Can Anyone Relate?

I thought I would share what God is trying to get me to fix and maybe you can relate to what he is trying to teach me.

Do you ever find yourself feeling like you are being watched like a hawk? I have felt like that here lately. I feel like people are keeping count of the things I do wrong and then telling me the score, but they fail to add the “good ” points in. They are always keeping up with the “bad” points.

I can honestly say before I met Ashleigh I had a smart mouth and didn’t care who I was smart to. Since I met Ashleigh I believe God has changed me from the person I used to be with the help of Ashleigh. With that being said, I am human and the past does creep up from time to time. In James 3, he talks about the words we say can never be taken back, they are like a fire that has burned out but the damage has already been done. I don’t know if you struggle with the problem of taming your tongue but I can say my tongue runs “wild” sometimes. I often think, after I have said something, I wonder how I have impacted the person I was short with or rude to. The funny thing is that Satan will use people to throw up the fact that I’m a Christian and they will say “I can’t believe you talk to them that way”. Like I have said before if I can’t say anything nice I don’t need to say anything at all!!! Well, I know I am going to mess up, but the question is how will I respond to the person who throws it up in my face?

Anyone have this same problem? How has God helped you through your problem?

Say What?

I can remember hearing these words growing up, “If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all”. Now I hear myself saying the same thing when my kids are fighting with each other.

I know everyone can relate to this subject, if you can’t leave your number in the comments, because I want to talk to you!!! Why is it we  feel the need to talk about people? Do we talk about folks because we are mad with them or do we talk about them because we are trying to make ourselves feel better? (any ideas?)  I started reading in James today and again the pain on my feet tells me that “someone” is trying to tell me something. In  James 1:26 he tells us, If we claim to be religious but we don’t control our tongue we are just fooling ourselves. It never fails, we can be in church and hear ” did you hear what so and so did”? You know God doesn’t want us bashing our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. I know we get frustrated with people, ( I get frustrated with people all the time with the job I do) but God still loves those people we are talking about. Have you ever been talking about someone and the person you’re telling just stops talking and doesn’t respond to your comments? How does that make you feel? You start wondering, uh oh, did I offend them, or man, I sure hope they don’t go back and tell so and so what I just said.

The sad thing is, when we talk about people we aren’t only hurting ourselves, we are also hurting the person we are telling. What happens when we hear something negative about someone? We (not all the time) usually start thinking negative thoughts about that person when we see them. When our speech is motivated by Satan it is full of, unspiritual thoughts and ideas, bitter jealousy and it’s plain evil. On the flip side when our speech is motivated by God it is full of sincerity, goodness and consideration for others. 

Like I said earlier, ”If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”.  So the next time somebody is talking about someone, let’s do just that, say nothing at all. 

Thanks

We all want to be recognized when “we” think we have done something important. I think we can relate! 

Well in Proverbs 25: 6-7it says, 6 Don’t demand an audience…..7 It is better to wait for an invitation than to be sent to the end of the line, publicly disgraced. Also in Luke 14:7-14, Jesus talks about seeking humility.

In the church we need to be careful not to be caught up with what everybody else thinks about what we are doing in the church. We need to be caught up with what God is thinking. So many times we get pooched lipped because we don’t get praised or thanked by the pastor or the staff for the things we do in the church. Well, might I ask, who are we working for? The pastors or God? Yes, it’s nice to hear “good job” or “thanks for what you do”, but when you think about it, we aren’t there for their  approval. We are there for Gods approval.

We need to have a humble spirit when we work in a ministry in the church. Why? Because if we work in a ministry where we are seen alot, the people we are ministering to will see right through us, then what have we done? We have hurt ourselves and we have hurt the people we are trying to minister to. And if we are ministering to kids….. we really  need to be humble, because kids are very observant and smart, they can read us like a book.

So the next time we feel down in the dumps and think no one cares about what we are doing, just remember who we are working for!! That’s right, God.

He will thank us when the time is right.

Live Like We’re Dying

My next door neighbor’s mother passed away in the early hours of Saturday April 19th. The funeral was on Monday afternoon in Macon, where Ashleigh and I sat and listened to four individuals get up and talk about how wonderful this Christian woman was. They talked about how she would always help others before helping herself. Her pastor talked about how she would always tell people when she was leaving, “Pray for me, as I will be praying for you”. I tell this story because we should be living our lives as if it was the last day we have on earth. We should go about our day as if it was the last time we are going to see or even talk to the people we care about.

I’m still reading in Job, and I also read the chapter in Proverbs that corresponds with the calendar day. In Proverbs 22:1 it says, Choose a good reputation over great riches, for being held in high esteem is better than having silver or gold. Let’s not try to impress our friends or other people with earthly possessions, because they will soon fade away. Let’s live a life of someone with a good reputation. I hope that when I’m dead a gone people will remember me like they remembered my neighbor’s mother. We should strive to leave a reputation that will bring glory to God when we are gone. Like I said before, we should live as if it were our last day on earth. Just sit and think about only having 24 hours before you were to die. How would you spend that 24 hours? Let’s start living like we are dying!!   Because, like it or not, we are.

Double Standards

Proverbs 20:10 The Lord despises double standards of every kind.

Ouch! Get off my foot God. Boy, I can learn alot from this passage. I often tell my son not to hate or dislike someone who has done something to him or some how just rubs him the wrong way. I’m sure everybody has someone in there life that rubs you the wrong way. Well, the Lord talks about double standards two times in this chapter. Once in verse 10 and again in verse 23… The Lord despises double standards; he is not pleased with dishonest scales. I think the Lord wants me to live out what I tell my son. I don’t need to tell him not to shun people, yet I shun the person who rubs me the wrong way. I think we need to be careful when we are telling our friends, family and children one thing, but we act or live another. How are the standards in your life?

Priorities

It’s hard being a Christ Follower these days, don’t you agree? With  all of the things we are involved in and with all of our friends pulling us in different directions. How about our job, it requires our time and attention also. Well, I can speak from first hand experience we don’t need to let “things” get in the way of our time with God. He is the only thing that is important. Think about it, your friends can leave you, your job may not need you and the things or activities you are involved in might go away. Let’s not forget the biggest “thing in our lives is God. He won’t leave you or say he doesn’t need you. Let’s keep our priorities in order, with God being the “first” on the list.

The Blame Game

In Job 9:17-18 Job is talkng about how God attacks him without reason and in verse 18 he talks about how God won’t let him catch his breath. I think Job is walking on thin ice here. Kinda like we do when we are going through tough times in our lives. God would never ”attack” us or not let us “catch our breath”. I know when we are troubled we say things that we don’t really mean. We even say hurtful things to our loved ones. We need to be careful not to play the blame game or say things that will hurt others when we are hurting. Most of all God is not going to hurt us or cause us any pain. He is the only one who can take the pain away. Let’s not play the blame game with God, because if you like winning, this is a game you will surely lose!

Calm down

There are so many things in my life that the scriptures in Proverbs are talking about. Like Proverbs 12:16 A fool is quick-tempered, but a wise person stays calm when insulted. We all get offended when someone insults us or someone in our family. Coming in contact with alot of people, because of my job, I find myself not being very polite to people who get upset or mad with me when they get stopped, or when I respond to there residence. I have been insulted and even my family has been insulted just for doing my job. But it does say stay calm when insulted, it seems pretty hard to do when people are cursing me or my family, but I need to stay calm when insulted.

Let’s be deligent in trying to stay calm when insulted. Jesus didn’t respond harshly to those who insulted him.

Listening to the right voice, God’s voice part 2

Yesterday I talked about Eliphaz. He was trying to give Job advice that he really didn’t need. Eliphaz thought the problems Job was having was because of his sins. Again, we need to be careful who we listen to.

I talked Wed. night in Journey about hearing the voice of God. There were 5 habits I think we need if we are going to be able to listen to God’s voice.

1. We need to recognize our environment. In John 10:1…anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief or robber. What is a sheepfold you might ask, it is where sheep were kept. It had an opening where a gatekeeper would sit and keep thieves and robbers from taking the sheep. We as Christ followers also have a sheepfold we watch over, it’s called our heart. We are the gatekeepers of our hearts. We need to recognize our environment so thieves and robbers won’t come in and steal the joy of God from us.

2. We need to realize the presence of Christ in our lives. John 10:2&3 For a shepherd enters through the gate and the gatekeeper opens for him…..

Who have you we let into our sheepfold lately? In order to hear his voice, he has to be present in our heart. We can be Christ followers but slam our hearts door to him when we think we have it under control. We need Christ’s presence in our hearts daily. Lets don’t keep him on the doorstep let him in and sit for a while.

3. We need to instinctively hear Gods voice. John 10:3 …and the sheep hear his voice….

We need to recognize God’s voice when he is speaking to us. Remember when your parents would call your name when you were out playing? You recognized their voice right away didn’t you? That is how we should be when God calls our name, we need to recognize his voice immediately. If we don’t recognize it, we can answer any voice that calls our name.

4. Foster an inner desire to follow him. John 10:4…. they follow him because they recognize his voice.

We need to have a desire to follow Christ like a sheep’s desire to follow their shepherd. We can’t do things on our on. We all have failed when we try to run our lives on our on, haven’t we?! Since we know we can’t do it on our on we should want to follow him daily.

5. We need to refuse to entertain strange and harmful voices.  John 10:5 They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t recognize his voice.

You might ask what is a strange voice? Any voice that leads you to doubt in Jesus, to disbelieve in Jesus or to be disobedient to Jesus. These are all strange voices. We as Christ followers need to have our guard up because there are alot of strange voices in our lives, don’t you agree?

In closing, we need to be able to hear God’s voice when he calls. We might need to open our hearts door to him so he can come in and sit with us. For me, this is a process that is going to be a battle. Satan (strange voices) is doing his best to keep me from hearing God’s voice.  Let’s keep Satan as far from us as we can. It will be difficult but with God on our side nothing is impossible. How is Satan doing in your life?

Listen to the right voice, God’s voice

I was reading in Job 4 where Eliphaz the Temanite, a friend of Job, was telling him he needed to go to God and confess his sins. Eliphaz assumed that because Job was going through some tough times in his life he had done something wrong. Many times in our lives we go through trials that are not very pleasant, death of a loved one, loss of a job or financial difficulties. I believe we do go through trials which are self induced, for instance losing a job because you were always late. But I also believe that God lets us go through trials so that when we get through them we can look back and see how far he has brought us. Then we can give him the praise for helping us through them. We need to be careful not to listen to people  like Eliphaz. We don’t need to blame God for the trials we are in. It says in Proverbs 10:20 The godly give good advice, but the heart of a fool is worthless. It’s good to have friends who are there to help us through trials, and give us good advice, but we need to make sure we go to the only one who gives the best advice and that is God. Remember, he is our BEST friend!