Looking beneath the surface

God is always at work in us but all too often we are closed to see it or, if we do see it, we're closed to accept it. I am reading a book that is so challenging me I want to share a portion of it with you. It's Peter Scazzero's book, The Emotionally Healthy Church. He challenges our normal thinking on discipleship when he says that a Christian really can't be a mature believer apart from a healthy emotional maturity. Time doesn't permit me to recount all he says about emotional maturity but in the book he lays out six or seven principles that he believes comprise emotional maturity. One of those is the ability to look at the core of one's self and honestly evaluate what we see. Emotional maturity includes the willingness, and the ability, to look at the center of our being and recognize areas of weakness and areas of compromise that need to be addressed and fixed. It is the ability to look at ourselves, and without casting blame elsewhere, take responsibility and ownership to fix those areas.

Listen to this excerpt-- I love it! "The gospel says you are more sinful and flawed than you ever dared believe, yet you are more accepted and loved than you ever dared hope because Jesus lived and died in your place." "God has given us the Gospel to create a safe environment to look beneath the surface. I don't have to prove that I'm lovable or valuable. I don't have to be right all the time. I can be vulnerable and be myself even if others don't accept me. I can even take risks and fail. Why? Because God sees the 90 percent of the iceberg hidden below the surface, and he utterly, totally loves me in Christ. We have a saying at New Life Fellowship: "You can be yourself because there is nothing left to prove."

If only we could grab hold of this liberating truth! I can be honest with my areas of sin and weakness because I have nothing to prove, nothing to gain. I am loved in Jesus and nothing I do or don't do will make him love me more or less. Sure the Lord wants me to change, He wants me to be like Him. But it doesn't affect His love for me. Emotional health begins with an honest look inside and a willingness to own up to what we see. Am I insecure? Am I prideful? Does gossip make me feel good? Am I a gossip? Am I too weak? Too demanding? Too arrogant? Sometimes looking inward means being willing to open up and let others help me see who I am. Did you know it's really easy to deceive ourselves? It's easy to put up walls so that we can't see our true selves. It reminds me of an ostrich that hides it's head in the sand and thinks no one can see. Or the little child that hides it's eyes behind it's hands somehow believing no one else sees either. The sad part is that others often see perfectly what you and I refuse to even look at or address. So looking within begins with me, but I often need help.

I remember watching a video one time of a business man who brought in some friends and coworkers, he was actually the boss, and asked them to share with him things about himself that they wished he would change or address. At first they were reluctant to speak but as he pressed, they eventually opened up. I remember the gist of his comments; At first it was painful to listen to but nothing helped me grow more than honestly looking at myself through their eyes.

So Lord, this is my prayer: "Help me be secure enough in your love to be honest with myself. Help me not to hide behind a wall of self delusion or a wall of ignorance. Help me change where I need to change. Help me grow where I need to grow. My hope is that when people look at me, they will indeed see a man who is being daily transformed into the image of Jesus. May they see a 'little Christ', a Christian."

From my heart,
Jimmy

Why is praying so hard?

Have a concert and lots of people show up. They even show up for regular worship services but if you have a meeting devoted to prayer, I mean really praying, they won't come. Why is that? I think there can be a number of reasons why that is so.

One is that praying is hard work. It's hard to keep one's mind from wandering. It's hard to devote the time to talking to God. We are so busy. We often think of only manual labor as hard but labor of the mind and heart can be equally intensive.

The other reason we don't pray is that deep down we are not convinced that prayer really works. By this I mean that we are not convinced that God really answers our prayers with any consistency. He answers some request, he doesn't answer others and it seems that prayer doesn't make any difference. If I pray or don't pray, life will have positives and negatives.

I think early Christians had the same struggles. The reason I say that is because there are so many admonitions in the Bible to devote ourselves to prayer. If it were easy, or if we all knew experientially that prayer makes a huge difference, I don't think there would be a need to devote ourselves to prayer.

So praying takes commitment, consecration. It is something we do on purpose because we choose to, because we believe it's important. Prayer doesn't happen on accident unless you find yourself in dire straights-- then everyone prays!

Let me give you three motivations to help you choose prayer even when you don't really feel like praying. One is the obvious challenge of God's Word. Devote yourself to prayer. Paul on numerous ocassions says just that, "Devote yourself to prayer." You and I can not call ourselves obedient to the Scriptures unless we devote ourselves to prayer.

Second, the clear example of the early church. In Acts 1, before Pentecost, the Bible clearly says the early Christians were devoted to prayer. After Peter's and John's arrest they return to the group and they errupt into a prayer meeting where the Holy Spirit shakes the house. And when Peter is released after another imprisonment, he returns to the group to find them praying. They believed that praying was imperative. Why was that so? I believe because of the example of Jesus.

Jesus' example is our third motivation for praying. He did it. Hours at a time. He did it alone. He led the group. He prayed daily. He prayed while others slept. He chose prayer and he chose it often. If the Son of God prayed, should not we pray too? If it was priority to him, should it not be priority to us?

I don't understand prayer any better than you, but I believe that it is necessary. I believe God hears our prayers. I believe it means something to him. Won't you make a commitment to personal and corporate praying?

Dig for Joy

Dig for Joy!

Happiness is such an elusive thing. One moment you’re happy and the next, something happens to rob you of that happiness. But joy is meant to be different. Joy is meant to be the underlying bedrock that doesn't shift and move with the tides of negative circumstances. But boy is it still hard to choose joy. If one is not careful those waves of adversity can cover that rock of joy with sands of discouragement. Just as a Noreaster blows in the waves that carry the sand onto the beach roads, so can your joy be covered over.

So what’s the key? Dig! Dig for the joy. It's there. Make a choice to search for it; to choose it. Remind yourself of the truth of your life. If you are a believer in Jesus, God said that Jesus came to bring you joy, abundant joy. Jesus himself told us that no one would be able to take our joy from us so when the enemy tries, fight him for it!

But how Jimmy, how do I dig, to use your analogy? Well first we believe the truth that God loves us and nothing can separate us from His great love. Kay Warren defines joy as the , “The unshakable assurance that God is in control of all the details in my life. It is the quiet confidence that ultimately everything will be alright; and the determined purpose to praise God in all things.” Then we stubbornly refuse to allow circumstances to control our lives and our thinking. Instead we rest content in his love and trust in His future for us.

Lord, I want to be a joyous Christian. I want to walk in joy. Joy is my strength. When I am with out it, I am weak and vulnerable to the enemy’s temptations. So Father, please fill me with the joy of your Holy Spirit, even now!

From my heart,
Pastor Jimmy

The crocodile hunter is dead!

The crocodile hunter is dead. It's hard to believe that Steve Irwin is actually gone but it's true. One thing about him that sticks out in my mind was the passion with which he lived for what he believed in. Nature and animals were his thing and passion for them oozed from his very pores.

I was thinking, here I am, a Christian, believing that eternity hangs in the balance for the men and women I meet. I believe that God, the Creator of all things, wants to have a personal friendship with all of us, and not only do I lack passion, I'm actually apathetic. How can such things be? Lord, I ask you to please work in my heart today. Reenergize my passion factor. Kindle again the flame in my heart. Please! That I might not live a humdrum life but one set ablaze by the power and purposes of God. As someone else once said, "Let me burn out for you rather than rust out."

I'm not sure blogging is my thing but I think I will give it a shot. (But not today!)