Hands in hands out

Sit down, naturally. what do your hands do naturally when you sit or when you stand? They lay palm in against your body. Now take your hands and twist them to hold palms up or out away form your body. Sit with your hand sin this position for 3 minutes..... Do your forearm muscles ache? mine do and I bet yours do as well. Our natural bent as humans is to sit this way, stand this way, act this way. Yes we act how we naturally stand and sit. we act with our hands to ourselves. We act about ourselves. Many of our actions are to us, inward me focused. Have you ever wondered why it is difficult to do something for someone else. Why it is hard to stop and help someone that you see in need. Why you go on working for yourself and your bank account and your savings and it is hard to tithe to church? Have you ever wondered why life is hard at times? It may be as easy as training the muscles. You see the more you do of something the easier it becomes. The more you sit with your hands open and palms up the easier it will become. The more you train your muscles the better they respond.
When we sit or stand with palms out, it is a sign of humility, a sign of emptiness. What position do beggars have their hands in? What is a beggar recognizing? They cannot do it on their own and they need help from other people. Yet we often walk right by them and think, get up do it yourself. When really they might have something to teach us about life. Jesus teaches that those who lose their life will save it those who die to self with live with Christ. The struggle in life could be as easy as a flip of the wrist. It could be just taking time to turn outward and recognize the need for help.

poor

What is poor? Is it a state of being or a state of economic status? It has been stated that if you have food, clothing and shelter you have more than 75% of this world. Let that sink in for a moment...... Food clothing and shelter you have more than 75% of this world... Is poor a mindset or an economic status? What is wealth? can someone without food clothing or shelter have wealth? can someone with 3 houses 3 cars a boat and much food be poor? Look at the following passages of scripture and see what the scriptures say about wealth and poor.
Proverbs 10
As you go about today, ask yourself what am I? Whose am I? Do I follow God with all that I.You will see in the passages above, vs 22, 27, and 29 have LORD that is not by mistake, they could have spelled it Lord, but that would not mean as much and would be a wrong translation of the passage. LORD is not by mistake. When you see LORD that in Hebrew is YHWH. or as would would spell Yahweh. That was the name that God gave to Moses in the burning bush. It is the name that the Israelites and Jews even today will not say, they cannot say it because it is God's personal name and they are not worthy to say his personal name. It literly means I AM. I AM what? I Am provided, sustainer, healer, shepherd, I AM everything you are not. Louie Giglio wrote a book and has a talk. I am not but I know I AM. Lest we think we are wealth or poor think of where that comes from. Think of I AM. Are you poor or are you wealthy may have more to do with whose you are then what you have.

Colossians 3:5-9
Death, not something that we want to deal with. I don't think anybody looks forward to this. The word even makes us cringe. Wrath, can death and wrath be love? To love someone is to give your all to them. To give up things that you may want to do something they may want to do. Love is an action, death is an action wrath is an action. What is the wrath of God? Could the wrath of God be his love? is it bad to put to death sinful activities? is it bad to not want your friend to be involved in poor choices? To stop a friend from making a poor choice you have to show your wrath. To wrestle a friend to keep them safe is your wrath on them, it is also your love on them. God's love for you may be showed in wrath. Sometimes our love needs to be strong, sometimes it needs to be coddling. How are you experiencing God's love today? If you are feeling wrath maybe you need to put to death the things not of God, if you are experiencing coddling keep putting to death the things of this world to show your love for God.

$50

So it was a few weeks ago, learning something new each day. Getting ready to leave to go up to Cran Hill to lead devotions and start another week of ministry. Put everything I need in the car, I pop the trunk and have to put one more thing in the trunk. Go around the back of the car and lift teh trunk up, to which I heard the sound of the alarm on the car. to which I heard the sound of the car doors locking. To which I think, my keys are in the car. I was ready to go, I had everything ready. To which I became downcast and mad and frustrated. I just locked my keys in my car in my driveway and I do not have an extra set of keys. I am dutch and frugal and I can get into my car no problem, right? Nope. After trying for 20 minutes to break into my car I succumb to making that call. The call to the wrecker company to come and get my keys. After waiting another 20 minutes for him to come and then just 2 minutes for him to get my keys. I have lost $50. I have lost that money I cannot get back. What else have I lost? Pride. What have I gained? embarrassment, a story to tell and others to tell about me. A lesson, keep your keys in your pocket and you are all set. Was the gain better than the lost? I don't know it was $50. If I loose that again then there is something wrong with me. All this brings me to a passage in scripture where Paul talks about loosing and gaining. Philippians 3:8. To which I read and ask myself, what have I lost for the kingdom of God? What have I intentionally given up and looked at as a loss? A loss sticks with you, to loose a football game you remember it, to loose money you remember it. To gain a lesson, is much greater than the loss. What did Paul loose? he lost his career of killing Christians. he was the most feared terrorist of Christians in his time, he lost that to gain what? prison? death? life forever? He lost to gain for the kingdom. What have I lost for God's sake? In my flesh have I deliberately given something up? I have to ask these questions for me and wonder what have I done? What have you done? what is it that you need to loose for God's sake? to gain so much more. I now look back on that day in August when I lost $50 and thank God for loosing that to gain an image into the gospel, a lesson to keep my keys with me. I think I have gained so much more in that loss. To loose to gain, where am I in all that? That is the question to ponder and think about.

first day

What goes through your mind on the first day of something new? Will I fit in, will it be what I want, how will I do compared to so many other people? All questions one may ask on the first day of a new job, the first day of school, the first day of anything new can be filled with anxiety or it can be filled with joy. Today I embark on the first day of taking seminary courses. I also have a choice what will I do. For me I have gone to the story of Jesus in the scriptures of when he and the disciples are out on the sea and a storm is coming up and the waves are intense, the seasoned fishermen cannot handle it and Jesus is sleeping! filled with anxiety, no! sleeping when others can not walk on deck because of waves he is sleeping, how can he sleep in that? He is choosing to, just like us each day we have a choice in how we handle circumstances that come our way. We can not choose the circumstances but we can choose the attitude toward the circumstances. How about you what will you choose today?

smell of humilty

There it was, the smell, the fragrance, the aroma of humility. What does humility smell like? How can you tell if it is something that is humble just by the smell. Yesterday I was confronted with that smell. It was inside a beautiful building walking the paces of some wonderful people. This building is filled with the finest tile floors surrounded by a huge skylight in the middle of a commons area, with a coffee stand and bookstore around the commons. The second floor is filled with offices of very educated people, Phd's Doctors, professors and theologians. A building that is used everyday to educate people in the knowledge of God's truths. Man can get so caught up in the education and being filled with knowledge and forget to use it. Our churches can get so caught up in knowledge and forget to use it. But this is different, in this building the aroma was not Nautica cologne, it wasn't the elegant fragrance that one might think. The aroma and fragrance was that of B.O. it was the aroma of physical poverty, it was that of homelessness in the midst of a seminary building. You see 2 worlds collide when the theologians meet the worldly physical poverty around them. The professors and students here have not forgotten to display their knowledge they provide a meal for over 200 people that the world looks down on. The floor is stained the smell is not the finest. But isn't that the smell of humility, isn't that the smell of Jesus example to wash each other's feet, The smell of living the faith to the least of these. The seminary is teaching the church and leading the way for students to get out of their education and into living their hearts. That is the seminary I have chosen to take part in. I will be taking some classes this year and going full time the following year. A seminary that the higher class in the world's eyes eat with the lower class in the world's eyes and all are equal in the room where daily bread is served. The smell will stick with me and will challenge me to continually be living my education as i start to be trained for God's glory

Fear Not

How many times do you hear these words from people around you. When you think someone will not make it on their end of the bargain you hear them say don't worry, or fear not or do not be afraid. Does it really make you feel any better? Do the words of someone really ake you feel comfortable? Or is it in the actions of someone that you feel comfortable and can live by what they say? God tells his people int he Bible to fear not. He tells Abraham when he is asked to sacrifice his son on the alter (Genesis 15) he tells Mary (the mother of Jesus) fear not you are single not married and now pregnant, but not just pregnant, pregnant with the savior of the world, don't be afraid though (Luke 1). God tells his people to not be afraid. Who are the people God is telling to not be afraid? Are they average non committal complacent comfortable Christians? We don't know are they people God wants to do more through? Yes we know that for sure, God did a lot through Abraham, through Mary, through Joshua, through Joseph, Through you. Yes you. Have you heard the words do not fear? God says in Isaiah 41 "I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear for I am with you" After looking through scripture and seeing when God has said the words to a person do not fear, he wants to use them, he wants them to say ok, he is looking for his people no matter where they are in life to so ok God i won't fear I will follow. Just as Isaiah in Isaiah 6 said, "here and I send me." have you heard the words from God do not fear? is God desiring to use you? do you want to be used by God? Sometimes it is adjusting what we want to meet what God wants and in that there is fear. If you hold to the fact that God did not reject you, that history is a way to learn from, then look at history of each time God told his people do not fear, Abraham was provided a ram just at the moment he needed it, Mary was taken care of to deliver God's son. Joshua was able to enter the promised land, Each time God followed through and did not let his people go. Will you learn from history or be stuck in you little mind of fearfulness. Being used by God may take overcoming fear through the power of the Holy Spirit within you. Will you let God speak those words to you? Will you answer as many of those before have answered, "Here am I send use me God."