one who goes before you. He will be the one who says, “This is my battle not yours. Show up for the fight and watch what I do.” As verse 20 says, “Believe in The Lord your God and you will be able to stand firm.” No matter what enemy rises up against you, God will see to it that the place you are afraid of will be turned into a valley of blessing.

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

August 6, 2014 · 7:44 AM

Be In The Moment

On my last trip to Haiti, there was a young lady on the team who brought a video camera. She wanted to film the different things we did on the trip and would then make a video for us. Throughout the trip, I would tell her, “Get your camera ready. You’re going to want to get this! Sit in this side of the truck, the view will be better.” Then at some of the places we were, I’d look at her and she wouldn’t have her camera out. I’d go up to her and say, “Can you get this? I think this would be great for the video.” She would oblige most of the time.

After one such incident where I noticed she didn’t have the camera out, I asked her after, “What’s going on? You’re missing some key moments of this trip.” She simply responded, “I’ve learned that it’s ok to just be in the moment sometimes. I don’t have to capture everything. Some moments should just be shared among us and not with everyone else.” In those few sentences, I’ve learned so much because I’m a go, go, go kind of person. I rarely stop and smell the roses. I hardly stop and celebrate success.

I think it’s part of today’s culture to be that way. When we do something good at work, instead of celebrating, our leaders say, “Nice. Now prove it wasn’t a fluke by doing it again. This time do better.” In our lives, we are off to work first thing, we power through lunch taking calls, after work we grab the kids, eat fast food, take them to practice, run home, bathe, homework and get to bed just so we can do it again tomorrow. We’ve forgotten how to be in the moment. We’ve forgotten that’s it’s ok to breathe and relax sometimes. We’ve forgotten how to have fun.

Ecclesiastes says there is a time and season for everything. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. I believe there’s even a time to relax and enjoy moments. I believe God set this example in creation. The Bible says that on the seventh day, God rested. I think after all that work, He wanted to take a moment to soak it all in and to enjoy it. When we don’t stop and enjoy moments, we run the risk of getting stressed and burned out. That doesn’t help us or those who are close to us.

I can tell you that things will still go on. Things will still happen even if you take a break, this world has gone on for years before you were here and it will go on for years after you’re gone. Things can still turn out fine even if you take time to just be in the moment every now and then. That video that she produced was amazing. It captured our trip perfectly even though there were moments that didn’t make it into it. Those of us who were in those moments have a certain bond that only we share because we took the time to be in the moment.

If you’d like to watch this 4 minute clip from our trip, you can watch it here.

4 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

August 5, 2014 · 7:54 AM

Connecting With God

In almost every sales class I’ve been in, one of the most important things they teach is to connect. If you can’t connect with the other person, there can be no trust. Without trust, there can be no relationship. There are lots of ways to connect with someone especially when you find common ground. It’s the same way in our relationship with God. He’s looking for a way to connect with each one if us. He’s trying to build common ground because He wants to have a relationship with each of us.

When you read in the Old Testament, the priests were Levites. They were the ones who were set apart to connect with God on behalf of Israel. If you had to atone for sins, you had them sacrifice for you. If you needed an answer from God, you asked them to intercede. Only the High Priest could enter the holiest part of the temple to speak with God. The Levites were a special tribe who had the distinct honor of being priests and connecting Israelites with God.

In Genesis 29, you read the story of Jacob, Rachel and Leah. God saw that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah, so he opened her womb so that she could bear him children. One of those children she named Levi. When you look at the meaning of the name Levi, it means “to connect”. I find it interesting that God chose the children of the tribe whose name meant connect in order to connect with His children. His plan to connect with His people was in place even before Levi was born.

Today, you and I have the ability to connect with God on our own. We don’t need a priest from Levi to offer sacrifices or to inquire with God on our behalf. Since Jesus came to this earth, He made a way for us to connect with God. I Timothy 2:5 says there is only one God and only one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ. Jesus has taken the place of the Levites in connecting us with God. He has built the trust necessary for us to have a relationship with God. He built the common ground necessary by becoming human.

God knew that it would be difficult for people to connect with Him if He hadn’t walked in our shoes. He sacrificed all He had just so He could empathize with our struggles and build a relationship with us. Just like any relationship, it takes two parties coming together. He’s done His part to connect with us. What are we doing to connect with Him? What are we doing to grow the relationship. If you want a deeper relationship with Him, you’re going to have to do the things that build connections and trust in your relationship.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

August 4, 2014 · 8:06 AM

Unexpected Help

I once heard the story of a town that was about to be flooded. There was a man in that town who prayed that God would save him from the flood. A little while later, the sheriff came and knocked on his door. He told him to evacuate before the flood came. The man replied, “God will save me.” Not long after that, the floods began to rise and water came into his house. He called on God again to save him. By now, he had gotten on his roof because the water was so high. A boat came by and offered to take him to safety, but he replied that God would save him.

The water rose so high that he was standing on the highest gable of his roof to keep from being swept away by the water. He cried out in desperation for God to save him. It wasn’t long before a helicopter flew overhead, saw him and lowered a man down in a basket. The man refused to get in the basket and told them that God would save him. After the helicopter left, the floods swept the man off his roof and he died. When he got to Heaven, he asked God why He didn’t save him. God replied, “I sent the sheriff, a boat and a helicopter. Why didn’t you accept my help?”

We often pass on God’s help because it’s doesn’t come in the packaging we want or expect. We think that God has to act supernaturally in order to truly help us. The fact is that God mainly uses other people to bring about His answers into our lives. He sends people to give us money in our desperation, but our pride won’t let us accept it. He has people offer vehicles, groceries, jobs and other things that we need, but we pass on them because we think God is going to open up the heavens, send a beam of light with harp playing angels to deliver what we need. We miss so many blessings because we refuse the answers God gives through others.

The next time you ask God for help, look around. He may be answering it in a way that you weren’t expecting. He could be using one person to get you to take a step of faith that will open the door for future blessings. I know I’ve seen God be a blessing to my family in desperate times. The answer didn’t always come from where I thought it would. In fact, it has never come from where I thought it would. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t God. It just means that God has a better plan than I do and I need to accept His help when and how He sends it.

6 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

August 1, 2014 · 8:00 AM

Grow Down To Grow Up

Have you ever grown a tomato plant? I haven’t since I was younger, but I remember that when the tomatoes started growing we had to brace the plant. Sometimes we drove a stake into the ground and loosely tied the plant to it. Other times we made a round cage from chicken wire and put it around it to help it. While it’s body is strong enough to hold the tomatoes, it’s not firm enough to hold them up. The more it produces, the more help it needs.

The same thing is true in businesses. The larger they get, the more structure they need. If they grow too quickly without the right structure in place, they’ll fail. It can also happen in our spiritual growth. The more we grow in Christ, the more structure and support we need. Colossians 2:7 says, “Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong.” Paul knew that as we grow, we need deeper roots to support us.

If you want to grow in your relationship with God, you have to let your roots go down first. You can’t grow up until you grow down. Your success in your ability to stay strong as you get closer to God depends on your ability to grow your roots. A big tree is easily blown over if it has shallow roots. The top side can be healthy, green and growing, but of it doesn’t have deep roots, it will get pushed over by the first storm that comes along.

The foundation for a skyscraper is a lot different than the foundation for a house. A shallow foundation on a large structure will crumble. Our foundation has to be built on Christ. Colossians 2:2 in the Amplified says, “That they may become progressively more intimately acquainted with and may know more definitely…Christ.” We are to progressively know Him more. We are to continue growing beyond our initial salvation experience. We are to move from milk to meat. The only way we can successfully grow more is to put down deeper roots.

We put them down by progressively spending more time in the Bible and in prayer. Your growth is directly tied to how much time and effort you put into it. I’m talking about after your salvation experience. Christ does that work because we can’t. Our growth comes from actively seeking Him. It comes from putting structure in place to help you grow. It comes from reading books on faith, having people in your life who are stronger in their faith than you so they can help you and from having people around you who are weaker do you can help pull them along. Your roots are key to your growth.

In Ephesians 3:16-17, Paul says that he prays that God would empower us with inner strength through His spirit. Then, after Christ makes His home in our heart, our roots will grow down deep into Gods love and keep us strong. The more we trust on Christ, the deeper our roots will grow. The deeper our roots grow, the closer we can get to Him. If your desire is to grow upwards in Christ, spend time working on your foundation. Do the things that will give you a clearer understand of who God is and build on that foundational knowledge of Him.

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

July 31, 2014 · 8:01 AM

A Blank Check

20140731-075946-28786380.jpg

If someone wrote you a blank check, how much would you write it out for? Would you write it out for millions of dollars so you wouldn’t have a care in the world? Would you write it out to cover your basic needs so you wouldn’t be “greedy”? Would you keep all the money or give some away to others in need? Maybe you would write it all out to an organization that is near to your heart. It’s an interesting question I think. I’ve never been given a blank check nor have I written one. I think it would be cool either way to be a part of something like that.

I’ve been reading “Good to Great in God’s Eyes” by Chip Ingram and in the chapter “Make Great Sacrifices”, he challenges the reader to write a blank check to God with our lives. It seems easy to do at first, but then you start to think about that blank. Will God cash that in for everything you have? Will He just ask for what He needs in this moment? What will it cost you ultimately? With the questions comes fear and fear keeps us from leaving that check blank. It either causes us to put an amount in there, limitations on it or stipulations.

Didn’t jesus tell us that God was a good father? Didn’t He say that if earthly fathers could give good gifts, how much more so our Heavenly Father? Then why are we so afraid to write that check out? Are we afraid He will make us destitute? Psalms 37:5 says, “I have never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging for bread.” So that’s not it. Is it that we think He will send us to some remote part of the world that we’ll hate? I don’t think He’d do that either. He knows that you need to be happy to thrive and do His work.

The truth is that we see our lives as our own and not His. That’s not easy to write and I’m sure it’s not easy to hear. If we truly believed I Corinthians 6:19-20 that’s says, “You are not your own, you were bought with a price”, we’d be willing to write that check out to God. If we truly believed it when we say, “Everything I have belongs to God,” we’d be more willing to give up our possessions for the Kingdom. We would ask God how much He wants us to give instead of just giving Him 10%. We would be willing to relocate wherever He needed us, give up that lucrative salary and do whatever He asked.

As it is, most of us live good Christian lives instead of great ones because we aren’t willing to let go of the temporary things for the eternal things. We aren’t willing to give up our sight so we can walk by faith. I believe the early church turned the world upside down as Acts 17:6 says because they understood what it meant to offer themselves as living sacrifices (living blank checks). They got it that their lives weren’t their own. What if we started living like that? How different would the world be if we wrote God a blank check with our lives? How different would your life be?

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

July 30, 2014 · 7:14 AM

Heaven’s Hound

20140730-071040-25840801.jpg

In the late 1800’s Francis Thompson wrote a open called “The Hound of Heaven”. I know I probably read it in high school, but I can’t remember much more about it than the title. When I think about God and His relentless pursuit of us, I think of that poem. I think of how God isn’t content to leave us alone. He sniffs us out, finds us and chases us until we are His. He wants nothing more than for each one of us to know Him and to be with Him. He goes to whatever lengths He has to in order to get our attention. He risks everything just so we can see His love for us.

Throughout my life, I’ve read and heard about Jesus asking the crowd, “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do?” He answers the question with, “Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?” He draws a parallel with God who does the same with us. God isn’t content with 99 sheep in the pen. He’s looking to have every one rescued when they’re lost. He will go and search until He finds that one and brings them back.

I remember as a kid thinking, “I’d leave the one. I’ve got 99 others right here. Why would they leave them to go after one?” It didn’t make sense to me because I never had sheep. I still don’t have them, but I do have pets. Shepherds love their sheep like you and I love our pets. I’ve seen it over and over when someone loses a pet. They post it on Facebook. They put out flyers with “Reward” written at the top. They drive around the neighborhood calling out to that pet. They don’t give up until that animal is home. Why? Because a pet is a member of the family to most people. Imagine how much more they’d search if it was their own flesh and blood.

You and I are not animals. We are members of God’s family. We are made in His image with His craftsmanship. We are members of His family. Romans 8:15 tells us that God has adopted us as His own children. When one of us wanders off or strays, He goes into search mode. He sends out the warnings. He calls out to us in a desperate attempt to find us. He leaves all that He has behind because He would trade it all just to have us back. It doesn’t matter if we did something stupid and that’s why we got lost. It doesn’t matter if we purposefully did it like the Prodigal Son. All that matters to Him is that we get home.

Just like a hound sniffs out what he’s looking for, God comes looking for us until He finds us. He’s given up everything He has to rescue us. He’s paid the reward in advance so that we could go home. He sacrificed His Son to pay the cost of our sin. There’s nothing we could ever do to keep Him from wanting us to go home with Him. There’s no sin strong enough to break the work done on the cross. If you’re lost today, stop and listen. God is calling out to you. He’s looking for you and He won’t rest until you’re where you belong at home with Him.

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

July 29, 2014 · 7:39 AM

Until Victory Is Won

My son always wants to help with whatever I’m doing. If I’m shopping in the store, he wants to be the one to get the item off the shelf. He says, “Here, let me help.” When I’m bringing in the groceries, he wants to carry a bag. Every once in a while he gets one that’s more than he can handle. He’ll say, “It’s too heavy. Help me, Dada.” I’ll reach down and carry the bulk of the weight, but still let him do his part. I’ve been in his shoes before. I’ve had baggage that was too heavy for me to carry on my own. I’ve just haven’t been as eager to ask for help as he has. I think there are many who are in the same boat.

In Exodus 17, the Israelites were traveling from Egypt to the Promised Land. On their way, they were attacked by the Amalekites. Moses had Joshua recruit some men to go fight the Amalekites while he stood on top of a hill holding the staff. As the battle raged on, Moses, Aaron and Hur noticed that as long as Moses had his hands raised, they were winning. When his arms were lowered, they were getting beat. They encouraged Moses to hold his hands up, but after a while he couldn’t do it anymore. He needed help.

It doesn’t say if Moses asked for help or not, but it does say that Aaron and Hur acted on his behalf. They saw a need and improvised to help him out. They grabbed a stone for him to sit on so they could hold up his arms. They stood there until the sun went down and the Amalekites were defeated. Moses named the place Yahweh Nissi which is God My Banner. God gave the victory, but it was won because two people saw another who needed help and lifted him up. They sacrificed their comfort for those who were engulfed in a battle.

If you look around at the people God has placed in your life, there are those who are fighting battles and they’re growing tired. They can’t hold their hands up anymore. They’re struggling and losing the war. God is looking for people like Aaron and Hur who will go to those who need help, hold them up in prayer and sacrifice until their battle is won. By helping them, in turn you are helping others that they are holding up. When Aaron and Hur helped Moses, they had a direct affect on the army fighting below. We never know how far our help really goes.

Whose arms has God asked you to hold up? Who in your life needs you to help them win their battle? It may not be easy for you, but If God is asking you to do it, you’re going to have to make the sacrifices necessary. You’re going to have to spend time holding their hand, standing beside them and lifting them up in prayer. Your role in their battle may not be glorious, but it is vital to their victory. They may not ask you to do it, so you may have to offer it. You also may have to improvise in order to get them through the day. Do your part in holding them up until God gives the victory.

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,