Tag: Abba

Be God’s Lego’s 2

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Be God’s Lego’s 2

We are hand crafted to do a job, a very specific job we are born to do, designed directly by God. Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” We often feel our calling and we tell God he’s wrong, and he’s mistaken, and there’s no way you can do what God has asked of you. My associate pastor said this once, “When you run from Gods call, you run from Gods blessing” (Rev. Glen Newsome) How can we expect to have the blessings if we ignore God? Do we expect to get presents on Christmas from family members? Sure we do, but what if they are family we never talk to, we never go see, we never call, do we expect to receive gifts from them? No of course not, so why do we expect to always receive grace from God if we don’t have a relationship with Him? How long will you run away from your calling? How long will you ignore your God given gifts for the things you want instead? We must realize that the things important to God for us may not be what’s popular, it may not be what society says is right, or truth, but scripture is the truth. God loved you to create you, and has a plan for you, and we must learn to let go of our sinful selves and follow the path God wants for you. What’s that you may ask? Be God’s Lego’s.

I have preached on Lego’s in the past, and I felt it was time to revisit it. I’ve sat by lately and I’ve watched as some of my friends have struggled to gain traction. I’ve watched as they barely make ends meat, and it breaks my heart. I offered someone recently to sit down with them to help them figure out why they are struggling financially so much. Having gone through my own struggles, and having gone through Financial Peace University, and having gotten myself to be debt free, I know I have been given the gift to make and follow a budget. God has given me a gift, and while I’m by no means the best at it, I can absolutely help others with it. God has given me the gift of words, and a fair gift of photography, and with it I have followed that path God has set in front of me, and I’ve been blessed for it.

I have recently gotten back into building Lego sets and it’s reminded me how we are all created for a particular purpose. There isn’t an instruction manual to guide us one day to the next, but when we understand that when we spend our waking moments working on our gifts and spreading the Gospel through the gifts God has given to us, we will always find ourselves having more then we need. When we run from our calling we will never truly be as happy as we should be. Running from the Abba of the universe will never leave us as satisfied with our lives as we would ever want. Philippians 2:13 “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” No matter what we do with our life we need to treat our gifts as a seedling planted in the ground. We must water and treat and nourish our gifts so we can be pleasing to the Lord. Micah 6:8 “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Following the Lord is neither easy, nor smooth, but anything worthwhile having is worth putting forth the effort.

We are the clay in which God has made us. We have been sculpted from the breath of life and we are exactly who God meant for us to be. Jeremiah 18:5-6 “Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.” We are meant to live a life and walk a path. We are the result of love incarnate and when we look to our life and we see how difficult the path is, we should remember that from the day we were born, we learn, we grow, we experience things that prepare us for life further down the road. We can’t skip pages in the building process. When building Lego’s we can’t go from step 3 skipping to step 29 thinking it’s going to work out. We must be ready for the next step and to get there we must unfortunately go through a little pain, a little suffering, a little joy, a little happiness, all to prepare us for what’s to come. You can’t skip grades in school unless you’re ready for it. You certainly cannot move on if you haven’t achieved the goals set in front of you, achieving the expectations of you.

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Completing a Lego set is satisfying for me. It takes hours of concentration, attention to detail, and dedication to complete each individual set. God has put a lot of effort into us not to give us every effort, everything we need to accomplish the mission. God would never let us go into battle without the tools we need to defeat the enemy, and we have the instructions to life at every inch we take. The Bible is now easier to get then it ever has been. We can get it on our smart devices, any bookstore, in any language, and in so many version to make it easier to understand then ever before. We complain about not knowing where to go, or what to do, but we don’t turn to the only truth we’d ever need. We don’t look to God to give us the next step. We don’t turn to God when we are stuck and aren’t sure where to go. We don’t trust the creator, and to me that’s like me saying, I’m not sure this peace actually goes there, and questioning the instruction manual for any of the Lego sets I’ve ever built. When we trust in the Lord and follow the plan, we will one day get to the end of the road and we’ll be able to look back and say, ‘that makes so much sense now.’ We don’t have to understand the struggles and the why, we just have to have faith that when we are following the plan as designed, we will move from one step to the next and what we will build to leave behind will be to do the only thing important in this world, to love and glorify God. So, let God build you, shape you, design you, and when you follow your gifts to glorify God, good things will come your way. God will always make good on His promises, and he promises a good, not evil things.

Trust in the Lord and lead not unto your own understanding, and believe that the only purpose is to serve God’s purpose. Everything we endure, everything we experience is for a reason, and we must trust that to be the Lego’s of God means to love God, to do works for God, and we should be content with our place and purpose because we are worth the effort God has put in to us. We are one of a kind and that means whatever our purpose is, we are the only one built to accomplish that purpose.

 

 

 

 

 

On the water

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On the water

While plans may change sometimes suddenly, the key to happiness is not letting those things knock you off your keel. You need to remain solid in your footing and learn to brace with the waves. When life’s gets into rough seas you have to learn how to deal and adapt to the changing winds and learn to navigate without your ship sinking. While there will always be times when you may loose a lot, always hope and continue to sail the open seas.

Be sure to remain flexible, but firm. Stand your ground against the sin, and relax when you can about the small stuff that really doesn’t matter. While plan A, and plan B fell through today, plan C actually worked out pretty darn well. While we are on this great adventure I find myself being reconnected to people, and for me, since it’s been too long, feels great. I haven’t felt connected in a long time.

We must learn to take advantage of the ups when we are there, and much like surfing, use the wave to propel you but never stop paddling till you stand up to ride it. When we get the perfect ride we can’t miss those opportunities. Never give up hope your wave will arrive, you just have to be patient and it’ll come. Have faith in the Lord and when it’s your run, you’ll be given the perfect ride.

There’s some peace on the water that you don’t usually find in other places. The only other place I found peace was at the top of the mountain looking over the earth from such a high place. In the grand scheme of things you are so small in comparison, and instead of feeling small and insignificant, it made me feel so much more important because if the world is truly so big, and I am so small, how special am I to know that the King of all things took the time to create me, to look out for me, who hears my prayers, and provides in all aspect of my life. I am grateful to my King my Abba that I am special enough that I have been given beyond my wildest dreams opportunities like the one I find myself on this week. The ability to travel to the other side of the world, and enjoy such a beautiful and wonderful magical place has been more of a blessing then I ever deserved. I’ve had people tell me these last few days that I have deserved this trip, and I question what exactly I’ve done to deserve this kind of blessing. The truth is, it doesn’t matter, what does is that I have been given this blessing, and that I don’t waist it. I use it, and I move forward with this blessing and use it to the betterment of those who I connect with. Paying forward is such an important aspect of Christianity, and we often fall short in doing that. \

I think one of the biggest things we need to do in our lives is find our thing. Find the thing that can reconnect you. Find it, whether it be meditation, hiking, running, reading your bible, whatever it may be, find that thing, and do that thing often. There are plenty of things that are safe and within reason that will ultimately change your life. Keep yourself in tune with God, and keep yourself in tuned with the beauty of this planet and treasure it because it’s the only one we get. We have been given such a beautiful place to enjoy our lives, I think it’s about time we get back to actually enjoying it. Bad things happen to everyone, and we can either let them hold us back, or push through, and find our joy again. Find your joy in the gifts God has given you. Enjoy the beauty.

God the Abba

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God the Abba

Growing up I never had a dad in my life. It wasn’t in cards for me to be blessed with a father on this earth. For years and years that bothered me and I found myself jealous of others who had good relationships with their fathers. The nature of growing up without a father plagued me for many years. Today being father’s day I have had the distinct privilege to listen to my best friend preach about the greatest father of all, God. 1 Kings 2:1-3 When David’s time to die drew near, he commanded Solomon his son, saying,2 “I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man,3 and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn,” David was many things, a great leader, a great King, a great man of God, but in one area he failed was being a good family man. He wasn’t a good father, and he wasn’t a good husband.

For some of us God is more than just a being of enormous power and divine love. For me God has become so much more, but the term father means so much more. Mark 14:33-36 “33 He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. 34 “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.” 35 Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hourmight pass from him. 36 “Abba,[a] Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Jesus explained how deeply troubled he was as he was facing his choice to go through as the sacrificial lamb for the fate of the entire world. Christ knew above all that God was more than just God, but our Father in heaven. For me God shall always be Abba.

In 2010 I met a man, a great man of God who would continue to inspire me, guide me, and help me grow in my faith of God. I spent 26 years without a father and that day ended when I met my future father in law. After 7 years that would end abruptly as I would watch that family be ripped away from me. Through all this I found a renewed faith and a special relationship with God. As I spent my life with God in all that time I never found a relationship like the one I have now. We never know how or why things work the way they do, but one things is certain our father is always working even if we can’t see it to turn tragedy into miraculous. Abba gave us the rules of the house and we are commanded to follow. In the event we break the rules know that Abba will give us a good old-fashioned butt whooping. Every good father knows when to comfort, knows when to lead, knows when to discipline, but in all moments of our lives Abba is with us. No matter the sorrows we face in this world, Abba will hold us, be with us always.

To all the dads out there be more then biological fathers, be real dads. Teach your kids in the ways of the Lord, teach them in the ways of being a good Christian. To all the dads out there be special to your children; be special to the people that look up to you. Be a good dad, a good father.