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.

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!

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.”

Please view the prayer below

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?

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.

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?”

Yesterday I had a very sad hospital visit at Henry Medical Center.  I went to see a young man and his family who had over dosed and was on life support.  They will be removing it this morning at 10am.  It was so sad to look at the pictures of this young man that were around the room, so healthy, so happy and yet he lay there so broken.

Alan Greene went with me and we had prayer for the 20 year old who given up hope and bought the lie of the devil that he would be better off dead.  Jesus reminded us in his Word of the devil’s main objective. 

John 10:10 (NIV)   The thief (the devil) comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I (Jesus) have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

As I was sharing with this mother that I believe God can still speak to people when they are in a comatose state, her reply to me was, “I hope he finds the peace he has been looking for.”

My friends, that broke my heart because somehow this young man who lived in Henry County didn’t have a chance to know the love of God and the peace of God. 

Stockbridge Community Church, we must never get slack or lazy in doing all the good we can for all the people we can because that is what God has called us to do.  He has called us to give hope and without it, people will die. 

Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)   Where there is no vision (of God), the people perish:

People only see God in the good that his people do.  So let’s keep doing good that people may see God through us and find hope.   Remember, it feels good to do good and you are the most like God when you are doing good.

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

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.