As some of you know, I recently went on a mission trip to the Gulf Cost to help with the hurricane relief. While on this trip, I feel that God showed me that there is still a great need for revival in the churches.
As I went through the small communities and saw the massive destruction, I was surprised to see the only people that were there were a couple of men from the organization Thirst no more.
It seemed to me that there was not much 5 guys could do to help this church. The task seemed to be big.
While working on the church I became good friends with a man I was working with. I found out the second day that one of the guys I new from First Baptist Church in Springdale, some 13 or 14 years ago, now lives in Dallas.
I have learned in life that people will come in to your life for a season not knowing at that time that God may have put this person in my life for a reason. I do not think that it was just a coincidence two guys that have not seen each other in years were put together.
The hard part was trying to figure out if I was there for him or if he was there for me. Maybe neither, I do not know. Maybe if I would not look into things and try to figure out things and seek God for what he wants then he might make it more clear.
I know that when I fell to Satan's evil attack last year, Kim had so many people that was there for her. The way I see it God put someone spacial in her life for a season that would help her pray for me and help her turn to God for strength.
I look back over my life and there as been so many people that came and went through my life. I can only hope that If I was placed in their life for a season, I pray I was able to be there for what God put us together for.
Are you in a season with someone? Be sensitive to what their need is and take a good look at yourself to see that they might be there for you. Ask God to use the relationship.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Hope
Hope: To cherish a desire with expectation of fulfillment.
Hope, what is it you are hopeful for? Are you even hopeful for anything?
I think too many times people get caught up in being hopeful on things. I have said too many times "I hope this happens" or "that happens", not just asking God to take care of it. Whether it be something big or small. I am not saying that you shouldn't hope. I just think we should rely on God instead of hope.
When I am looking for an answer I sometimes say out loud "I hope", but my heart is saying "Lord - help me with this".
Have you ever said I hope my kids or my parents are ok? I think what we really mean is "God, be with them".
I have learned over the last year I am hopeful in one thing...that God knows my heart and that I am doing what he has asked me to do.
1 Timothy 6:17 "Command those who are rich in the present world not to be arrogant nor to put their HOPE in wealth which is so uncertain, but to put their HOPE in God".
Hope, what is it you are hopeful for? Are you even hopeful for anything?
I think too many times people get caught up in being hopeful on things. I have said too many times "I hope this happens" or "that happens", not just asking God to take care of it. Whether it be something big or small. I am not saying that you shouldn't hope. I just think we should rely on God instead of hope.
When I am looking for an answer I sometimes say out loud "I hope", but my heart is saying "Lord - help me with this".
Have you ever said I hope my kids or my parents are ok? I think what we really mean is "God, be with them".
I have learned over the last year I am hopeful in one thing...that God knows my heart and that I am doing what he has asked me to do.
1 Timothy 6:17 "Command those who are rich in the present world not to be arrogant nor to put their HOPE in wealth which is so uncertain, but to put their HOPE in God".
Friday, October 17, 2008
Faith
Faith do you have it? I know that it is not something that came over night for me. I thought it was hard when trials came before I started my walk with Christ. Man how I was wrong. I know for me, trying to stand for what I believe was not enough. Without faith you can only see what is in front of you or the near future. I have learned through several trials where my faith was. I didn't have any. I tried to fly by the seat of my pants (Oklahoma slang for I didn't have a clue).
For me it took some drastic measures to change my life. I thought God was letting me go on my own for a while, not leaving me out there too long. I can see now that he was always there for me I just couldn't see him through all the sin that I was living in.
He knew that if he let me see that I didn't have the faith it took to make it with out him that I would come to a place of total brokenness. When I was trying to live out what I wanted to I found myself with another woman, drinking, fighting, and just acting like a complete loser. This is what happens when you put faith in yourself, not in the one who is always faithful.
In the middle of all this sin I decided I was leaving home. I took a trip by myself where I told people I needed to take a sabbatical. WHAT??? I didn't even know what that was. I heard someone say they went on one and that sounded like another way I could get away and keep living the life I wanted to.
On this trip God tried to tell me several times - Rick this is enough, you need to have faith and come back to me and let me make everything new again. But I just turned up the radio and kept going. It took me hitting a deer and doing $6,000 damage to my truck, losing the keys to the cabin that I was going to be staying in, and not having anywhere else to turn before I turned to Him for help. It is amazing how when we are in trouble we ask God for help.
He did help and then told me to go home. But that was just the voice of God trying to get me to have faith in him. Over the next several months I would go from earning a great income, getting separated from the person that loved me the most, to losing our home and just feeling like checking out of this world early.
All of this because I let Satan in to run my life and didn't have faith and believe that God was going to help me.
After all this, I still do not have a job and not much money. In spite of this, I now know that the faith that I have and the little chills that he gives me lets me know he is here through this hard time. He has given me a peace that is worth all that stuff. I have my family back together and I am seeing him work in me and the ones around me. I had faith that he could restore it all and trusted in him to do it.
1 Corinthians 10:12 "So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you do not fall! (13) No temptation has seized you except what is common to man, and God is faithful, he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bare, but when you are tempted he will also give you a way out so that you can stand up under him".
For me it took some drastic measures to change my life. I thought God was letting me go on my own for a while, not leaving me out there too long. I can see now that he was always there for me I just couldn't see him through all the sin that I was living in.
He knew that if he let me see that I didn't have the faith it took to make it with out him that I would come to a place of total brokenness. When I was trying to live out what I wanted to I found myself with another woman, drinking, fighting, and just acting like a complete loser. This is what happens when you put faith in yourself, not in the one who is always faithful.
In the middle of all this sin I decided I was leaving home. I took a trip by myself where I told people I needed to take a sabbatical. WHAT??? I didn't even know what that was. I heard someone say they went on one and that sounded like another way I could get away and keep living the life I wanted to.
On this trip God tried to tell me several times - Rick this is enough, you need to have faith and come back to me and let me make everything new again. But I just turned up the radio and kept going. It took me hitting a deer and doing $6,000 damage to my truck, losing the keys to the cabin that I was going to be staying in, and not having anywhere else to turn before I turned to Him for help. It is amazing how when we are in trouble we ask God for help.
He did help and then told me to go home. But that was just the voice of God trying to get me to have faith in him. Over the next several months I would go from earning a great income, getting separated from the person that loved me the most, to losing our home and just feeling like checking out of this world early.
All of this because I let Satan in to run my life and didn't have faith and believe that God was going to help me.
After all this, I still do not have a job and not much money. In spite of this, I now know that the faith that I have and the little chills that he gives me lets me know he is here through this hard time. He has given me a peace that is worth all that stuff. I have my family back together and I am seeing him work in me and the ones around me. I had faith that he could restore it all and trusted in him to do it.
1 Corinthians 10:12 "So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you do not fall! (13) No temptation has seized you except what is common to man, and God is faithful, he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bare, but when you are tempted he will also give you a way out so that you can stand up under him".
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Reconciled
Reconciled: To restore to friendship or harmony. This word came to me last night when talking to a friend. He said that he needs to be reconciled with someone. It made me think when God brought me back from place where I was not with him. I have been blessed to have been reconciled to my wife, kids, and my family and most important to God. I think of the old hymn. "Amazing Grace - I ONCE WAS LOST BUT NOW I'M FOUND". Its only because God has reconciled me back to him where he gave me friendship with him. He also gave me harmony in my life which is what we Christians should have everyday.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christs' ambassadors, as through God we're making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christs' behalf. Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christs' ambassadors, as through God we're making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christs' behalf. Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Trustworthy
Do you look at yourself as someone that can be trusted? I have always wanted to be trusted but never knew how to get someone to trust me. Maybe that was the problem. I wanted it so bad that I would go around trying and telling people that they could trust me, that you have my word, you can trust me. The problem was I didn't want to take the time to earn the trust. As I found out later I couldn't trust myself. I was so caught up in trying to juggle two lives. I didn't know that people could see that I could not be trusted and that the longer I led the two lives the less people trusted me.
In Psalms 37:3 His word says Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Once I understood that I could trust God with my innermost thoughts, worries, shame, and dishonest actions - I could really enjoy safe pastures and start trusting in myself and trying to earn the trust of others by actions instead of trying to make people believe me.
Isaiah 30:15 This is what the sovereign Lord, the One of Israel says: In repentance and rest is your strength in quietness and TRUST is your strength.
In trust.
In Psalms 37:3 His word says Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Once I understood that I could trust God with my innermost thoughts, worries, shame, and dishonest actions - I could really enjoy safe pastures and start trusting in myself and trying to earn the trust of others by actions instead of trying to make people believe me.
Isaiah 30:15 This is what the sovereign Lord, the One of Israel says: In repentance and rest is your strength in quietness and TRUST is your strength.
In trust.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Forgiven
What does it take to be forgiven? Some people believe that if they just ask a person for forgiveness then they will just say okay. I found that it is a lot harder to really accept an apology than it is to to give one. When you do something to someone, even if you are in the right, it takes swallowing your pride, humbling yourself and being sincere. To accept an apology I think you need to really look at the persons actions and see if they are being sincere. Look at how God forgives us of our sins. His word tells us that our sin is casted as far as the east is to the west. Is that what you do when someone sins against you? We are supposed to try and walk as righteous as we can so to forgive is also to forget.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Purpose
What is purpose? Is it the best job? Not trying to keep up with the Jones but being the Jones'? Or is it doing what ever you want and whatever makes you happy?
Even though my last name is not Jones I used to want everyone to try to keep up with me and I was always looking for the person that had something that I wanted. I would not stop for anything or anyone to get what I wanted. I felt that my purpose was whatever I made it and it was always changing.
Romans 8: 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called to his purpose.
We have all been called to His purpose - to love him, others, ourselves , and to serve him in all that we do.
We cannot go on thinking we know what is best for us and not give God the chance to work in our lives. We need to stand up for our family, friends, co-workers and most important our creator.
Even though my last name is not Jones I used to want everyone to try to keep up with me and I was always looking for the person that had something that I wanted. I would not stop for anything or anyone to get what I wanted. I felt that my purpose was whatever I made it and it was always changing.
Romans 8: 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called to his purpose.
We have all been called to His purpose - to love him, others, ourselves , and to serve him in all that we do.
We cannot go on thinking we know what is best for us and not give God the chance to work in our lives. We need to stand up for our family, friends, co-workers and most important our creator.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Why
Why is it that men have such a hard time sharing their true feelings? Is it because our fathers didn't teach us or because some men are fatherless? Whatever the case might be, not being open to your brothers can cause you to put on a front and make you fall into a trap made by Satan. He wants you to think that acting tough and in control is the way a man shoule be. What I have found is that we sometimes put on these fronts out of fear. Fear of being hurt and fear of being exposed even to the ones that love us the most.
I know that for too long I didn't want to let anyone in because of the pain that occured with my parents getting divorced when I was 14. That was so long ago but yet I felt I had to hold on and cover it up so that no one would see that I was hurting. I can tell you that holding on to that kind of hurt will turn you into someone that you never intended on being.
Because I held on to the anger and hurt I was never going to see how much God loved me and I would never see how much my wife, kids and family really love me. I turned away from God, only then could I see how much he has done for me. He gave me a wife that no matter what I have done, will never stop loving me and kids that will always look up to me. But without God showing me these things I was never going to be open to what God wanted to give me which is mercy, grace and unconditional love from the Father.
Being real is trusting in God and yourself and being open to hurt, pain, embarrassment, shame guilt, sadness and bitterness. Being real will also bring happiness, joy, fulfillment, peace, kindness, goodness and understanding. When you put God first in your life you can then begin to open up and receive all of the things He has for you.
I know that for too long I didn't want to let anyone in because of the pain that occured with my parents getting divorced when I was 14. That was so long ago but yet I felt I had to hold on and cover it up so that no one would see that I was hurting. I can tell you that holding on to that kind of hurt will turn you into someone that you never intended on being.
Because I held on to the anger and hurt I was never going to see how much God loved me and I would never see how much my wife, kids and family really love me. I turned away from God, only then could I see how much he has done for me. He gave me a wife that no matter what I have done, will never stop loving me and kids that will always look up to me. But without God showing me these things I was never going to be open to what God wanted to give me which is mercy, grace and unconditional love from the Father.
Being real is trusting in God and yourself and being open to hurt, pain, embarrassment, shame guilt, sadness and bitterness. Being real will also bring happiness, joy, fulfillment, peace, kindness, goodness and understanding. When you put God first in your life you can then begin to open up and receive all of the things He has for you.
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