I'm Baaaaaaack!

Due to some technical difficulties and a couple days out of town, I have been offline for several days. I have really missed my blog but I did not miss out on some good time in God's word. I have been studying Hebrews for the last few days and look forward to sharing some thoughts. I will write more tomorrow. God Bless.

REWARD!!!!

That word really catches your eye, doesn't it? REWARD!!! This past Sunday evening I had the opportunity to speak to some teens at Red Mountain Youth Camp. I had never really spoke to teens and didn't know what to expect. I remember really looking up to the adults that were involved at camp when I grew up. Well I spoke on having an "extreme faith" in God. I felt pretty good but I found that, with kids, you can't judge your performance on their reaction! It was fun though and I truly hope to get more involved with this camp.
This week in preparing for my Life Group, I have been studying Romans 8 where Paul is talking about how we are in "bondage to decay." I have fallen into the trap so many times trying to figure out "why" things happen in my life. I have always tried to give a logical (or at least reasonable) explanation as to why things happen.
Paul explains it so perfectly. Basically, from the moment we are born, we begin to die. Because man chose to sin, our days are immediately numbered from the moment we take our first breath. God did not want it that way, but without free will, we would have no hope. If you have everything you want, you have nothing to hope for. Once I am in Heaven, I will not need hope any longer. My purpose will have been fulfilled. Until then, I will have hope.
Now, I can choose what to have hope in. I can hope for better health. I can hope for better finances. I can hope that my children grow up healthy and happy. None of these things are guaranteed. Why because I was born. I was born a sinner and I will die that way. My only true hope is that which comes from knowing Jesus.
Read Romans 8. You'll see that "the Law" established by God in the beginning was an unattainable goal. No one can follow all of the rules. We are physically incapable of doing everything right all the time. Jesus came to this world and became the sacrifice that we could never be. A sacrifice to God is supposed to be the best we have to offer. It should be "without blemish." Therein lies our problem. Until we understand that we are covered in blemishes and Jesus, by choice, sacrificed himself because we could never live up to it. In return, he asks that we follow him, worship him and do His will.
He gave up His life for mine. I need to return the favor.

I feel centered

I read yesterday but ended up going to bed and forgetting to do my blog. In just a few hours I have the privilege of sharing my faith and the word of God with some kids at the Red Mountain Youth Camp. Yesterday I prayed before I read (as I often do) and asked for God to give me something that would really center my mind for my talk tonight at the camp. I really felt like I should just stay in Mark where I have been for a while now. I finished where I left off in chapter 14 and then all of 15. As I read about the crucifixion of Jesus, my first thought was that I had really wanted something exciting. I was told that the theme for the camp this week is "Living an extreme life." My sermon title is "Extreme Faith: Teens on Fire for God" and it is about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (do you like the irony of "on fire for God?) As I read about the crucifixion and what Christ went through for me, it became very obvious to me that God had really wanted to make sure that I understood that it is all about Him and what He did for us. It really reminded me that, although I really wanted to motivate these kids, it all boils down to the fact that Jesus, even though he knew how screwed up I am, died for me.

Someone Please explain it to me

Since I finished Colossians, I am back in the book of Mark. Tonight I was in chapter 14. Am I the only one that has ever thought how nice it would have been to live in Biblical times. It would have been so much easier to have a strong faith when you see Jesus turn water into wine. Right? How about when he fed thousands of people with just a few loaves of bread and a couple fish. It had to be amazing to see a man raised from the dead or see a woman that had bled for many years be healed with just the touch of the hem of Jesus clothing.
If seeing miracles could create faith then how could Judas plan to betray Jesus. Verse 10 in chapter 14 says that Judas went to went to the chief priests. They did not have to come to him, he found them. That shows absolute intent on Judas' part.
As human beings, none of us are exempt from temptation. Even Jesus, as a human was tempted by Satan. The big difference is that Jesus could resist temptation. We, are very imperfect. How do we resist? Pray, pray, study the Bible and pray some more. An accountability partner can work wonders in your life. Find a friend that knows you well and cares about your soul. Confess your sins to them and ask them to check up on you to make sure you are not falling back into temptation.
Every generation has their trials, your character comes from how you respond to those trials.

Opportunity

Today I finished up Colossians. Being that I am a big fan of prayer anyway, the first verse was a good reminder. Skip down to verse 5 and prepare to be convicted! "Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders, make the most of every opportunity."

Wow! Are we always wise in the way you act toward outsiders? I know I'm not. What they see is what we are to them. I work in a prison and what one staff member does to an inmate, we have all done to that inmate. They see us as one single entity, not as individuals, and it is usually not good! It is the same with people that don't follow Christ. If they see you as doing something hipocritical, then we are all, as Christians, deemed to be living two lives. We are called to love people as Jesus loved people. Believers and non-believers alike.

Make the most of every opportunity. That's a hard one. In order to do that we have to be Christ minded. He has to be a part of every facet of our lives.

All of this takes us back to verse 1: "Devote yourselves to prayer...."

Gotta love that Paul!

Today I was reading in Ephesians 3&4. Man! What an awesome couple chapters. I was really swept away by Pauls prayer at the end of chapter 3. "Now to him who is able to do imeasurably more than all we ask or imagine..." I think we have a very bad habit of pigeon holeing God by thinking that he has limited power. We talk about our "all knowing" and "all powerful" God, but when we pray to Him or worship Him, we approach Him with our finite minds. We ask for things but we ask once and hope for the best. Over the past few weeks my church was trying to get into a permanent facility. I know many people were praying about it and praying a lot. I heard several people pray the if it be God's will, we will get the building. They also asked that if it is not His will, tell us a resounding NO! Well the answer was no. I, along with many people were very dissapointed. Why don't we realize that our prayers were answered? We asked that God's will be done. Well folks, God's will has (and is) being done!! Just because he does not give us the answer that we wanted does not refute his power. Could we have done great things for Pueblo West with that building? Heck yes! Would it have been great! You better believe it! Does God know things we have no idea about? Yes, He does. I don't know what God has in store for us but I am excited about it!

Oh, by the way, chapter 4 was great too!!!!

Reality Bites

Well, if there is anyone out there that noticed that I have not written in a few days, it is because I took my family camping. We spent a couple days hiking and fishing at O'Haver Lake. If you've never been there, you have to go. It is absolutely beautiful! Dennis is a fishing maniac. He caught quite a few. We also learned that he doesn't really need toys, give him a couple dead trout and he can entertain himself (and us) for quite a while. Anyway, it was a wonderful weekend.

I have to admit, I did not read my Bible while I was up there. I had intended on spending some really indepth time in the word, but time just got away from me. I did pray quite a bit though. One night, as Karen, Dennis, Sarah and I lay in the tent and I was saying our nightly prayers, I thanked God for all of his blessings. Now, this is something I put in almost every prayer but that night, something different came to mind. I usually think of blessings as physical things such as my house, family, toys and so on. After putting the kids to bed and going back outside to sit by the fire, two deer walked through our camp. It was amazing to see such beautiful creatures just cruising by. I was in their world as a visitor. I started thinking that I truly am in this world as a visitor. God blesses us with these moments more often than we realize. Everyday I hear my kids laugh but I don't always remember what a blessing it is to hear them laugh. I don't get that with my oldest son because he lives in California with his mom. Every night I go to bed with my wife, but too often I just give her a kiss and say good night. I don't treasure these moments as blessings the way God intended.

When I got home I immediately took on the laborious task of cleaning up after a weekend of camping. After that I got cleaned up and found a bill that needed to be paid. I fell into the trap of forgetting all the blessings I have and began getting more and more upset with "my reality." There is always far more bills than money so I began to get short with my wife and kids. After all, isn't that the way to solve all of life's problems? Get mad at those around you because that can't fix things any easier than you can! I can be such an idiot.

Luckily, I decided to catch up on my Bible time. God always has a way to put me in my place. As I read Ephesians, I saw in chapter 2, verse 8, God told me "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith - and it is not from yourselves, it is a gift from God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

It does not matter how little money I have this month, because "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." God is not concerned with my money, he is concerned with my heart. God is not worried about if bank account if full, he wants my faith to be overflowing. My prayer should not be that my problems go away, my prayer should be that I have the faith to be a Godly husband and father through any trials. I want my wife to be impressed with the faith that I have in God. I want my son to look at me and want to be the Godly father that I modeled for him. Someday I want Sarah to look for a Godly husband because she saw that in her daddy and knows that's the way it should be.

Pack up, look up, He's coming soon

I stole that title from a friend of mine. Thank you Steve! Steve is a friend of mine from when I worked at the Sheriff's Dept. in CA. Actually he worked with my wife and that is where I really got to know him. Ironically Steve and I have ended up following similar paths. When we hung out it was with our wives and other couples. There was usually fair amounts of alcohol involved and if God's name came up, it was probably being taken in vain. Steve is one of those guys that can always make you laugh.
I recently sent out an e-mail to everyone in my address book to invite them to read my blog. It was kind of liberating because many of these people have never heard me talk about my faith in Jesus. I'm not ashamed of Him, or am I? I have never hid my faith, but in this world, if you don't shout it out loud you are ashamed.
Anyway, Steve's response included the phrase you see in the title of this blog. Today I studied Mark 12 & 13. In chapter 13 Jesus is telling the Apostles to guard against false teachings and be on guard for the "end of the age." How should we be on guard? How do we guard against false teaching?
READ YOUR BIBLE!
You have to know the truth before you can identify a lie! Jesus tells us that, to God, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day. What does that tell you? Be ready. Pack up, look up, He's coming soon.

Serve or be served

Who doesn't like to be served? That is why we go to hotels, resteraunts or even the drive through at McDonalds. It is nice to be served. I think we as Americans have become nearly obsessed with being pampered and served. So much so that we have forgotten how to serve others. We hear about the "me generation," right? Well, some of us folks that are getting a little older than we would like to admit, are really seeing it and beginning to sound like our parents! Back when I started working here...........! You know what I'm saying?

Well, it's time that we begin serving others with love. You can serve until you turn blue, but if there is no love in it, is there really service (kinda like McDonalds - service with a snarl.)

Today I was in Mark 9-11. The verse that really spoke to me was 10:45 "For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Jesus came to serve. Similar to someone in the military. They serve and in some cases are called to give their life. Jesus served with the PURPOSE of giving his life. He knew what was going to happen to Him. He still served even knowing about what would happen to Him.

Kinda gives the word "serve" a bit of a new meaning.

Faith

Today I was studying the book of Mark. Chapters 5 & 6 to be exact. One word that keeps standing out to me is compassion. Particularly when Jesus saw a crowd and "had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. I would really like to have that kind of compassion for people. That has always been my weakness.

I am also reading Daniel 1 & 3 every day this week in preparation for speaking at the Red Mountain Youth camp on June 14. The faith that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego showed was amazing. They told King Nebuchaneezer that if he threw them into the blazing furnace, their God would save but even if he didn't they still would not bow down to his idols. What an amazing faith. Even if God does not answer my prayers, I will have the faith to follow Him anyway!