A Fresh Start

God has programed into His system that every day would be a day of fresh start, not a one time thing. You get it over and over and over again.

Have you ever had a time in your life when you just wanted a fresh start more than anything? Maybe it’s to move to a new job or school or even a new state? After all even nature gets to start over. Every new season is a fresh start just as every new day is as well.

In the book of Lamentations chapter 3 the prophet says, “My mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness.” This is wonderful news for us because this means that God’s mercies are there every single morning, In fact, God’s mercies are new every time we repent of sin. We don’t have to wait for a new day or a new season to start anew, we can get things right with the Lord as many times as we need too.

I’m not talking about what is referred to as “greasy grace” where you willfully sin because you know you can repent. I’m talking about living in the knowledge of the fact that the completed work on the cross by Jesus Christ affords us the right to repent and start fresh as many times as we need.

Sometimes we can find ourselves not just having a day, but a whole season of hardships and we feel we cannot take much more. It reminds me of a great story about Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States. When he was 39 years old, his wife passed away and he wrote in his journal, “My life is over.” He felt like everything for him had passed. He’d already written the Declaration of Independence and he’d been the governor of Virginia. However at this point in his life, he felt like everything was done. Why even bother going on living? Why even go any further? He didn’t realize that he was still going to be the president of the United States.

He didn’t realize that he was still going to found the University of Virginia, and he didn’t realize that he would go on to build an incredible place at Monticello, his home that now is a tourist site for many Americans. Here’s the point from Thomas Jefferson’s story. You may be at a point where you’re writing in your journal, “My life is over.” However, you have so many fresh starts ahead of you so don’t give up!

We have to learn how to have a system of fresh starts, we need to basically build them into our walk with the Lord. There are some ways to do this so that you can begin to walk in the knowledge of having fresh starts in your life. We all need this and as believers God has provided ways for us to have it.

So the first thing you have to have in your life is faith. The second thing you have to have in your life is the Word of God. If you have the Bible in your life, but no faith, the Bible is not going to be as great for your life as it can be.

If you’re a person of faith, you have to come to the Word of God with faith. In fact, if you’re praying but you don’t believe God hears your prayers, then to whom are you praying.

Everything begins with faith. And that is the same with the Word of God. One of the most shocking statistics shows that fewer than 9% of Americans read their Bible on a regular basis, fewer than 9%. 

It also says that 50% of Christians will read their Bible 3 to 4 times a year…3 or 4 times a year. If it’s the most incredible book that’s ever been written, why don’t we read it? Because we already think we know what’s in it. 

Reading the Bible needs to be a regular part of your life. It’s not as much about how much you read every day as much as it’s about putting the word of God in you every day.

Another thing that contributes to having a fresh start is the Holy Spirit. Many people are under the impression that you pray to receive the Holy Spirit and that’s it for the rest of your life. However, we can get a fresh touch from the Holy Spirit every day. I love that God gives us “free refills” as it has been called by a man of God.”””

These three ingredients are the system to having fresh starts in your life every day. Faith, reading the Bible and the Holy Spirit are some of the best ways of having a fresh start.

The Good Stuff

When life pressures us, what comes out is not always what was on the label. But if we stay under pressure long enough the “good stuff” will start to come out!

Have you ever had a time when you squeezed a tube of something and you were surprised at what came out? Have you ever squeezed a tube of lotion or medicine and because it had not been used for a while an oil of some kind comes out? It can be surprising and off putting as well.

Now let’s take a moment to ponder what could come out of our hearts and mouths if squeezed unexpectedly. Being squeezed can look like many different things like someone dangerously cutting you off in traffic with your kids in the car. It could be when your spouse snaps at you or when your kids have gotten on your very last nerve. It can also be any combination of mental, emotional, physical, financial or spiritual issues.

We all like to think that if we were squeezed we would burst into prayer…however, many times that is not the first thing that happens. We might react with anger, rage, jealousy etc.

Now, in II Corinthians 4:8-11, Paul is talking about the mature disciples when he says, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.”

In summary, Paul is saying that they are going through hard times yet they are not destroyed by any of it. The reality is that it is absolutely impossible to live in this world without being “squeezed” however we have the choice of what comes out when we are.

If we are disciples of Jesus and we are to emulate His ways it’s helpful to know how Jesus Himself handled being pressured. Luke 4 is the chapter that describes the event where Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. I don’t know about you, but it is very comforting that Jesus was squeezed just like we are. Jesus had just been baptized by His cousin John the Baptist and afterwards He headed to the wilderness where He would be tempted three different times. One was for Him to turn stones to bread. Another was to throw Himself off a cliff and the last was for Him to bow to satan. In EVERY ONE of these temptations Jesus replied with the Word of God! So there it is…our example to follow is when the pressure is squeezing in on us we should respond with prayer.

We should be asking the Lord to bless our enemies when they hurt us. Matthew 5:43-45 says, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”

If we are feeling pressured by the stuff of life, we should respond with specific scriptures that are applicable. It’s also worth noting that the very best way of responding with the Word is if we have it IN us. Sure you can grab your Bible on your phone or nightstand, but sometimes you have a matter of seconds to respond in a Godly manner so having the Word in your heart is optimal.

Jesus was pressured in ways we couldn’t possibly understand and He still responded in a way that was pleasing to His Father. When He was exhausted and hungry and even dealing with the death of his beloved cousin John, He responded with love and compassion for others. When He was close to facing death He cried out to God but still set aside His fear and sadness to go to the cross. Even hanging on the cross He could have called down the wrath of God on those who crucified Him. However, He actually prayed, “Father forgive them for the know not what they do.” Luke 23:34.

If Jesus Christ could be merciful and compassionate while enduring the tremendous pain of the cross, surely we can show compassion and forgiveness for those that hurt us.

As you ponder these thoughts and scriptures try and think of ways that you could ask the Lord for help. First, if you don’t know Him personally you can ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins and to live in your heart as Lord. The bottom line is that as Christians when we are squeezed we want the good stuff to come out. Let’s be sure to have the Bible stored in our hearts for when the squeeze comes. We have such an amazing example in Jesus.

All That Remains

Something that when all things are set and done, we know we can still hold on to.

I feel it is relatively safe to say that most of us if not all of us have struggled with the constant changes in this world. So much is taking place all day every day that it can be disorienting. We know what we believe and we know the difference between sin and Holiness, but we are still affected by the never ending movement towards complete chaos.

We find ourselves reflecting on that thing that is unmovable and unshakable. Let’s look at 1st Corinthians 13:13. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love,”

I’m sure I could get a hardy “AMEN!” When I say that it takes great faith to live in this world! Thanks or no thanks to social media we have real time exposure to every little thing happening around our country and even the world.

We obviously need hope as well. If we didn’t have hope of being with our Heavenly Father in Heaven, we would be racked with fear as those who don’t trust Jesus are. As wonderful as faith and hope are to us, we will only need them until we go to our Heavenly Home. Love however, now that is not going anywhere. After all God IS love.

Let’s discuss another aspect of faith. When putting faith into action, the best end result is prayer. When you pray and ask Jesus to be Lord of your life and to cleanse you of sin…you are putting faith into action with prayer.

There is an awesome story in the Bible in Acts 10 and it’s about a Roman centurion named Cornelias. This man was a gentile yet he prayed fervently to God. He was visited by an angel who told him in verse 4, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.” This meant that Cornelius was serious about his prayers.

It’s a great story and the reality is that our prayers don’t just float around and if not immediately answered they don’t just disappear. Our prayers have no shelf-life either. The prayers that were prayed by those before us remain even after they have passed on to Heaven.

If anyone ever told you that a life lived for Jesus is an easy one, they were blowing smoke. The Christian life is a blessed life, one filled with faith, hope and love, but definitely not easy. You do sometimes learn lessons the hard way in life. There’s times where you’re going to suffer at the hands of others. You’re going to be a victim. Sometimes you do everything right, but somebody else will come along and mistreat you just because they’re a terrible person. Its a fact. We read the stories of God delivering Daniel in the lion’s den and the three Hebrew men in the fire that were completely unharmed? Well, let’s just remember that Daniel still spent the night with ferocious lions and the three men still spent the night in a pit of fire. The deliverance happened because of the situation they were already in.

I’m Hebrews 11 we find the chapter that deals with what is called “The heroes of the faith.” These are the folks that prayed like their life depended on it because it did. They are considered heroes because of their faith, their prayers and their perseverance.

There is yet another great story in the Bible about the Prodigal Son. This young man wanted his inheritance from his father while he was still alive. This is wildly inappropriate because he is basically waiting for his dad to die to have his money. His dad gave him his inheritance and the son left. He went and lived it up by total and complete debauchery. When the money ran out and all the “friends” left him to find another fool to leech off of, he was in a desperate situation. He was so hungry he was wanting the food the pigs were eating. It occurred to him that he could return to his father’s house not as a son, but a servant. As he came walking up the road his father saw him and he told the servants to prepare a feast for him. He welcomed him home with open arms.

This is a picture of our Heavenly Father and if you have walked away for any reason He is ready to receive you back and to have fellowship with you.

Soon, in Heaven we will no longer need faith or hope, but thank God we have it now. You can put your hope in Jesus and by faith ask Him into your heart. He will pour out His love on you and with His help we can navigate this life.

Shape of God – The Square

Psalm 23:5 says, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Now, this is not a literal table with literal food. This is a picture for the fact that we can feast on the Lord’s presence and the peace that He offers us in His presence. What a beautiful picture this paints for us! In this world we encounter so much opposition and when we as Christians are feeling beat up by the world, God will lead us to green pastures where we can rest and again experience the peace that God offers us.

Now, the specific table we are learning about this week is the Passover table. In the Old Testament God called Moses to deliver the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt. The Pharaoh at that time was a very stubborn man and so God sent the 10 plagues against Egypt while keeping the Israelites safe. These plagues were to demonstrate God’s power and yet Pharaoh’s heart remained hard and he refused to let the Israelites go. The final plague was for the death angel to move through Egypt killing the firstborn in all families. In order for the Israelites to be safe they had to kill a lamb and put the blood on top and both sides of the door to their homes. They were given very specific instructions on what to eat and how to prepare to leave the country after Pharaoh finally let them go.

It is because of these events that the Jews celebrated the Passover and do to this day.

The very special menu for the Passover symbolizes the fact that the table the Israelites were sitting at was one of safety and the Egyptian tables were ones of death and destruction.

John 14:6 says, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me. This scripture leaves very little for interpretations. It means Jesus is THE WAY to eternal life…not one way, but THE WAY. He is truth and if we are searching for truth it is only found in Him. He is THE LIFE and the only life that leads to eternity with the Father. It is through Jesus that we find the Father.

The Passover table was an example of the table where we as Christians would need to sit. The lamb that was slain represents Jesus who was slain for our sins. This table is the one where we should be most comfortable. However, we can choose to sit at the table of self or at the world’s table. These choices lead to destruction and promise us no peace whatsoever.

There is a widely held misunderstanding in this world. It is the belief that one can be good enough for Heaven and that enough good works can be done to override the fact that Jesus has not been invited into one’s heart. The truth is none of us can ever be good enough to make it into Heaven based on merit. However, by accepting Jesus and choosing to sit at His table and follow His ways, truth and life, we can be saved.

Choosing to eat at the table of the world which is run by Satan, is the quickest way to wind up in bondage to sin. The things that Satan has to offer are just a counterfeit of the blessings the Lord has for us. Prosperity can be replaced with a selfish need for power and wealth, sex and intimacy in marriage gets replaced by cheap and empty sex outside of marriage etc. However, when we determine to feast at the Lord’s table we learn about holiness and that looks very different from the world.

The Lord’s table is one of love, peace and fulfillment. This week let’s be mindful of the different tables available to us and determine to sit at the right one.

Shape of God – The Square

We know who Jesus is, we know what Jesus said, we know what Jesus did, and we are trying to align ourselves with His purpose!

Shape of God – The Rope

The cross paid my price. The resurrection gives me hope.

Shape of God – The Circle

God Has Promises for You –

This week we look at the circle which represents the fact that we finish where we start. God takes us full circle in our lives and with His promises.

There is an academic phrase dealing with literature called “ring composition” and we are going to discuss it in regards to our circle shape for this week.

Ring composition is a technique that basically means the story will end up where it started. On the left side, you have the events building up to the arc, which is at the bottom. After the arc, the story starts making its way back around and back to an eventual close. Interestingly enough, there’s a parallel between situations going on, on the left and the right of the ring.

There are some amazing cinematic examples of this technique such as The Lion King. The movie starts with a baby and ends with one as well. On each side you have Scar…one side he plans to rule and plots to kill the king. The other side relates because Scar then does become the King. This is an amazing visual of ring composition.

You have heard the phrase, “It has gone full circle” before I’m sure. This basically means that something has ended in a similar way that it began. This is how our Heavenly Father works.

How does this all relate to God you ask? I’m so glad you did because here’s your answer. God is very much a “full circle” kind of God. If you are a believer and you have placed your trust and faith in Jesus, you can believe that the promises He has made you are “Yes and Amen!” II Corinthians 1:20.

Many times we behave like the Israelites who seemed to have short term memory issues. Got did so many amazing miracles for them and a few days later they were panicking because of something they needed. It’s SO easy to judge, but haven’t we done the same with the Lord? I know I sure have!

We can easily find ourselves getting weary in waiting on God’s promises, but we need to remember something very important. We are not waiting for God to “show up!” God IS time. Just because we don’t see things moving on our behalf doe not mean it’s not moving.

God already has the ending planned. The ending to this life and to everything He has started in you and for you. We need to remember that the answer we have been waiting on is already there. We aren’t waiting on God to show up, He is actually waiting on us to arrive.

God created man and woman to fellowship with Him in the Garden of Eden, but because of the original sin everything changed. However, because God always has an ending created with His beginning, He sent His Son to earth to pay for OUR SINS. If we accept the completed work on the cross, we will end up in Heaven spending eternity with God, just as He planned all along…full circle!

There is another important principle that we should remember and it is written in Galatians 6:7. “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” Sometimes the delay to our promises or what we perceive as a delay is really the consequences of past decisions coming to pass. When we turn our lives over to God it takes some time for us to produce a good crop from allowing God to be in control.

When thinking about the many shapes of God, it is especially comforting to think of Him represented as the shape of a circle. There is no drop off point, no place for Him to disappear out of your life. Rest assured friend that God ALWAYS finishes what He has started!

Shape of God – The Triangle

The Godhead –

In the world of Christian theology one of the hardest things for us to wrap our brain around is the doctrine of the Holy Trinity! How is this possible and how can we EVER hope to understand?

At some point most of us in the church have heard a sermon or two on this topic and I bet almost all of them ended the same. We have almost all been told that “it’s just a mystery.” Now, don’t get me wrong it truly is far beyond our scope of understanding in its entirety.

Going back a very long time ago, after the original disciples went home to be reunited with Jesus in Heaven, men began searching for an explanation for how God could be One, yet seen as three.

Justin Martyr from the early hundreds described God as having “faces” or one God with multiple faces or masks.

Ignatius of Antioch from the third century described the Trinity as the “Threefold Splendor of God.” He was one of the first to use the triangle as a visual example as well. There’s Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, it’s one triangle, but there’s three points on the triangle and you can’t separate them or you don’t have a triangle.

Then towards the end of the second century, there was a man named Tertullian who was an incredible thinker. He settled on the Latin word “persona” to help better understand. Coming from the world of theater, persona is like a mask. So an actor, for example, would walk out on the stage and he’d be wearing a persona and he would embody that persona while he was on the stage. He could exit the stage and then return with another persona.

These are just a few out of many attempts to describe God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit being One. An issue that arises, one of many, is how words change through the years. The Latin word “persona” morphed into the word we now know as “person.” If we look at the Trinity as three separate persons operating as one, our brains cannot logically get it. Instead of looking at it as three separate people living and moving as one, it is more beneficial to look at it as three distinctions within One Being. These “personas” are distinct, but never alone.

So, around 700 A.D a theologian came up with the word “perichoresis” which means basically “the dance, the divine dance.” He talked about the fact that if he looked at one Divine Persona he could see another as if there’s life flowing in and out and between them. It’s like the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father, and the Spirit is in the Son, and the Son is in the Spirit. There’s really no way to divide that. It’s like you have this dance going on and they’re just spinning and going so fast that you can only kind of make out bits and pieces. This is the divine dance! What a beautiful picture of the Trinity. You can’t have one without the other.

Lastly, C.S. Lewis wrote in his book, Mere Christianity, “God is not a static thing, not even a person, but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life.”

Imagine instead of getting overwhelmed and intimidated by the sheer magnitude of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost, we allow ourselves to be amazed? This truly is such a vibrant visual of our God. When we need direction from the Holy Spirit, we can now understand that we can receive that and so much more! We also receive the power that comes from a living God and the love of Jesus as well!

God invites us to join the dance with Him!

For all of us, whether new to the family of God or if you have followed Him for years… it’s time to join the dance!

Shape of God – The Cloud

We have heard that God is like a prism and that He is like a cloud, but have you ever thought about a simple dot when you think about the Lord??

Well, for starters, what is a dot? It’s a precise point at the end of a sentence which is probably the most common form of a dot. It is very precise right? It is the smallest of details.

When God says something you can know that He is very precise with what He means. He is very much into details including the details of our lives.

Details, some of us run from them, and some of us live for them.

I love the fact, that the God of all creation, the Alpha and the Omega cares about the simple details in our lives. The Scriptures tell us that God knows the very count of the hairs on our head. (Luke 12:7) Think about that for a second, 8 billion people in the world and God knows the number of hairs on our heads. He also knows the number of every grain of sand in the world. How can we not be comforted by the fact that God knows each and everything about us, and cares about the things that seem insignificant to us.

Have you ever had a time where you were blessed with some thing That the average person would not get excited about, but because it was some thing specifically designed to bless you, you realize that it was God? I have had countless blessings in my life that I knew, for a fact were especially curated for me, and would look like an ordinary thing to anyone else. Those moments show us that things that are important to us are important to Him as well. I like to compare it to the fact that as parents we all know some thing special that means a lot to our kids. You could get some thing for one child because you know it’s special to them, and it would mean absolutely nothing to another. I feel like God is the same way.

God has a way of surrounding us with details for us to enjoy and for us to recognize His work. How wonderful is it that our God is not just concerned with our obedience to Him, but He cares that we feel connected to Him in all sorts of ways. One of the easiest ways is to take time each day and think about God’s goodness in your life. It’s a great way of building your faith for the times in life that are a bit tougher. Being mindful of all the big and small ways by which our Heavenly Father loves us helps to increase our faith.

What this means in a practical sense is that we need to remember that the love of God is so deep and so profound yet so very simple at the same time. Sometimes I feel we approach God as if He is aloof and almost frustrated by our prayers. Well, not only is God the opposite of aloof because He is an ever-present help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1) but I believe it brings great pleasure to Him to answer our prayers.

All throughout history we can see examples of how God showed up and completely changed someone for the rest of their lives. Look at King David, Esther and so many others! God speaks into lives and they change which causes a chain reaction. When the Lord speaks and we listen it not only affects our lives, but those around us as well. Remember today that God is in the details of your life, don’t be afraid to talk to Him about them as well. Just as a dot or period is to the point and completes a thought, God is very precise in His words, His instructions and His thoughts towards us.

Shape of God – The Cloud

There are so many things about God that are too amazing for our human brains to
comprehend, but one that tops this list is the fact that God is omnipresent, (everywhere at once)
omnipotent, (having unlimited power) and omniscient, (knowing everything.) How is this even
possible?

In the Old Testament God took the form of a cloud during the day and fire at night to lead
the Israelites. That is a pretty amazing thing to read about, I can’t imagine how it was for the
ones that actually saw it. I think it is a cool analogy to think of God as a cloud, there are some
really appropriate correlations. When it comes to actual clouds there are several different types.
There are three different levels of clouds, and based on how far up they are the less we can see
them on earth. However, think of the lower level clouds that we have seen our whole lives and
think of how we like to compare their shapes to something familiar. You know you have done
this, especially when you were young. It was great fun to lie in the grass with your friends and
try to find the most outrageous shapes in the clouds. Well, just as the closer the cloud the more
familiar it becomes, God becomes more and more familiar to us the closer WE get to HIM! He is
always there and always close, we just don’t always feel it, because we are the ones that move
away.

We could never come close to containing a cloud and in the same way containing God is
not possible. How could we hope to contain God when He is everywhere at once? This is
mind-boggling, but so very comforting at the same time. I think in our finite minds we can easily
forget the massiveness of our God, we can’t afterall begin to really fathom the extent of this fact.
I will give you just one example that is so outrageous yet it still doesn’t come close to a
true example. So, let’s start with us on earth…huge already, but just get ready! Earth revolves
around the sun and the sun is an average sized star among a hundred billion stars that are in
the Milky Way Galaxy. The Milky Way is one of billions of galaxies in the universe that is
expanding. So let’s talk about a billion, not even 100 billion, just one billion. Let’s say we want to
become a billionaire by saving $100 a day. If you divide a billion by 100 you get 10 million days,
10 million divided by 365 means it would take you 27,397,26 years to reach 1 billion. That is
27,000 years at saving $100 a day to reach our goal of 1 billion dollars. Now remember that we
are talking about the fact that God the creator of Heaven and earth has placed us in our homes,
in our city, in our state, in our country, on our continent, on the planet earth which is orbits
around a star that makes up 100 billion stars in one of billions of galaxies. By now you should be
able to get a small picture of how BIG and how POWERFUL our God is!

How amazing is it that with the absolute awe-inspiring size and scope of God, He
created us and is so closely connected to us and so deeply in love with each one of us. Have
you ever built something, created or baked something that you were so very proud of? You
know everything about this thing you created right? If you are a carpenter and you build a shed,
you know everything that is great about it and you also know every weakness as well. You may
have discovered that the wood is buckled in one area, or the foundation isn’t as solid as you
thought.