Thankfulness

I like the "Thirty Days of Thankfulness" I have been seeing. I won't post every day, but today I felt moved to do so. There are many times throughout the day that I am distracted...but today I shall stop and still my thoughts and praise and thank God for who He is.  I thank Him for being with me, not only when I call on His powerful and mighty name...but all the time. I am thankful that He is with me, guiding my steps and making a narrow path for me to walk.  I am thankful that not only is He with me in my joys and victories, but in my sorrows and failures.  I am thankful that God sent and sacrificed His Son here to build a cross shaped bridge across an infinite chasm that separated a painfully aware, wretched sinner like myself from the holy and perfect God who created and sustains everything including each breath I draw and every beat of my sin-weary heart. I am thankful to You, my Hope, my Redeemer, my Rock in shifting sands, my soul's first Love, my Conquerer of sin and death, my Righteousness, my Justice, my Healer, my Giver of Life, my Shepherd, my Lord, my Jesus. Thank You for the undeserved favor you have poured out on me - my relationship with You, the love you have grown and continue to deepen between Stacy and me, the children you have entrusted me with, clothes on our bodies, a roof over our heads, food to sustain our bodies and Your Word to sustain our souls.  I lack nothing...I have everything!!  

Truth from God's Word:

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you - 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ - Ephesians 5:20

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change - James 1:17

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever - Psalm 107:1

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him - Colossians 3:15-17

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving - Colossians 4:2

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him - Colossians 3:17

A Psalm for giving thanks. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations - Psalm 100:1-5

In The Hands of The Potter

Today, I am thankful to be clay in the hands of the Potter.  I am thankful that You, Lord, have continued to mold and shape me into who You want and need me to be.  You have consistently led me through all circumstances - the valleys and the mountaintops, ever since I came into a loving relationship with You.  I am thankful for the valleys I have walked through, and will walk through, because it is there that I have experienced Your love, Your comfort, and Your peace that passes all understanding.  I am thankful for the mountaintops I have stood upon, and will stand upon, for it is there that I have experienced Your majesty, Your holy radiance, and Your beautiful mystery.  I pray that You continue to mold and shape me, in Your hands, to make me an instrument of Your divine will and purpose, so that I can love and serve others, with an unquenchable passion for You.  Thank You for loving me and shaping me.

Amazing Grace, How Sweet The Sound, That Saved A Wretch Like Me

Two years ago today, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, met me in the darkest of days, and saved me in flesh and spirit. I was alone, holding the bible that I had been reading and feeling like I was close to death. I heard the voice of my Jesus, telling me He loved me. I reached up for His hand and put my full trust and faith in Him. 

It has been a wondrous journey these last two years. If Jesus could save someone like me, the chief of sinners as Paul said, then He can save everyone and redeem everything. I shudder when I think about what life was like before I was His. I want everyone to know Jesus and thus our Father...and I do not want to rest as long as there are people that do not know Him. Thank you for the Godly people that You have blessed me with in my life - who have discipled me, loved me, challenged me, comforted me, walked with me and who have been the most beautiful evidence of Your divine and holy love. Thank you, my King, for Your mercy, Your grace, Your compassion, Your justice, Your correction and Your love - and for giving an undeserved wretch like myself a new and glorious life in You.

Less Matthew - More Jesus!  I must decrease and He must increase!

Led Into The Desert

We are all born with a thirst.  From the moment we come into this world, we begin to want and desire something to satisfy us, to nourish us, to make us whole and to give our lives meaning and purpose.  And many of us, myself included, go through this life looking for anything we can to quench that thirst.  Sometimes we find shallow meaning in identification with the material things we possess, and sometimes we find it in the pursuit of anything and anyone that makes us "feel" good.

When it comes to material stuff, this is evident even at the young age of two years.  I've watched my daughters find their identity in their toys.  I've seen how possessive and protective they became as they would guard their toys from each other and other kids.  How many of us have watched as our own children have grabbed a toy off the floor or even away from another child and held it close as they said, “Mine!”  We do this as adults, too.  

We like our “stuff” We spend a lot of time collecting stuff, dusting stuff, waxing stuff, fixing stuff, shopping for stuff, and displaying stuff.  It’s ok to do all of those things with stuff.  It’s when the “stuff” starts to consume our lives and become too important – more important than your relationships…with family, friends, people, and God.  You can’t take it with you, even if the bumper sticker on the car in front of you says, “He Who Dies with The Most Toys Wins!”

That is a lie sold to us by the world.  Satan whispers this in our ears all the time.  Satan even tempted Jesus with the promise of stuff. 

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.  And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread."  But he answered, "It is written,

"'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple  and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

"'He will command his angels concerning you,' and

"'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'"

Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.  And he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
 

"'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'"  Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.  - Matthew 4:8-11

This is what Satan and this world want from us; the same thing they wanted from Jesus:  To have us fall to our knees and be consumed by idolatry and worship of anything but our Father God.  To have us look to the cup of this world to quench the dryness of our spirit.  The mind-blowingly beautiful and wondrous fact is that the same power that our Jesus used to resist temptation now lives in us who are disciples of Christ.

God said we will be tempted.

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  – 1 Peter 5:8

God does not let us be tempted without giving us a way out.

“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” – 1 Corinthians 10:13

And God tells us that when we live in the ways of the Holy Spirit, we will not seek to fulfill our fleshly, worldly desires and temptation will not lead to sin.

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” – Galatians 5:16

Did you know that it is truth that if we “walk by the Spirit” as God says, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh – we will not seek to quench our thirst with anything other than God.  Sure, we will have the desire of the flesh, and that is natural and part of being human.  It's how we fulfill those desires - when we seek to satisfy those desires in a way that does not glorify God, we are sinning and shrinking God in our hearts.  We can't shrink God in our hearts if we are being led by the Spirit.

And God has given us the most powerful weapon to use when we are tempted – His Word.

“I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” – Psalm 119:11

What did Jesus do when He was tempted by Satan, He quoted scripture!

 Look above in Matthew 4:1-11.  Each time Jesus was tempted by Satan, Jesus quoted scripture.  And God’s Word is Truth and it wins every single time when placed against Satan’s lies.  

(So, spend more time with your nose buried between the pages of The Bible.  I've been doing this a lot lately because I was convicted on the sad and pathetic amount of time I have spent reading books about God’s Word instead of actually reading His Word.)

Even Jesus was led into the desert by God so He would fully know what it is to be tempted and tried like we are - and to show us how we can overcome temptation – and also to show us that none of us are safe from temptation.

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. “ – Matthew 4:1

And God takes ordinary people, just like us, and leads us into the desert as well, in order to show us that all we need is Him.

I was reading Hosea and digging in to the story of Hosea and Gomer.  God took Gomer into the desert too:

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the desert, and speak tenderly to her.” – Hosea 2:14

Sometimes we thirst so much, and we are not willing to quench that thirst with Jesus, the only one who can fully satisfy us.  Sometimes, all too often, we hold on to that very last drop in our own cup, no matter how bitter tasting it is.  And sometimes, God brings us into the desert to show us just how much we need Him and how only He can satisfy our parched souls.

Eternity

Eternity

There must be more.

Life for life’s sake

cannot be

the answer

Are we like the lilies of the field?

Blossoming,

dancing in the warmth

of the spring sun

Fragrance,

carried on the gentle winds

of time

Growing, spreading…

unabated

until the coming frost.

The chill of winter

finds us withering,

our beauty seemingly stolen,

our fragrance forever lost

Or are we like the dragonfly nymph?

Born unto the riverbed

Called one day

above the water’s surface

Reborn

With silversilk wings

soaring far above

the depths of our old water home

Free

to glide on the unending slipstream

of eternity

Questions plague us

Locusts of our minds

Stripping bare the fruits

of faith

Our souls thirst

Coming to the water’s edge

We drink

Our mouths open wide

Careful to savor every drop

Your answer leaves us satisfied

Randy Storms - A Life of Triumph In Jesus Christ

Twenty four hours ago, we lost a beautiful man and the love of his life, his beautiful wife.  From all accounts, it appears this man, Randy Storms, suffered a heart attack while driving here in town.  The van he, his wife Suzy, and their much loved service dog, Henley, were in, crashed into a dry rocky creek bed.  Randy, Suzy and their dog were killed in this accident.

I spent the weekend at a relationship retreat that was organized and presented by my church, City Life Church.  This relationship retreat was for singles, married people and couples.  The purpose was to show people how the gospel transforms us and how our present and future relationships should glorify God.

Randy Storms was one of the speakers and he led several incredible sessions including a singles breakout, “Are You Ready For Marriage?”  A main session, “Intimacy Outside the Bedroom.” And a singles breakout, Q&A.  All three sessions were not only engaging and God inspired, they were profitable and I saw and spoke with many people who were profoundly impacted by Randy and Suzy (and Henley, their dog, endeared us all) and their testimony and the way they intimately shared their individual stories and their God written love story.

More than a year ago, I was going through some very hard times.  I approached my lead pastor, Casey Casamento, and we talked over breakfast.  He recognized that I was in despair and he told me that while he could walk with me through this, he wanted me to meet with a man who he knew could not only walk with me, but could counsel me better than anyone else.  Casey knew the right man for the job.  That man was Randy Storms.

I began to see Randy for counseling.  And while I am still a work in progress,  Randy walked through some dark valleys with me and shared the truth of the gospel, along with a compassion and love that was both tender and strong all at once.  Randy helped show me that I should not bury my emotions and feelings, nor should I be led by them as they flow from the heart and the heart is indeed “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” Jer 17:9-10.  Randy began a process that forced me to look at the depth of my own depravity as well as confronting my family of origin issues that shaped me into who I was as a man. 

I had recently suffered a setback, and with the help of a brother, Dave, who was also seeing Randy for counsel and “tune ups”, this brother did what Randy did and in a firm, loving manner, shared truth and reality with me in a way that confronted me with the fact that I had still not fully surrendered my all to God and that I was still trying to white knuckle the stick and control my life.  In reality, it is so much more than words can describe – but I knew that Dave was using his gifts and that his gifts were made more clear and strengthened by Randy’s counsel and Godly wisdom.  This is part of how Randy’s legacy lives on.

I wanted to share some of the notes I took at this weekend’s relationship retreat.  All of the notes below are words that Randy shared.  Some of them may not make sense as I was writing quickly to keep up and capture what Randy was saying.  He spoke so much more than what I have written, and each thought of Randy’s that I jotted down is merely me pushing the play button on a recording that was captured by my heart.

Lessons from Randy Storms – Singles Breakout: “Are You Ready For Marriage?”

Josh McDowell once said, "We have the fear of never being loved and the fear of never being able to love." 

God created us with a desire for Him and a desire to have a spouse.  Man desires woman and woman desires man.  This is normal and natural.  However, many people are not ready to be in a relationship because they have never come to grips with their own badness, brokenness, and ugliness.

 

Because we learned to be who we are so early in life  - and until you deal with your FOO (Family Of Origin) issues and understand why you are the way you are, you can never heal it and you will keep dragging baggage into new relationships, only to have them fail..and only to begin the cycle all over again.

Read Psalm 51 and see how David saw his own wickedness.  He was cut to the heart by it.

 

Sin demands an emotional response.  It is not enough to say you are sinner, you need to be sick over your sin.  You cannot embrace the Good News until you embrace the bad news of yourself.

The root cause of all conflict in relationships is one or both person's self-centeredness.  We are self-centered and we focus on what we do in relationships.  We must focus on who we are in Christ and not what we do in relationships.  We tend to not be human beings but instead are human doings.  We do not know how to be - and to be means to be you as you are in Him.

So many people are sad and bitter because they are not in a relationship and they believe that being in one is the most important thing and will fix everything wrong in their lives.  If you are not at a place where you can not only trust God, but also trust another person, then you do not need to be in a relationship.

There are no steps or lists you can follow to give you a great relationship.  But there is a list with some truth of the kind of person you should be in order to be in a healthy relationship.  And by being, I mean being in Christ - because these seven things are only possible when you are in Christ.

1.  One of the greatest gifts is to be a good listener

Too many people think they are good listeners, but really all they are doing much of the time is waiting for the other person to stop speaking so the response they have been working on can come out of their mouths.  And we have to not only be a good listener with people, but also with God.  Try this and see how hard it is - try turning off the radio when you are alone in the car...and just listening to God.  It's hard...it's too quiet and you want to turn the radio back on so you can just sing as you drive down the road.  And that's ok too - but make time to turn everything off and just listen to God...and to people too.

2.  Become someone who is safe.

Do not pass judgment on people.  In order to become someone who is safe, you have to understand your own brokenness and ugliness and let God heal it.

3.  Be someone who lends a hand.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.  For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow.  But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!"

Who would you call at 3 AM?  Who would you let in to your disappointment?

4.  Be someone who can walk in someone's shoes.

5.  Be someone who can receive.

Don't be a people pleaser.  Being a people pleasure is selfish because you do it because you want people to like you for what you do.  You have to allow others to help you.  In healthy relationships we meet each other's needs.  Caring is mutual.

6.  Be someone who can weather turbulence.

You need perseverance through conflict - because you are guaranteed conflict. 

Maturity comes through knowing who you are in Christ.

You cannot separate emotional health and spiritual maturity.

The last two verses of Psalm 139 is the scariest thing you will ever pray: 

Search me, O God, and know my heart:

    test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,

    and lead me in the way everlasting.

7.  Be someone who knows when to call it quits.

If we are in a relationship (before marriage) that leads us to do something we don't want to do, it's not healthy and it needs to end.

If a man is disobedient to God (with you) before marriage, he will break your heart after you are married.  

Attraction is the beginning of romance.

There are two important questions to ask yourself:

1.  What kind person am I attracted to?

2.  What kind of person is attracted to me?

Who we are attracted to says a lot about who we are.  Who we attract says a lot about who we are as well.  Our relationships reflect how we see ourselves.  If we do not have our significance and worth in Christ, we are attracted to and attract people who are not good for us and who do not see our worth (or theirs) in Christ.

You are ready to get married when you are willing to be single and you won't settle for less.  It doesn't mean you are ok with being single...or that you enjoy it...it means you are willing to be single.

Willing to be single = Let Jesus write your love story.

You have to know your worth in Christ to attract who God wants for you.  God will bring that person into your life in His timing.

If you want to find the right person, you have to BE the right person. 

Lessons from Randy Storms – Main Session: “Intimacy Outside The Bedroom”

• Intimacy is a baring of your soul
• You can’t have intimacy with another person until you have it with Jesus
• You have to be taken to a place by God where you take an inside look at yourself
• We do not understand the depravity of who we are – the filth and ugliness
• There is healthy pain and unhealthy pain.  When I counsel people, if I am doing my job, I am bringing people into healthy pain so they can move beyond their unhealthy pain
• We have a lust for innocence – and because of that, we do not believe our depravity to be that bad
• We don’t think we are that bad, after all, it’s not like we are murderers.  We killed Jesus – we are murderers
• We dumb down and numb out sin
• If we understood how bad it is with us, we would embrace God’s grace in a whole new way
• We have to put it all on the table in marriage – the good, the bad and the ugly of who we are
• We were created for intimacy and closeness
• We have a longing to be known and a fear of being known
• God knits together two people’s hearts – the covenant is total surrender and sacrifice in the joining of two hearts (Mark 10:7-9)

Following this, there was a singles breakout where Randy and pastor Joey were taking written and verbal questions from us.  Suzy really began to speak truth to us about her failings and her great need for Christ.  She told us all how she was a young woman who battled her own issues of eating, smoking and wanting to look good to attract the kind of man she thought she wanted.  She said she always wanted “Mr. GQ”, and the house with the white picket fence and nice cars in the driveway.  She said she got what she wanted and as she struggled to feel good about herself and look good in order to keep her husband, he walked out on her and their kids.  She found herself lost – without a job, losing her house, and a single mom with two kids – she told us how she felt worthless like no man could love her.  She told us she was so broken, and that’s when she cried out to God – and Jesus reached down and helped her up.  She said that Jesus doesn't meet us by walking up to us and shaking hands - He meets us when He reaches down to take our hand and help us up.

Suzy told us that once upon a time, she would have never given Randy a second look.  She said he was nice and kind, but not her “type.”  She would have never given a man in a wheelchair a second look.  But she had been broken, she realized how wretched her heart was and that she had that lust for innocence – and she had brought it to the foot of the Cross.  She fell in love with Randy for who he is in Christ and not what the world wants to tell her he is…and Randy did the same.

Randy and Suzy were partners in life and in ministry.  Their love for each other and for their family, friends, neighbors, clients, students and people in general was real and it was contagious.  The Christ like love they freely shared, and the beautiful picture of redemption, grace, and covenant they shared was a powerful picture of Christ’s relationship with us, His Bride - His Church. 

Randy spent much of his life in his wheelchair, but he was not confined to it.  To look at Randy and not know him, one might feel sorry for him.  But for those who knew Randy, that chair was a blessing and he was more whole in Christ than imaginable.  I take great comfort and joy in knowing that when Randy and Suzy left this world, they ran straight into the arms of Jesus yesterday!  We grieve and mourn our losses here on earth.  Yet for those of us who know Jesus intimately as our Lord and Savior, and who know how much Randy and Suzy loved Jesus while they were with us, we have a joy and peace that they are now Home – and that tempers our grief and sorrow in a way only Jesus can.

Randy’s legacy will certainly live on for a very long time, and in ways we cannot imagine.  While we are careful not idolize the man, we celebrate the lives lived in service of others, for God and His Kingdom.  The life of a Godly man rooted firmly in Christ is like the blazing sun high in the midday sky, shining the light and love of Christ for all to see.  When that life comes to an end here, and the sun sets slowly behind the horizon, the sky remains alight for a very long time. 

We miss you, Randy and Suzy.  We are sad, heavy-hearted and in disbelief.  Our loss has not fully set in.  Yet we were always reminded by you about the perseverance of the saints.  I am glad I was able to spend the weekend with you and give you both hugs at church yesterday.  We will see you again someday and share in the ecstatic and unfathomable glory of being in the presence of our Jesus.

“When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

Death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

1 Corinthians 15:54-55

Randy and Suzy Storms and Henley

Pastor Joey Fink, Randy Storms and Pastor Casey Casamento

City Life Church Relationship Retreat - February 2, 2013

Randy Storms and Pastor Casey Casamento

City Life Church Relationship Retreat - February 2, 2013

Twenty Things All Married Women (and Men) Should Know

I know this list was written by a woman, and here I am, a man who is sharing this with you.  I am sharing this because when I read this, this really spoke to me and I believe that everything she shares in this list is 100% true and there are so many that apply to both the husband and the wife.

I've screwed up and made mistakes and gone down paths that I should not have - I believe if two people are living in a truly biblical marriage (and that's what this list outlines), where Jesus is the foundation, then outside of your relationship with Him, this relationship will be the most beautiful, rewarding, important and loving relationship you ever have.

Read on and take heart...

1. Marriage is made up of two good forgivers. Because every marriage is made up of two sinners. (Romans 3:23)

2. At some point, you will have to learn that life isn't all about you. (Philippians 2:3)

3. Don’t listen to women that tell you that passion fades…it doesn't have to! (um…all of Song of Solomon)

4. Don’t give up. Love never fails. (1 Cor. 13)

5. He wants a kind wife, not a maid or another mother. Be nice. (Galatians 5:22-23)

6. Give your husband the gift of your respect.  He needs it more than you know. (Ephesians 5:33)

7. Be mindful of your expectations.

8. Honor the Lord above all things. Colossians 3: 17

9. Find your worth and security in the Lord, and don’t look to your husband to meet all of your needs.

10. Be very careful about reading romance novels, they set you up for an unrealistic view of romance.

11. Real romance is finding that one spot in the crook of his arm to snuggle into, that shared look over the dinner table when the kids are acting crazy, and the way he fixes the leaky sink when he is dog-tired after work.

12. Love is about relationship.  The more I love my husband, and seek a relationship with him, the less critical and duty-bound I become.  It is similar to my relationship with God.

13. Be thankful for the husband you have. Accept him as he is, not for what you want him to be.

14. Don’t compare!! Don’t buy into the game of comparing him with anyone else’s husband.

15. The Biblically “normal” marriage is filled with joy, connection, laughter, and peace. It’s not free of hurt feelings and conflict, but they know how to process their pain with one another so that they live more often in a meadow than at the scene of a train wreck.  This is not the average marriage, but it normal – -because it is a visible display of Jesus’ relationship with His bride (Ephesians 5:22-33).

16. Your marriage is a testimony! “The #1 evangelistic tool in America (the world) today is a successful marriage, because it’s a living miracle!” – Dr. Joe Aldrich, former president of Multnomah Bible College.

17. Pray for your marriage. Pray hard.

18. I've heard that is gets better with age. That is so true.

19. Where there is God, there is always hope. Even for the most broken marriages. “With God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

20. Marriage is commitment and sacrifice. But it’s also the best, most wild ride you will ever have with your best friend.

Borrowed from Grace Full Mama via Pinterest @ http://www.gracefullmama.com