Do I want to Know God or just work for Him?

Do I truly want to get to know God or do I just want to work for Him? I think this is the question every Follower of Christ will be guided to answer.

Many a soul signs up to believe, joins a church body and then jumps from Kindergarten to college level courses before we’re ready to go.

Oswald Chambers says; it is much easier to do something than to trust in God.

The “works” mentality is one of the most dangerous in the church today. Somehow we separate Faith and Works when to those who said those words that were written in the Bible, you could not have one without the other. (Jewish Culture)

You cannot truly do something for God if you don’t have faith in Him. What often times happens, I think, is works replaces faith and we see the victims of that ideology scattered in churches and alleys all over the world.

I cannot do more to have more faith. Faith is a gift from God not a perfect attendance pin for showing up every Sunday.

Faith is personal and increased by knowing God not by doing more for God. We can’t work harder to find faith. We can give up more of our own life to God and faith will be the result of such difficult action. But our tendency is to put the cart before the horse or in this case works before faith. Again, the two cannot be separated.

I grew up in the “Works” culture. Be good, be better, do this, do that and you will earn more faith. It was a lie.

I think I spent a lot of my life “doing” for God rather than working “with” Him. It’s easier really. But my faith was in an institution or in me performing well. Both failed to build the foundation I needed to truly work with God.

But God is good and He has a plan for each one of us, and that plan is to have a relationship with us first. As He builds are faith we will naturally “Do” things because the creator creates us in His image and we too will be creative. God serves and as we get to know Him we will do that same for Him and that will spill over onto others.

I wake up now knowing God will take care of me. I know He will provide me “works” to do with Him not for Him. There is great freedom in Christ but the “works mentality” will crush that freedom through performance.

I read this story in a book Ron Mehl wrote a couple of years ago.

Imagine you are in a desert, dying of thirst and you discover a well. There is a pump and a cup of water on top. There’s a note that says, “use this cup of water to prime the pump and you will have all you can drink.”

So, what would you do? Would you have the faith to do as the note says or would you take the easy way, do the sure thing and drink the cup of water?

That is how God is to me. Faith must be lived out. Faith usually follows difficult circumstances or decisions. I can’t “work” my way into faith. But when faith becomes part of my foundation great works will follow.

Prayer, Isn’t about time we went deeper. (Video)

I read something in Oswald Chambers this morning that hit me hard.  He says; “If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think rightly. The blood flows ceaselessly, and breathing continues ceaselessly; we are not conscious of it, but it is always going on. Prayer for safety, healing, to bless our food is all good and wonderful. But prayer is more than that. Prayer is not just about safety, it’s about talking to God.

Watch.

The Messenger

While most of us quietly, or in my case, not so quietly live our lives, the messenger is at work trying to figure out how to manipulate us.

He polls us, phones us, puts us on trending charts and watches how we respond to issues of the day. All this information is used to help the messenger create just the right message to grab our attention pull at our heartstrings and get our vote.

I’ve been in meetings over the last few years and listened to the messenger as he determines what we’ll buy into. The messenger lives on both sides of the isle. The goal is the same, to win.

The messenger feeds off money. The more you have the bigger, better message you can create. The more money you have the more you can air the message. And the more the message airs, the more the public hears it and the more likely the public is to buy it.

Repetition has a way of creating it’s own truth. What is truly frightening about all of this is in some cases the messenger understands what we want to hear, what we want to believe, what we want to think, more than we do.

The messenger has time to study, create, maneuver and manipulate information, time you and I spend doing our jobs, taking care of our families and taking out the trash.

The truth can be a frightening thing. The messenger knows he doesn’t have to be that far off the mark and still claim his message as the truth. If it sounds good, if it sounds close and if we hear it enough chances are we’ll believe it.

As we head into the General Election the messenger is hard at work. He’s watching us, prying away at our thoughts and working his magic to create his message.

It may be time for the voters to stop listening to created truth and start figuring out what we really want in leaders. Do we want to hear what we want to hear or someone who will truly lead? Do we know who really holds the strings to the money, and what that means to the messenger and his message? Are we willing to hand the shovel and its contents back to the messenger and do some digging of our own?

Right now, those reading this may think yes, that’s what I want to do. But unfortunately the messenger understands something about human nature that we think is unchangeable. The messenger understands that we don’t have or won’t take the time to critically think through the issues and in the end will buy the message.

There is a lot at stake in Oregon this year and we had all better be watching carefully.

So the election really becomes, who has the best message and how good was the messenger at figuring you out.

I don’t raise my hand much anymore

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I don’t ask God a lot of questions anymore. I have no need to ask. For a while I felt bad about that. Does that mean I understand the meaning of life or what He’s doing? Not on your life. What it means is I have no need for the answers.

In John (That’s a book in the Bible) it says; “And in that day ye shall ask Me nothing.” I read those words this morning and got all teary eyed.

I guess for so many years I’ve played the game and tried to live under God’s rule while manipulating my own desires. When push came to shove my desires superseded His.

I don’t do that anymore. I don’t ask why. I don’t ask why not. I don’t ask will you take care of us, provide for us, and put a roof over our heads, because he always does.

How do you tell someone this is how I always wanted to be?

I’m not a machine, I’m a work of art and God is the co-artist. I’m not a project I’m a person in relationship with the creator of the universe.

Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote; “the meaning of life is to live it as if it were a work of art, you’re not a machine.” I love that.

I sat in a room full of powerful people, listening to a candidate for governor talk about the direction of Oregon and our future. I’m not agreeing or disagreeing with him but smiled because it all seems like a huge game.

It’s important stuff but at some level I wonder. I can’t change the world. I can’t be that guy to anyone anymore. I just need to stay true to whatever it is “we” are creating. (God and me)

And if I start to figure that out, I’ll take it on, and take Him out of the picture. So, I will live my life this way now. If a question arises for God I’ll ask it. But at this point I trust He knows what He’s doing and after all I’m a co-writer on this project called “my life.”

Common Sense..not on your life.

Now there’s a term you hear a lot these days. Politicians wanting a return to “Common Sense.” I know what you’re thinking, is there a politician that really understands the meaning of the word?

Here’s the thing; I’m done with common sense. I think it’s overrated and shallow. As a Follower of Jesus, common sense shouldn’t be my goal. It wasn’t His. In fact, common sense has so little to do with the life of Christ I don’t know why Christians get sucked into believing the two are interconnected.

There was and is nothing about the life of Christ that is common or makes sense. When I found out I had cancer common sense lost its appeal?

In my new world I find many like me who have lost their need for common sense and instead reliance is centered on the man of Jesus Christ.

If we keep looking for common sense or reasons that things happen disappointment will be around every corner. If we try to make sense out of what’s happening we limit God and once again, make life about us instead of Him.

So as you venture out into your day, don’t spend it trying to figure out why, when, where or how life is going to happen. Simply take one step in front of the other and understand that adventure is what’s left when you leave common sense at home. Besides, who wants a common life anyway?

Words Matter. (video)

Language changes and sometimes in the world we live in that can get annoying. We sometimes feel as though we don’t know what you can or can’t say. In the world of disabilities terms are changing and I like know what is and is not acceptable. Here are a couple of terms that are no longer used in the DD community. Why is it so important that we change our language? Watch this video.