and suddenly…

Guest Blogger:   Michelle Chastain

P E A C E M A K E R.  The word itself brings to mind many images; one picture that this word does not inspire is my own portrait.  When I try to see myself as such I am faced with my humanness and my brokenness. 

God wants me to be a peacemaker?  How does this work?  When I cooperate with God, I am suddenly a peacemaker.     

Suddenly is, without a doubt, one of my favorite words in the entire Bible.  Suddenly is often present when God is in action: 

• “Suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind” (2 Kings 2:11)
• “Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall” (Daniel 5:5)
• “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God” (Luke 2:13)
• And my favorite suddenly of all:  “Suddenly Jesus met them. ‘Greetings,’ He said. They came to Him, clasped His feet and worshiped Him. (Matthew 28:9)  This is incident is when the women went to Jesus’ tomb to care for His body and rather they found their Resurrected Lord.  Suddenly He was alive to them and there was hope for the future. 

This is how it works for you and me!  When we encounter Jesus, suddenly, He takes all of the things that I have tried to hide in the darkness for so long and changes my scars into something beautiful.  Are they still scars?  Yes.  But now they belong to Him.  Suddenly, in His glorious light, those ugly things can be used to help other people when I share the hope that Jesus has given me.  Week eight, the end of our series, is really week one for the beginning of the rest of our lives:  let’s celebrate sharing with others how suddenly Jesus gave us hope and changed our lives forever.

they are watching

The cry for happiness is what I heard last week as a man sat in the front seat of my car.  I sat and listened to him share all the ways he had tried to find it and each time he ended up further away from his desired destination of happiness.  The thirty minutes of sex was a fix and would not last.  The new cars and the nice house or new project on the house would all fade as soon as the newness wore off.   Money would not do it either because he had plenty of it.  But he was still missing it…. God’s love. 

What was so crazy is this man believed in God and would pray to God.  He shared with me how God has answered his desperate prayer more than once.  He said, “I have hit bottom and realize I can’t help myself anymore.  I need God.  Everything in my life has always been about me and my ego and I have hurt a lot people because of only thinking of me and the person that I have damaged the most is me.”

His last point to me was, “Tell people this life doesn’t work, it only creates more misery. What you have is what I want.  When I see you and your wife together I can tell you love her and she loves you.  When you are with your children I can tell you like being a parent. That smile that is on your face; I want that.” 

I never knew this guy was watching my life so closely.  I really thought he could care less.  Here’s the take away.  Someone is watching your life and desires what you have. You’re probably thinking they could care less about you and God.  However, the entire time God is at work in ways you can’t see.  So never stop being the light for those in darkness.

Matthew 5:16 (KJV)   Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

whew!

Guest Blogger:  Chesnee Dorsey

Fall is busy for me and you too I’m sure.  I have to admit,  today…I feel a little overwhelmed.   I have a lot of things going on from now till the end of the year and we are also in the middle of planning 2010.  Then, let’s toss in the holidays and you’ve got a tight calendar.

But, one thing I have been reminded of through Life’s Healing Choices (along with my friend Dawn Ingalls) is that I can only focus on one thing at a time.  I can only work on one hang up at a time.  I can only focus on one project at a time.  I can only do my part.  God has the power to manage it all and he’ll give me grace at the right time to get it all done.

I love the Message version of Matthew 11:28.   I wrote it down since I came across it in the book, Life’s Healing Choices a few weeks ago and now I read it every morning.  I would encourage you to do the same and put it somewhere you can see when you feel overwhelmed.  It almost reads poetically.

(Jesus said)  

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.

That’s good stuff.

my sunday blunder

Well, if you have not heard about one of my greatest blunders I am sure you will.  So let me just go ahead and set the record straight because it will follow me to my grave.  However, I am sure by then I will top it with something else. 

This past Sunday while speaking in the eleven o’clock service at SCC, I was making the point about how you can’t keep hanging out with people or in places that will pull you down into the habits or sins you are asking God to help keep out of your life.  So, I made the following statement, “If you have a problem with drinking, you don’t go to the bar with your buddies to eat the peanuts and expect not be influenced by the BOOBS.”   I meant to say, “BOOZE.”

For all who missed it, uncontrollable laughter erupted in the sanctuary from the stage to the audience. 

What is the great spiritual lesson?   “Do not take yourself too seriously.”  Learn to laugh at yourself.   It just makes life less stressful.

Matthew 23:12 (Msg)   If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.

 

No More Baby Christian Here

Guest Blogger:   Michelle Chastain on “Life’s Healing Choices.”

I have to provide some background to let you know what week Seven, the Growth Choice, means to me.  Permit me, please, to share:  I grew up in church and internalized many truths into my head that I never learned or allowed to take root in my heart.  Therefore, when I became a Christian (really, honestly, and truly committed to Jesus) many of these truths came flooding back into my life and this time they headed straight to my heart.  The first six months or so of my new life was New-Christian Christmas for me as each day I was overwhelmed by previously rejected truths that God was bringing back to me.  I thought I understood the “maturity” thing and had it licked. 

Fast forward to today, as I was sitting in SCC listening to Jeff’s sermon.  While this campaign has presented many challenges, the underlying theme for me has been one that God has been whispering to me for quite some time:  “Michelle, it’s time to grow up.”  Today He skipped the whisper and instead used a stadium P.A. system. 

It is indeed time to grow up and that is what this week’s choice is all about.  Growing is about doing what is right, even when I don’t feel like it.  It is doing right when no one around me is looking or will ever know.  It is filtering my human thoughts through my God filter and biting my tongue if a cross word is there because my day has been bad or I am tired and am tempted to think only of myself.  Growing is running full force from sin. It is not trotting away from sin or dancing with it and hoping it won’t enchant me, rather it is putting on my gospel sneakers that bring peace and running with all my might toward God and His awesome power that will deliver me.  It is filling my mind with His word so that I have the Sword of the Spirit as my weapon.  (References: Ephesians 6:10-18)

God is a God of peace and not chaos (1 Corinthians 14:33) and He wants me to have peace in my life.  His salvation and peace are free to all who will but accept; however, He asks us to do our part by growing in Him by spending time with Him.  Praise God that when we take a little time from each day to spend with Him that He will work in me to help us to grow up.

kiss

I am sure that most of you have heard of the KISS method to accomplishing a task. 

I remember sitting in my class in junior high and hearing my math teach say remember the KISS rule which stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. 

As I was reading the Bible this morning that seemed to be what Jesus was saying when it comes to life.  He was telling his disciples if you really want to experience the kingdom of God you must become like a child in terms of faith.  I don’t know about you, but I have this problem.   When I start to over think things, it causes all kinds of doubt.

This is true of every relationship.  When I start to over think about what people say, I start to question their motives and that breaks down trust and causes me to have doubts about them.  When I over think golf, I hit the ball in the water.  When I over think about God and try to figure out why God does what he does, it causes me to have doubts.

But when I just use the KISS model for life and relax my mind, it brings peace.  I have found that I can only use the KISS model when I trust God and other people.   Jesus was telling all of us that real peace comes from trusting like a child.   Most children are not skeptics and you and I were not born skeptics.   The world has just taught us to be one.

So here’s the question that you and I have to answer.   Will you use the KISS model for life or will you keep over thinking everything and live in torment and not trust God or anyone else?

Matthew 18:2-4 (Msg)   For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom.

 

choice 6 – repairing relationships

Guest Blogger:   Michelle Chastain on “Life’s Healing Choices“

This week’s choice leaves me the following thought:  Repairing relationships – yuck!  Can’t I just leave all of this repair business to Jesus and let Him handle the parts of my life I’d rather not deal with?  The answer is a resounding, “No”.  Jesus showed His mercy to me when I didn’t deserve it and, as an expression of my gratitude for Him and what He has done in my life; I am to show His mercy to others. 

This means I’ll have to let go of the resentment and anger that I have harbored for a long time and have come to recognize as my traveling companions in life.  What will I do if I let go of the bitterness in me.  Who will I be?  How will I act?  This behavior is me is deep seated . . .

I am reminded of the words of the apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippian church: 
“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.  Do everything without complaining and arguing so that no one can criticize you.  Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.”  (Philippians 2:13-15)

Wow.  God tells me in His word that He is working in me and giving me power!  I don’t have to repair anything in my own strength; He is with me.  And He offers me instruction on how to allow Him to work in me:  without complaining and arguing while I live a clean and innocent life.  He even goes so far as to tell me why:  so that no one can criticize me (for His sake) and He tells me who I will be as I do these things:  a bright light in a perverse world. 

As I begin to go about repairing relationships I praise God that I can walk in His strength and His might.  He will take my human attempts and with His divine power, make them glorious, as He is glorious.  I am already anticipating the healing that is headed my way!

choose your side

Today I heard on the news, like many of you, that the shooter at the army base at Fort Hood in Texas who killed 13 people and wounded 30 others was a known enemy of this country.  He was able to serve in the army because of our government trying to not be offensive to anyone.  I think we have had enough of being politically correct in this country.  It doesn’t work.

In order to be a great nation, great church, or a great family you have to have unity on some basic principles.  Our nation rose to be the greatest nation on earth because of our unity on the moral principles the Bible gives.

Here’s the deal.  We must decide who sets the boundaries for our lives.  I watched a little of the Monday night football game last night and they had side lines and goal lines that set the boundary in which both teams understood the game was to be played in.

If our marriages, our families, our churches or our country is going to survive, they have to have agreed upon boundaries. 

What has kept Rhonda and I together for over 22 years is not just our love for each other, because there have been times that we didn’t feel that strong of a love for each other.  It was God’s Word that set the rules before we got married.   We agreed that no matter what, we would honor God with or marriage.  We agreed to honor what God wants over what we want.

If you don’t set that standard for your life and your family, you will fall into the trap our army just fell into.  In the name of not wanting to offend anyone, they moved their boundaries to accommodate the enemy within their own ranks.  The end result was death to innocent people.

And that is what always happens when we don’t have Godly boundaries in our lives, innocent people die.  Like the baby that will be aborted today, the child whose innocence will be stolen because of a child molester.  Like the kid that is not like everyone else so the world will steal his or her innocence and convince them they are gay.

My prayer is, “God give us men and women who are like Joshua in the Bible.” 

Joshua 24:15 (NIV)   If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

our prayer for you

Please view the prayer below

if it’s to be….

I have been reading the Bible through this year and I am just now on the last book of the Old Testament.   So, it may be the end of January before I finish the Bible from cover to cover. 

As I read through the book of Micah I came across a pretty straight forward and very simple strategy for living life. 

Micah 6:8 (Msg)  What God is looking for in men and women.  It’s quite simple:  Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously – take God seriously.

I did my personal inventory of all my habits, hurts, and hang-ups and asked God to help me with them.   The one word that came to me…this very high D, type A person was RELAX!

I think that comes right in line with not taking myself too seriously and taking God much more seriously.  In order to do that, I have to realize I am in control of very little and drop the attitude of “if it is to be, it is up to me.”  Now my new saying is, “God, if it is to be, it is up to You.”

How about you are you?  Are you taking yourself too seriously and God, not serious enough?