Dealing with Opposition

I have been preaching through Nehemiah over the past few weeks and have just loved it. The book gives us a glimpse of how the Lord has lead Nehemiah back to Jerusalem in order to rebuild the wall around the city. He has approached the King and has been given the freedom to go ahead with his plans. The only problem is that he begins to face detractors. He is criticized, beat down by various lies, engulfed with accusations, but he still marched on.
Have you ever had this problem? Have you ever set your mind to a task and decided to move in a certain direction only to have those around be the first to offer a thousand reasons why you shouldn't proceed. People always seem to be there to tell you what not to do. Often your dreams and my dreams die at the hands of those standing up in judgement of these plans. You have a dream and set the plan but can't get anyone to buy in.
Nehemiah had plenty of people that wanted to stop him, but he was able to make through the storm and make the most of the dreams God had given him. The question for you and me is not if we will have opposition, but how will we respond to opposition when we face it. Nehemiah chose to pray, stay the course, and act with integrity. How will you respond.

Go back and read the book of Nehemiah. Take some life lessons from and allow God to some amazing work in your life and the lives of those around you.

Ask yourself these questions:

What is the vision God has given me?



What are the obstacles in my way?



How am I responding? How should you respond?



Are trusting God with your plans and the work he wants to do in and through you?

VISION

Are you living with vision? Do you live your life on point or do you live a distracted life? The reason I ask this is because most of us don't feel that we have a clue about the direction that God wants us to move in. We live our lives in such a way that we can so easily get off track. Many live in reactionary mode rather than being proactive about their life.
The point is that God has a plan and a purpose for you and for me. We can live on focus because God will give us an opportunity to live out the life He has in fact called us to and made us for.

God wants you to have vision so you can make the most of your life.
Ask yourself these questions:

What is my experience? (the good, they bad and the ugly) Basically all of your life experience.

What are my desires? (this is what you love and enjoy)

What is God up to in my life right now? This means that you are actively seeking Him daily.
It is hard to see a pattern when you are not engaging Him.

What is keeping me from doing what God is calling me to do? Obedience is always the right decision to make!

Where there is no vision, the people perish.

Proverbs 29:18

Stop Before You Start

We spend all of our time running around in a frenzy most of the time. If we don't slow down, we will never make the most of our lives. God wants to do something in our lives that is truly amazing and there is no doubt we must hear from him so that we can follow him in obedience. The challenge for us is to press the pause button or stop our lives long enough to hear from the Lord. If we don't stop we will be pressed by all the other influences in our world. May you take some time regularly to engage the Lord.

Remember: We must stop before we start and when we do:

We are more like our heavenly Father.

We start we gain a new perspective on our life.

We are refreshed and gain new energy for the responsibilities God has given us.

We are able to remember how God has been faithful to us in the past.

We place God in his proper role - overall!

We learn to trust God rather than our effort.

Further Reading:
Genesis 2:1-3; Deuteronomy 5:12-15

Where has this year gone?

I sound crazy asking this question. But I really do wonder where this year has gone? I wonder what will this next year will bring? I wonder will this next year be different from last year? I wonder about how my life with Christ will be different? Julie and I long to be parents. Will this be the year? Am I ready for this?
What are you thinking about as we close out one year and move on into another? Take some time and reflect on your life and consider what God is up to in your life and our world.

The Bible reminds me that my life is brief - like a vapor. Kind of like your breath on a cold morning - vanishing is just a moment. Since this is the truth, we would do well to stop long enough to gain a new perspective as the new year is fast approaching.

I want God's perspective on my life.

I want God's best for those I love the most and even those I don't know.

I want to see God work in this world in a way that people would be amazed by his grace.

I want to experience life like I never have before.

I want to make people smile, to bless others, to forgive, be a grace giver!

I want to laugh out loud as much as possible.

I want to jump in the mud and play in the rain. Jesus said that must be like child. hmm :)


What do you want?

December 21 - The Bread of Life

Jesus was born in Bethlehem which means "bread of heaven". It was appropriate that our Savior was born in this city, because he is the "bread of life". Jesus alone will satisfy the hunger in our souls. He will quinch the great hunger of the world and we have in this life. When Jesus came to this earth he came to give people taste of heaven. He knew that people were tired and hungry for the real thing and he delivered. Stale bread is awful and so is stale religion!
Most of the time are statisfied with some far less than what we are offered in a relationship with the Lord. We are too willing to have our palets layered with the things of this world that will always leave us wanting. What are you satisfied with? What are you allowing your life to be feed with?

Feast on the Lord, his Word, and his will.

Futher Reading:
Luke 4:4; John 6:25-40

December 20 - Where is Your Post?

This past week while we were on our mission trip in New York City, we were involved in servant evangelism. Servant evangelism has been a practice of The Journey Church since the church was started some seven years ago. This has been a way for them to love the city and also provide the individuals information about the church. We were able to hand out cards and granola bars to nearly twenty-four thousand people. Over the next few weeks and months the church will most certainly see first time visitors from the cards we were able to distribute and some of them will pray to receive Christ as Savior. In fact, this past month the church saw thirty first time decisions from their faithful work in the city. is was great to be a part of the ministry this church is doing in NYC.

This past week were were in five different locations throughout the city. These different sites were our mission posts for the week. We would gather our material and then head our to ministry site to serve the people of NYC with the love of Christ. Now let me ask you a question. Where is your mission post? Where has God placed you to be a light for Him? When Christ came to earth he displayed the love of God in a radical way. God is call us to do the same. Are you and I daily serving the people around us and helping further the kingdom of God in our own zip-code?

Further Reading:
2 Corinthians 5:11-21

December 17 - Christmas Giving or Getting

I was looking through my Charlie Brown comic book again the other day and noticed a very thought provoking one written back in the late 60's. Linus is asking what we mean when we ask if someone had a "good" Christmas, so I began to wonder myself about this idea that Linus had brought up. What is a good Christmas to you? Is it the number of gifts you receive? Is it how big your bonus is?
The Bible helps us see that the it is more blessed to give than to receive. Giving is the nature of the Gospel. Jesus gave his life. Jesus gave his all. What are we giving this year? How are you giving your life away? Are you serving those around you? Do you give the gift of time to those you closest to you?

"the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,

and to give his life as a ransom form many."

Matthew 20:28