No Perfect People Allowed...

BEST POEM IN THE WORLD

I was shocked, confused, bewildered,
As I entered Heaven's door.
Not by the beauty of it all,
Nor the lights or its decor.

But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp--
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice.

Herb, who I always thought
Was rotting away in hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well.

I nudged Jesus, What's the deal?
I would love to hear Your take.
How'd all these sinners get up here?
God must've made a mistake.

And why's everyone so quiet,
So somber - give me a clue.
Hush, child, He said, they're all in shock.
No one thought they'd be seeing you.

I think we all fit in this category from time to time. We all "Think of ourselves a little higher than we ought". But I have learned that God does not look at the outward appearance, but the heart.

At The Bridge we have become a church of mis-fits, just like David's crew in I Samuel 22:1- (The Message) So David got away and escaped to the Cave of Adullam. When his brothers and others associated with his family heard where he was, they came down and joined him. 2 Not only that, but all who were down on their luck came around—losers and vagrants and misfits of all sorts. David became their leader. There were about four hundred in all. At The Bridge we love seeing what God can do in the lives of messed up people.

We just finished a series based on the book, No Perfect People Allowed. Together we learned that God came for the messed up, that you can come as you are! If that describes you, great, you are the reason Jesus came to the Earth - the sick are in need of a physician, not the well...

I'm Coming UP!

I was just talking to Gus this morning and he reminded me of a message I preached a few months back. (Its good to know someone is actually listening!) I decided to make it the topic of this blog. As we stand in this economic climate we need to be reminded that everything that goes down, in the Kingdom, must come up!

Matthew 19:30 (NIV)- But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.

Matthew 19:30 (TMNT)- This is the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first.

In this world we understand that what goes up must come down, but the spiritual world is a kingdom of opposites. It’s a world where the last will be first, where the poor say they are rich and the weak say they are strong. It’s a world where in order to get you have to give, and to increase you must decrease. It’s a world where his strength is made perfect in our weakness. It’s a kingdom that if you want to go up you have to go down. Though you walk through the fire you will not be burned…. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death you will have no fear… In this world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world! And everything that goes down is destined to come up. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy’s coming in the morning! The very fact that you are down is an indication that you are on your way back up!

2 Corinthians 4:7 (TMNT) If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. ⁸ As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, ⁹ but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven’t broken.

Romans 8:35 (NIV) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You may be going down right now, but hold on for a minute, cause your on your way back up with more power and energy that you have ever had before.

Pastor James, why do I have to go down in order to go up, that’s a great question, I’m glad you asked it! Newton's first law: law of inertia- Every body perseveres in its state of being at rest… except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by force impressed. In other words, we are will remain just like we are until the pressure to change becomes greater than the desire to stay where we are. Only when we are allowed to fall to the bottom do we then create the pressure to cause change in our lives.

Newton's third law: law of reciprocal actions- For an action there is always an equal and opposite reaction… The pressure that is created in our lives that pushes us down is not just creating pressure, but also momentum. But remember for every action, the pressure pushing us down, there is an equal and opposite reaction, the momentum that will carry us higher than we were to begin with.

If I were bouncing a ball, the harder I try to push that ball down, the faster and higher is comes back at me. I can push as hard as I want, that ball is still going to respond to the pressure and bounce back to me faster than I push it down. Its like those power balls you get out of the dispenser at Wal-Mart. You can throw them down as hard as you want, but they will keep on bouncing back.

Anybody ever seen one of those things when you were a kid that when you hit it, it lays way over and bounces back up, cause its weighted at the bottom? No matter how hard you hit it, it always bounces right back up. Somebody needs to get a bounce back in their spirit. Somebody needs to look life in the face and say you may hit me and knock me down, but I have to go down in order to come back up.

I may be down now, but I am on my way back up. I may have fallen down one more time, but I have a bounce back in my spirit and I’m on my way back up! Tell ‘em, I’m like George and Wheezy, "Baby, I moving on up…"

There’s a song by the great American Theologian, Rodney Adkins, that says, If you're going through hell, keep on going, don't slow down, if you're scared, don't show it. You might get out before the devil even knows you're there. If you're going through hell, keep on moving, face that fire, walk right through it. You might get out before the devil even knows you're there

It’s time for someone today to make their mind up that you will not quit. I will not give up! I might be down, but everything that goes down, MUST come up!

Take a Stand...

I was reading Isaiah 7 in the Message this morning in my devotion and God began to speak to me in verses 9-11. It says "...If you don't take a stand in faith, you won't have a leg to stand on." ..."Ask for a sign from your God. Ask anything. Be extravagant. Ask for the moon!"

As I was reading this my spirit began to jump. God was telling me it is the season of harvest, the season for faith to be increased. He literally issued a challenge to me this morning to ask him anything. I believe there are many of us who have sown in tears, but now is the time to bring in the harvest rejoicing. Now is the time to fill the barns. We have been building bigger barns, expanding the tent posts and expanding our territory, now God is ready to fill them.

Stand in faith, pray in faith, walk in faith, ask in faith, give in faith. Ask for great things from your God. Stop asking for "believable" things, the things you are pretty sure God can do. Meaning the things that if God does not do, you can pull off yourself. Be extravagant, over the top in your faith. Design the ministry God has placed in your heart and ask for the finances, the staff, the facilities, the people, the buses, the sidewalk trucks, the sound systems, the resources to make it a reality.

Ask for the moon! The time has come that we lose our "earthly" thinking. It's time to shoot for the stars, to have faith that propels us to the heavens.

God is challenging us to move beyond this life of doubt cloaked in false humility. Walk in boldness and confidence knowing that he who began a good work in you is able to finish what he started. He is able to do EXCEEDING, ABUNDANTLY ABOVE ALL we can ASK or even IMAGINE!

So dream big dreams, pray big prayers, walk in big faith because if you don't stand on faith you won't have a leg to stand on!

The Walk of Faith

I am learning a lot about this walk we call faith. Faith is sometimes this mystical thing that we talk about, but may time confuse as a noun, when in actuality it is a verb. Many people say they walk in faith, when what they are doing is walking in the faith. This faith walk requires more than just knowledge about God, it requires that we chase after God. It is getting up every day and walking where God says walk and doing what God says do.

I am learning that this starts with the little things. There is an experiment in the world of theoretical physics called the Butterfly Effect. This theory states that in the perfect situation, and the right environmental conditions that if a butterfly flaps its wings of the coast of Africa it could result in a hurricane in NY. While this theory may be a little far fetched, it proves a very valuable point. Even the littlest things have great consequences.

There was a scientists named Fermi', he invented the ferimeter which measures things as small as 10:16th power (meaning very tiny) He demised that even the smallest things have tremendous effect on the things around us.

So, my point is this, when we walk by faith we automatically look for the big stuff, the walking on water, the healing of the sick, the financial breakthrough. But God is challenging me to look at the everyday decisions that I make in life. Am I making decisions based on faith or fear? Am I pursuing a life that places obedience to the leading of the Spirit of God ahead of personal security? Am I truly walking in faith?

My challenge to you today is look for the little things, the choices, your attitude, your perspective, your conversation. (Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Whatsoever things are ...pure and lovely...think on these things!) Walk in faith today!

Where's the Wind Blowing?

John 3:8 (The Message) You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That’s the way it is with everyone ‘born from above’ by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.”

When you enter this life of following after the Christ you enter into a life no longer guided by the same landmarks as your old life. The old life is measured by tangible things, years, money, possessions, titles. The new life is measured by the things you cannot see, faith, hope, love, grace, mercy, maturity. The old things are visible, tangible, they are perceived by your senses, you can taste, touch, smell, see and hear them. This new thing is visible as to the effects, you can see and hear where happened after the fact.

This new thing is driven by the wind of the spirit. Like a natural wind, it is invisible, yet it can be seen, it is mad of "nothing" yet it can produce something. Our job in life it to learn to ride the wind. To learn to perceive the direction, the speed and the destination of the wind. To put up the sails of our lives and catch the uncatchable, and hold the intagible.

This is the source of great frustration for most. For sometimes the wind seems to be clear, it is blowing NNW at 50 miles/hour. Other times is seem to be still, and yet other times it seems to be spinning widly in circles. These are the times that we have to know who is in control of the wind. Jesus is the master of the uncontrolable, as the Disciples said, "Even the wind and the waves obey him".

In the middle of the hurricane, tornado, stillness or breeze you are in right now, take you hands off the controls and allow the master to steer the ship. You may not be able to navigate this storm, you may not be able to make the boat move, you may be going in a direction that is oppostie what you thought, allow Jesus to speak to the wind in you life today.

Stop right now and say Jesus, I give you control of my life. Now take a deep breath and watch the effects of the wind, for the steps of a righteous man and woman are ordered after the Lord. He said he knows the plan he has for you, a plan to bless you and give you a future and a purpose! Speak to the wind today Jesus!

Something Stinks!

In John 11 there is a story about a man named Lazarus. He was a man that was a dear friend of Jesus, but one day he died. Jesus, hearing that he died, stalled. He took a few days just hanging out, knowing that his friend was dead. I have some personal issues with this text, but this is not about my need for therapy, there is a very important point buried in here that God wants you to get.

Verse 15- Jesus says I am glad I was not there when he died, so that you can believe. There are some things in our lives that have died. Important things, things that meant a lot to us. Our dreams, our passions, our direction. These things have died on purpose. I need to say that again. God has ALLOWED some things to die in our lives, so that we may believe.

We all have things that have died, we have buried them, walked away and stopped allowing ourselves to think what might have been. But then out of no where Jesus shows up and says that thing is not dead, it's just asleep and I am here to wake it back up in you. But many times our response is, "Jesus its been dead for a long time, now it just stinks". Jesus is saying to you today, "I am the resurrection and the life, he that is in me, thought he were dead, yet shall he live".

Today, you have some things that are dead, that stink, in your life; your finances, your dreams, your relationships. It is that very fact that attracts Jesus to your house. The reason that thing died is so He can walk in and restore your faith. What an amazing dichotomy, he let it die so that your faith can live!

So I ask you today, what's that smell? Something stinks!

Somebody needs to walk in their house today and declare "Something stinks!" (then apologize to your husband). Shake off the spirit of heaviness and fear, Jesus is on his way. He has been waiting for it to get good and ripe, so you would believe again.

Just a thought...

Friction -vs- Traction

I am reading a book by Erwin McManus called Unstoppable Force and he makes the distinction between friction and traction. The same issue, substance or obstacle that causes friction in our lives also gives us traction to overcome it. I think over some of the greatest obstacles in my life and have to say they have been just that, friction (pain, road-rash, etc...) and traction. The very things that I asked God to remove have been the platforms to get me to where I am today.

Had we not gone through the struggles we did pastoring our first church, The Sanctuary, we would never have joined the staff at New Life Christian Centre. Had we not joined that staff we would never have received the experience and training to see the amazing growth and momentum we are enjoying at The Bridge - Hot Springs today. It is easy to curse the darkness, but remember if it were not for the darkness you would never enjoy the light.

Two things I learned in the darkness that have kept me until daybreak:

1. Never let go of His hand. There is an old song, "When you can't see his face, trust his heart". I say, "When you can't see His face, hold on for dear life!" When Peter started to sink, Jesus reached out for him, or probably more accurate, Jesus reached out and Peter grabbed Him. The best place to be when you are sinking is holding on to the Rock.

2. Learn all you can. When it's darkest it seems like your other senses step up to compensate for the loss of sight, especially your hearing. When you are in the dark, listen carefully. John Maxwell says when you fall, pick something up while your down there. Don't be too quick to jump back up. Learn all you can. Listen to the Spirit, to mentors, to friends. The more you learn while you are there the better your chances are of not being there again.

Lastly, know you are not alone. Even though it is dark and you cannot see anyone around you, know there are many others in the dark with you. One commonality we all have is that we all find ourselves in the dark from time to time...