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!

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?

the transformation choice

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

The choice for week five is the transformation choice.  This choice is about making changes, about voluntarily submitting to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly asking Him to remove my character defects. 

This choice is difficult for a number of reasons.  We can only work one character defect at a time.  We have to face each day one at a time. Leaving the life we know, even if it is bad, is scary!  We can not tackle all of our defects at once nor can we expect instant victory over things that have taken a lifetime to become habits.  Just as Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” we, too, must pray, “God, give me today the strength for (fill in the blank with your own need here)” 

So far we have faced some difficult and heavy decisions in this series but I want to challenge us all to remember that the changes are is tough they are worth the effort!  God will provide us His strength if we will only let Him!.  Remember, Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires.  This week let’s desire what God wants and watch with expectation and enthusiasm as He begins to change the character defects in our lives that we have brought to Him.   Like little children who are receiving and unwrapping a long awaited gift from their Father, let’s be excited as we see what God is going to do in our lives through the transformation change.

what i get is what i give

This morning I was reading the book “Life’s Healing Choices,” by John Baker.  I am reading the chapter on forgiveness and he made a statement that I believe is true for life in any area.  It is this, “YOU CAN’T RECEIVE WHAT YOU ARE UNWILLING TO GIVE.” 

That is the words of Jesus put in a different way.  Jesus said it this way.

 Luke 6:37 (NIV)   ”Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

Here is the question that you and I must ask ourselves, “Are we giving to everyone, not just a few people, but everyone what we want back from God and others?”

Let that sink in and the next time you think about making someone pay with the cold shoulder, ask yourself, “Is that what I want back from God and others?”

Our Prayer For You

Please join Michelle Chastain as she prays for those involved in The Life’s Healing Choices Campaign at Stockbridge Community Church.

the housecleaning choice

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

Week 4’s choice is that I openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust.  The beatitude behind this choice is Matthew 5:8:  Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.  The truth is that I can not purify my own heart with good behavior.  Only God can give me a pure heart, and this pure heart will bring about good behavior. 

In Sunday’s sermon Pastor Jeff talked about Jesus bringing Lazarus back to life and that the disciples were told to loose the grave clothes.  This is what week 4 is about:  God has saved me (brought me back to life) and I have to examine myself and see what is wrong in my life.  Confessing the wrongs in my life to myself, to God, and to someone I trust (not on billboard outside of the local supermarket) is the removing of the grave clothes – bringing off the things that only the dead wear.  The living do not wear grave clothes!  Just like Lazarus needed help from the disciples to loose his grave clothes, we need help from others – our church family, our small group, and maybe even Celebrate Recovery or Christian counseling. 

I can not change myself; only God can change me.  My job is to surrender to God and allow Him to bring about change in my life that is needed.  As I spend time with God in His word and in prayer and with other believers, the grave clothes begin to come off, layer by layer, as He purifies my heart. 

This week as we make our moral inventories and share with other people, let us pray that God will begin to remove our grave clothes so that we can live in light of His promises.

do we really want to be like jesus?

I finished Bill Robinson’s book called, Incarnate Leadership last night.  One of the things he shared was how we have a tendency to pick and choose how we want to be like Jesus.  This next statement got me, “But mostly we want Jesus to be like us.  It has been said that God created us in his own image; then we returned the favor.”

Ouch!  That one hurt.  I think all of us need to chew on that statement awhile and ask the question, “Do I want Jesus to look like me or do I want to look like him?” 

This statement draws us right back to God’s word when Paul tells us that we are to deny our selves or sacrifice our will by become a living sacrifice for Christ.  We thank God for Christ giving up of his will and obeying the Fathers will that cost him his life. That is what the cross was all about.

Now He asks us to give up our will for his will and receive a better life through Him.

Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)   Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

 

a prayer for you

Join Michelle Chastain this week as she prays for you in SCC’s Week Three of “Life’s Healing Choices.”

show some grace

I have continued to ask God to change me through this spiritual growth campaign that we are doing called “Life’s Healing Choices.”  I can tell you God has not come down and given me the writing on the wall, but He has opened my ears that I can hear him talking to me.

For example I am reading this book called Incarnate Leadership, by Bill Robinson.  In this book he talks about how we need to be like Jesus and live a life of grace and truth when it comes to dealing with others in our family, church, and on our jobs.

John 1:17 (NIV)   For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Most show very little grace to people for this one reason… we guess their motive before we give them a chance to tell us their motive or why they did what they did.  Most of us can get so worked up in our mind with anger or hurt feelings because we make up a motive in our mind and let all of our feelings flow from a false assumption.

So here is the deal about grace, stop guessing the motive of other people before you ask them and give them the benefit of the doubt.  Another way to say it is, “show some grace.”

If we will practice this our stress level will go down greatly because we want take everything so personally.  Then, our life again gets better when we change, instead of trying to get others to change.

the commitment choice

Guest Blogger:  Michelle Chastain

This week we learned that the Commitment Choice is choosing to consciously commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control.  This choice is not about weakness but rather about meekness.  Meekness is bringing something under control, much like a bit in the mouth of a horse harnesses it’s power. 

When I make the Commitment Choice by accepting God’s Son as my Savior, I choose to accept God’s Word as my standard for living.  The Bible is living and active and, when I read it, it gets inside of me and changes me.  It is truth and will set me free.  The Bible takes pressure off of me to make decisions because it is my manual for life. 

I also choose God’s will over my own.  Following Jesus is a 24 hour a day, 365 days each year commitment.  Each morning I should thank God for the day and ask Him that His will be done, in my life, and that I can be a part in His story rather than trying to make Him a part of my story.  Choosing God’s will is the power of meekness in action. 

The final decision I must make as part of the Commitment Choice is living in the strength that God gives me.  His power in my life makes these other things possible.  The Bible says that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13). 

The key to the Commitment Choice is that I must humble my heart before God.  Jesus will knock at the door of my heart but He will not break it down.  I have to be willing to allow Jesus to come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior.  Only then does God have the opportunity to change me from the inside out.  When I make this choice, God brings the same power that raised Jesus from the dead into my life and begins to heal me from my hurts, habits, and hang ups.