The accusation hurts...

Has anyone ever accused you of anything that was let's say, "not an accurate representation of, you?" Did anyone you know ever just get it all wrong about you? Well, if you are breathing, and I hope you are because only alive readers are welcome on this blog, then you have had someone get "you" all wrong!! Well, not only do I think that we get, Jonah...all wrong....!! But, I know that the whole world got "Christ" all wrong when they sent Him to His death on a cross! Okay...so..there is a Scripture that says,

Matthew 5:10-12New International Version (NIV)

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Well, the problem with the text is that most of the time...I'll be accused of something that is not true and it's not because I'm a Christian...LOL! I'll definitely face persecutions from time to time for being like Christ, but what about when someone just doesn't get "me"..misunderstands me...and then accuses me of something? Well, maybe these situations are opportunities to expose the darkness in others? Maybe our false accusations are amazing gateways of hope for those who don't live by His power. After all, if God knows the truth about me, then who cares if another misunderstands me? So, by the comfort God brings me by knowing me, I can rise above the accusation so that it's true when the bible says, 

Psalm 56:10-12New International Version (NIV)

10 In God, whose word I praise,
    in the Lord, whose word I praise—
11 in God I trust and am not afraid.
    What can man do to me?

12 I am under vows to you, my God;
    I will present my thank offerings to you.

And also, when the Scripture says, 

Romans 8:30-32New International Version (NIV)

30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

More Than Conquerors

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

The Accusations hurt...but the Comfort from our Saviour Heals....Helps and then brings Hope that never disappoints...

Principle...If you are Hurting today because someone hurt you whose hope has slack, Trusting in God, let His faithfulness give hope right back!!!

Please enjoy this song as we celebrate Black Friday...We had it all wrong...and Those Nails were ours...not His...that shame was mine, not my Lord's, but He did it anyway to bring the hope back to me.

Without the darkness, would we see the light?

And God said, "Let there be light!"

Genesis 1New International Version (NIV)

The Beginning

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Interestingly, God created the earth with darkness present...and the Spirit of God was always there....hovering..hovering over the waters...the creation, the light and the darkness....always, always there...!!!  Sometimes, we seem to struggle with this thing called, "darkness"! Oh!....Woe is me!...How could a God of Love allow there to be darkness???? Oh...all this questioning reminds me of Jonah! "God", Jonah cried into the night, "how could you allow the Assyrians to live?...How could you allow that infestation of blackest night and ever present dark, disdainful, dismally, dreary death survive long enough to even contemplate your ever present light?" "Oh Jonah!!!" God answers back with love and understanding,  "Jonah, Jonah, Jonah, oh son of Ammitai...why can you not be a son of God who understands the roll darkness must play in all of our pursuits of the light of salvation?"  

Jonah 1New International Version (NIV)

Jonah Flees From the Lord

1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.

In many ways..we head away from the "so-called" darkness and miss the light altogether....

Principle...when the darkest hour pans out to be no fun...we find ourselves on the run..

When the light of God is the goal we seek...we spend our darkest hours on our knees...

To behold the light of God, there are some dark corridors upon which we must trod...

and as we fade and as we become more contrite

that's when we see that the light wins every time.

In fact...the truth is that when the light of God beckons you to go through the storm...to approach the dark times of your life...memories...people..ect...remember...that to obey God in these things is to move towards the light...and the darkness will be bound..Yes..the darkness that frightens you can never win...not in the presence of God's light...Check out this song from Anthem Lights...!!

And Abraham believed God...

Acts 10:14-16New International Version (NIV)

14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”

15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

16 This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

God says, Jonah....there are some people that I want to hear the good news...and he says, "surely not, Lord!!" God says, Peter, take and eat...and he says, "Surely not, Lord!!"  God says...Sarah, you will have a baby and sarah says within her heart, "surely not, Lord!"   

We have a hard time believing God don't we...?? Notice that most of us believe in God...that there is in fact a God...but we do not believe God or take Him at His word.  Jonah believed that God would in fact save Nineveh...but he did not believe God that "such a thing" was good!! When God calls something good.....do you call it good? Seriously??? Honestly, I don't think that we can put on the robes of righteousness and claim to walk in the light as Christ is in the light until we take the Lord at his Word!! Are you ready to be redefined by God so that even when His ways don't make sense that you can say, "Amen" ???

Principle: When God's ways seem to be a bit unsure, it's the softened heart that's willing to be made pure! When we doubt God's truth and plan, we are surely trusting in our own feet to stand!!

Today...think for a minute that your life is over in a flash and that if you do not do things God's way..you are going to crash...Oh Jesus...please take the wheel and drive me home!!

misconceptions and mayhem

1 Corinthians 2:1-3New International Version (NIV)

2 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.^[a] 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³ I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling.

Sadly...all of us think we know something that we really don't know!! Can you even imagine if when we spoke to one another that the only thing about which we were certain was that there was a God and that we were not Him? Also, what if our attitude did not go beyond Jesus Christ and him crucified, along with great fear and trembling?  So much of our conversations are really glorifying us and our thoughts about life. "I know what's best" we say to one another, when in fact, only God knows best!! There are so many misconceptions that we have on a daily basis about life, about each other, and about God that we really ought to let our words be few! What are your thoughts about God tonight? I cannot help but wonder what were the thoughts or misgivings of Jonah as the word, "Nineveh" when in and out through the corridors of his mind! "Nineveh"! Bloodshed!  Betrayal! Mayhem! Madness! Never! Never! Never! Ha! Mark my words, Jonah wasn't thinking about Neverland! Rather, he was thinking, "Never, never, never will I go to that "Land"!  So, what's your red zone? What's your misgiving? What word is spoken that makes you say the word, "Never"! Too many times..there is dross...the junk of our souls making the way cloudy...only when we allow the dross to be raised to the surface of truth and then removed can we see Christ, and follow the light home.

Principle: When in God and in His Son alone we trust,

Our eyes can see clearly as He removes the dross!! 

Digging a hole and in desperate need of a rope!

Ephesians 2:13New International Version (NIV)

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

You know something, this really is a commentary on Jonah and sometimes I forget to bring Jonah's story out a little bit more, so I thought I'd take a moment to talk about my brother in Christ, Jonah! 

Let's first have some fun with Jonah's home town, Gath-hepher! Did you know that this name means wine press, digger...!! Ever had too much wine and then just couldn't think straight, see straight or even walk straight? Well, maybe I've never been drunk, but I do know life has blinded me and made me act drunk. As well, I also know that my own sin has blinded me to the point of complete dizziness and delusion. So many times, I've been lost, digging myself deeper and deeper in a hole in desperate need of a rope to pull me out of the miry clay!
Principle:
When God's not allowed to patrol,
 you are going to dig a really big hole
When God throws you a rope, 
don't expect it to be all for which you'd hoped.

Have you ever wondered if "comfort" can be a bad thing? I recently read a story of a little child who owned a scorpion and upon becoming too familiar with the scorpion ended up getting stung, yikes! A wise pastor and speaker pointed out an interesting point on the radio the other day, "Do we treat our sins the same way and become too familiar with them?" Yes, and Amen to you pastor! We are all about to get stung and yet we still head straight for comfort in all things surrounding our lives, even things that might sting us!  So, Jonah was from Israel, from Gath-hepher..which by the way was only about 2 miles from Nazareth! How interesting! Jesus must have heard many remarks as he was growing up about "Jonah", the whale and all the stories that happened only 2 miles up the road. Yes, Jonah was born there in Gath- Hepher and raised there and lived there, ate there, had many memories there and I'm sure was very comfortable there delivering the Word of God to all those he was comfortable enough to understand and to consider family! But...Yes, there's a "But"!! Ever heard of giving too much grace to your family? What? Too much grace too my family? Well, yes, that's what I said and that's what I meant!! You might be thinking that I'm crazy, but sometimes when it comes to our "own" we are a little bit, well, shall I say it? "Jaded"!   You know we seem to have all the grace in the world for ourselves, our family and friends and all those we trust, but then when asked to give Love, Grace and peace to others...those other stinky, nasty, unworthy people God dares to love, we just cannot manage to give it, can we?  Sadly, my heart goes out at this time to all of you who are step-parents! You know what? There is a harsh reality in the Christian world today and that is the fact that because divorce is on the rise, so is the percentage of blended families. Never in the history of the world is it more relevant for Christians to understand the need for grace and mercy and love!!! Not "your" kind of human love, but God's Love and Grace are desperately needed if we are to give these jewels to those God calls us to serve. Jonah's people wouldn't listen to him very well, but Jonah had no problem spending all his time and love on them, did he? Content to stay in Gath-hepher, Jonah would rather work that "Wine press" and "Dig that hole" than to consider another group of people, a group not "his own" that needed and wanted God's love!! So, when you find yourself full of grace for your loved ones, ask yourself a tough question today! You who were far away and had to be brought near by His blood, adopted, washed and then loved...Are you in a place where you could go and do likewise for others, others who are not your own?  Feeling a need for a rope? I am...Lord knows I want Him to pull me out of the Muck and send me where He wants me to go deliver His love today...I hear they are having a sale on ropes in Nineveh!!

Gold dust in your eyes? Wise men still seek Him!!

Matthew 7New International Version (NIV)

Judging Others

7 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Okay...Don't Judge me...!! I put my decorations away and I did it in record time! 

We finally put away our Christmas decorations and even so, we did it before epiphany! Yeah! Actually, by January 4th, 2016, we put the last Christmas pleasantry in it's pleasant little pouch and sealed it shut until December of 2016!!! Phew! Truly, I could not believe how much sparkle, pine needles, real and fake, and how much dust overall I swept up as I swept out Christmas this year. At one moment I recall sneezing 6 times as a bit of dust mixture of Christmas past filled the air and found its way to my eyes....!!! Ah Chew!!! Yet, finally, half way blinded, I managed to get all of the Christmas packed away! What a great feeling to say goodbye to yesterday's headaches and grief and to move on into the New Year and say, Hello! New Hopes, New Dreams, New Delusions all waiting to beckon me at the doors of a new beginning are all finally here and full of promise. What? Delusions? Yeah...the New Year can be full of riches in Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen! However, we all know that we think we see gold and then with gold dust in our eyes...we go for the gold, not realizing that it's not the treasure of Gold that we thought...! That's right! This false gold is not part of the glorious riches in Christ Jesus....! In fact, it's not the gold from the manger....!!!

It's just gold dust, blinding us from the only gift that does not decay and does not rust, Christ! We actually wait for things to fill our lives, things that we cannot clearly see or judge as good or bad due to the sin that blinds us. Yes, there are big planks of sin in our eyes, making it impossible to see!!

In fact, listen to this quote on waiting upon God and ponder its profound meaning, "we wait on the gifts, the riches promised to us by God and we wait looking for the gifts....Yes, even after the gift wrap and the tinsel has passed, we walk into the New Year still waiting for the stuff that we think will make us happy! Sadly, we wait for the gifts and neglect to realize that we still don't have the one gift that matters, the gift Giver....!! We are sooo blind!! We sooo need Him to see clearly! We are still not waiting on Him, we still only wait for what He can bring! The Wise men brought gifts to the gift Giver and beheld Him as the gift...In contrast, we ask Him for gifts for us and then forget that He is the greatest gift of all!!  So, did you get blinded this year at Christmas?? Did you get the fact that any gold you have should be given to the Christ? Did you have gold dust in your eyes and miss the gift is the baby in the manger? Well, from my house to yours...it's not too late to have a visit from the Magi..the Wise Men!! Let's let them teach us that we only need one gift, and it's Him, the Christ! Present your time and offerings to Him in the New Year and Wait only on Him, the giver of the gifts...let Him be your gift! Truly, you will finally see, through Him that there are planks in your eyes and in your life that He needs to remove. Truly, you will finally see that you cannot see without Him...that unless your focus is completely on him, you will miss the mark; you will be deceived!

Please enjoy this version of Amazing grace....It's dedicated to my Dad...who's birthday was yesterday...May you cease to be blind and walk in His light in the new year.....God bless you all!!

Principle: If He is not the gift you seek, you may wait forever for silly things,

 but if you seek Him first in your life, you will no longer have to walk around blind.