My Story - Day 2: The Gift

My Story - Day 2: The Gift

Not a lot of people are aware of this, but I had a brother, Greg. He was born several years before I was, but he passed away before I was born. There were many times in my life where I wish Greg had lived so that I would have a brother. I remember a time when I was about 8 or 9 years old and was really upset to the point of crying over Greg not being alive. God did something that I did not expect a day or so after my crying episode. In my bedroom, I had a cushioned chair. A day or so after my lamenting about Greg, whom I never saw, I was walking across my bedroom and I saw movement to my right. I turned and looked at the chair and I saw a depression in the chair like someone had just sat down in it. For a brief moment, probably split second I had a glimpse of a young boy about my age, maybe a little shorter than me with blond hair...and then that image and the depression in the chair was gone.

Immediately after that happened, the grief I had for Greg left me and I was filled with peace, never lamenting about his death again. I truly believe God had given me a gift to see a brief glimpse of Greg, and then give me peace.

If you have a comment, or story you'd like to share, please put it in the comment section below.

My Story - Day 1

Its been quite a while since I posted anything on this blog. I've taken some time off, and during this time, a lot has happened, all of which continues to move me in the direction where God wants me to go. I truly believe that because of everything I've gone through and what God has taught me is for a reason. As I get older, I see more and more people displaying behavior that I displayed years ago which was a result of deep-rooted issues in my life. Fortunately, God has pulled me through, sometimes with my feet dragging, and got me to the "other side" where I now experience freedom! So if the telling of my experiences of what I was like in my past and how God brought me through them to freedom can help someone, then that is reason enough to write this.

So beginning today with this introduction I will be starting a series of posts (sometimes daily, sometimes not) of my journey through the "Wilderness" and how I came to experience freedom. And please, for any post I put out there if you have a comment, or an experience you'd like to share or if you have a question, please feel free to do so in the comments section, I would love to hear from you.

This is My Story....stay tuned....

Learn to Live Freely and Lightly

Matthew 11:28–30 (The Message)

^28–30  “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Jesus is telling us if you work with me, learn from me, you will LEARN to live freely and lightly, not burdened down by the weights of insecurity, people pleasing, self-promotion...etc. It doesn't happen overnight. The reason people do see results is that they are not willing to take the time to learn AND apply what they have learned from Jesus.

The Ites

Genesis 15:18-21
18 So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River—

19 the land now occupied by the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 

20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 

21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

Just as God gave the Israelites the land to possess, Jesus has given us everything we need to conquer all the "-ites" in our lives. The "-ites" in our lives are all the problems that face us, anger, pride, insecurity, low self-esteem, etc. We shouldn't be living our lives as victims. We SHOULD be living our lives as conquerors! 

When an "ite" rises up in your life, you need to be looking to Jesus, not the "ite." As you look to Jesus, His perfection, His beautity, His glory and worship Him, He takes care of the "ite," not you! In fact the more you try to take care of the "ite" on your own, the worse it will get. Worship Him as you face the "ite", worship Him as it seems it is getting worse, worship Him and keep worshipping Him. This will put your focus on Jesus and not the "ite." 

Day 2 at the Park

Exodus 4:13

But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else."

This past week, my wife and I went down to Orlando, Florida for a short vacation. One of the places we love to go is Universal Studios. We bought a 2-day ticket. The first day we went to Islands of Adventure which has the thrill rides, rollercoasters, etc. We were going back and forth on which park we wanted to go to on the 2nd day. In the past we went to the Studio park and had been disappointed, but I said "they have some new rides, lets go check it out." We did, and we are very glad we did! We had a totally different experience this time. What really stood out was the Harry Potter section. When we first walked up to it, all we saw was the front of a very ordinary "bank-looking" building, but we saw people going in and out of this small but also ordinary doorway. We didn't know where it led, we didn't know what was behind it, but something was drawing people into it. We decided to go through it...and we are glad we did! When we went through the doorway, we came out in this Harry Potter village that was filled with shops, cafes and one of the coolest rides we've been on.  Had we not gone through this ordinary doorway, we would have never discovered another section of the park.

When God called Moses, Moses didn't want to go. He let his fear guide him. He went back and forth with God..."send someone else," he said, "let someone else do it." Finally, God convinced him to go and Moses did. By deciding to go, this opened up a whole new world to him that he would never have experienced if he had let his fear guide him. Just about every day we have choices to make, some of which involve us doing something we've never done before, something that we are scared to do. If we don't do it, we will always be wondering "what if" and if we do it, we are scared that we won't be able to do what is asked of us. 

God knew Moses wasn't up to the task at hand, but it didn't matter what Moses thought, God was the One able to do the task at hand. When God asks you to do something out of your comfort zone, don't look at your abilities to do it, but look at God's ability to do it. Saying "yes, Lord" will open up a whole knew section of your life that you would never get to experience if you let fear guide you.

Mountain Biker Scars

Revelation 5:6

Then I saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders.

As a mountain biker, like all mountain bikers, I experience crashes. Most of them are not bad crashes. Usually, I hit a root or rock the wrong way and I lay the bike down and I have time to jump off the bike with no scratches or scrapes. But every once in a while I have a crash that scrapes the skin, draws some blood...and if I'm luck, it will leave a scar. Why did I say lucky? Because it is a battle wound. For mountain bikers, when we get scars while we are riding, it is something to be proud of, we want to show them off, we want people, especially other mountain bikers, to notice them just so we can say "yeah dude, I was riding down this gnarly trail and did an endo." Yep, we mtb'ers are proud of our scrapes and scars we get on the trails.

While our scrapes and some of our scars will fade away, Jesus' scars will not. He will forever have the holes in His hands and feet, the scars on His back from the whips, the scars on His head from the crown of thorns...all of those will NEVER go away. But I can only envision that for Jesus, He is proud of those scars. Without those scars, we could never be with Him. It if weren't for those scars, we could never have that forever life that we will have with Him. We could never have the never ending peace and joy that we have with Him. To Jesus, those scars are something that I think (and this is a Kentism) He never wants them to go away. That is how much He loves us!!! 

So the next time you get a scrape or scratch that draws blood and you have a scab for a while, or you get a scar, let it be a reminder of Jesus' scars and the love He has for you!

One-On-One

Matthew 26:39
Going a little farther, he threw himself down with his face to the ground and prayed

For many years I have made a habit of waking up in the morning, getting my cup of coffee and going into my "man cave" to have my one-on-one time with God. That is my time to worship, read, and talk to God. In having a discussion with a good friend of mine last night, he told me that he tried doing what I do, going into a room, sitting still and trying to have that one-on-one time with God. Unfortunately, that drove him crazy, he couldn't sit still, he couldn't be quiet. Another friend told me that she can't have that one-on-one time with God in the mornings, her time is in the afternoon when she gets home from work.

We are all wired differently. We may have similar personality characteristics, but none of us are alike. That is what is beautiful about how God made us. If we were all the same, it would be either a very boring world, or we would be at each other's throats! What is important about the interaction Jesus shows us between himself and the Father is that they had a one-on-one time. Throughout the gospels, Jesus meets with the Father at any part of the day, at any time. However, what is common in all his meetings is that He separated Himself from everyone so He could have that one-on-one time with the Father. 

Just because I sit still, have my coffee in the morning and meet with God, that doesn't mean that is the way you are to do it.  Be true to yourself, be who you are when you have that one-one-one time with God. My friend meets with God on his 45 minute commute to work, worshipping God and talking to Him. We each NEED to have that one-on-one time with God, and when you do, be true to who you are!