31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.  32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.  And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”                               Luke 22: 31&32

God has never promised us that we would not face confrontation with the evil one.  That is Satan, Beelzebub, the Prince of Darkness or whatever you wan to call him. (I call him not so nice names myself, actually)  Yes we will encounter the forces of darkness but we learn from scriptures (check out Job) that nothing happens without our God knowing or allowing.  But as we see in this story there is now someone that works for us.

Jesus, actually admits to Peter what is about to happen.  In this encounter Peter goes on in the next few verses and denies Christ, three times, before the crucifixion.  Mister, “I will never desert you Lord”, was shown his true character.  Yes, it was a failure, but just as in our lives it was one of the most defining and greatest moments in Peter’s life.

Here’s what went down:

• We have now have a High Priest that intercedes on our behalf for strength.  (see Hebrews)
• There is an actual enemy that exists and has it out for you.  Just because you might be a believer does not mean that he will stay away from you.  He’s just got more to prove now.
• Faith is a gift of God, which is supernatural. (not looking for a faith debate but check out John 6)  I believe that if it was dependent on us we would be a lot worse off.
• Going through trials helps you grow and learn about your deficiencies.  Why do you think God would allow it sometimes.
• On the other side of the trials we are called to strengthen our brothers (sisters) so as not to suffer our same fate.

Peter, after this encounter, went on to be the father of the church.  If you want to read about him check out Acts and some of his letters.  He also gets another shot at not denying Christ.

Instead of recanting he asked to be crucified upside down because he was not worthy to be murdered like Christ.  Way to go Peter.  Thanks for strengthening your church brothers…

"Stop that!"...(Sorry, had to find a way to fit Monty Python into this blog somewhere.)

This past week at recovery we were going over The Beginning.  As in the actual creation account from Genesis 1 & 2.  There is a ton of theology built up there in just the first two chapters of the Bible.  We begin to see how God intended for the world to be, what could His nature possibly be like, how did He view the things He created and what was His purpose in all of it.

When we ‘go’ there and begin to see what it was like we begin to see how far away from that we have come.  I think we all kind of react a little differently to these facts.  I, for one, get a good dose of reality, understanding how far we have fallen because we have raised ourselves up in place of worship over our God. And if it isn’t ourselves, we worship the things that God has created over God the creator.  What’s that all about?

I wonder how how many of us actually take the time to unplug and observe what God has done.  Creation echos with everything that God is responsible for every day.  Whether you find it in nature outside, or from a close friend’s love, His attributes and goodness are everywhere.  I see it in my 11 month old baby.  She sees me about a tenth of the time Heather sees her but she knows her daddy.  The only thing she wants from me is to pick her up and hold her.  That type of relationship can only be constructed by a master creator.

Funny how my child gets the whole nature of a dependent relationship with the father.  When we as adults run away from our dependency on God. By the way, you were created to be dependent on God. Yep, dependency is actually a good thing that God created.  AND if you aren’t dependent on Him you are dependent on something else.

What or Who are you worshiping today?

If you are interested for the whole deal here is what we taught in Recovery last week.

Redeeming Recovery Week 2 – In the Beginning – Jody May Fall 2010 from Oak Leaf Church on Vimeo.

We just had a season of training new group leaders and had our small groups kickoff. In the middle of all of that and the constant hustle and bustle of life, the beginning of a new school year started for my kids. This is why I haven’t been around here much lately.

So in catching up I am going to lay down a bunch of random stuff on this page that has been in my mind for the last 3 weeks and some of it I will expand on in the future.

• I am always amazed to see how God is working around me. I have seen people in recovery start to realize who they are in Christ.  It energizes me to see the same Spirit of God in both of us. It is truly like having a brother. Weird but awesome!
• My son is a compassionate and loving child while still having the warrior’s heart. I love it. There is a difficult side to this though. He has the strong will of his father. It will be challenging not to squash it but to harness it.
• Heather and I, since moving up here, have had the desire to open up our house for God’s use. It was something that we had no idea what it looked like – but we would look for those opportunities. Sooo in the spirit of intentionality we are having someone move in with us this weekend. Introductions will come later.
• Even when you are busy in life, as a Christian, you are here to do His will. I can’t tell you how many times over the last 2 weeks I have had to stop and help someone process life out. Whether I like it or not it is something that God expects of us. Don’t expect anything in return. Just enjoy the fact that you did something for Him, it’s payment enough.
• We haven’t had TV since last spring. That means we still watch movies from the library or Redbox on the weekends, but that’s it. No on has died and in fact no one misses it?! I would like to challenge those of you with kids to the “3 month no TV challenge.” I will write about how it’s been for me later.
• I like decorating a little too much for a dude. Ask my wife sometimes who gets all the final calls on the house. But I figured it out. It’s not the fact that I love decorating but that 2 of my top 5 strengths are maximizing and arranging. I can’t help but like to do it. That’s my story and I am sticking to it. Want to know what I am talking about? Look HERE.
• I am going to throw down another 18 pallets of sod today. I am a glutton for punishment I think. I am praying for rain in this parched land…

I could go on but the kids are up and on Friday daddy usually makes breakfast. Ooops, just heard momma in the kitchen, gotta go.

In case you are wondering what we are talking about on our Group Recovery Nights, at the House of Rock, here is the first week. It is a general overview of the whole program. In this video, I am simply trying to paint the background from which we can now operate.  It is probably the longest teaching component of this ministry.  Folks did great with being open to us trying to describe why we need Jesus in our recovery.

If you want the note sheets you can email Bonnie Jones, our coordinator, and she can get you what you need.  It’s not too late to sign up.  You get one week’s grace so again let Bonnie know if you would like to join us.

This material was used, under a licensing agreement, with the Village Church in Dallas Texas. Want more info on the program check out their Recovery Page.

Redeeming Recovery Overview – Jody May Fall 2010 from Oak Leaf Church on Vimeo.

This video is of Dana Sutton, who is our Coach for our small groups in this area.  She is going over what is to be expected when people participate in this group process.  She always does a great job in helping people relax while expressing to them that this will require work on their behalf.

Redeeming Recovery – Dana Sutton – Group overview Fall 2010 from Oak Leaf Church on Vimeo.

If you can’t make it this time we will be offering it again in the spring. If you are a member or a regular at Oak Leaf please take a moment and pray for our group leaders in this recovery process.  They are helping people get from where they are to where God wants them to be.

Josh Proctor
Vicki Harris
Bonnie Jones
Jamie Wilhoit
Dana Sutton

Man! I wish it was this easy.

All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.  Proverbs 16:2 ESV

In other words, you might think you are justified in your actions but God knows your motives.

In a time where people are scrutinized for their decisions all day long this little verse brings with it some sense of justice and peace.

We watch the news and see politicians get reamed for their choices.  Local government officials are judged not by outcomes but by proposals of intent.  Neighbors are looked down on for whatever affronts they are causing you.  Your boss earns your condemnation whenever he says something to you that you don’t like.  And let’s not forget what your saying about your spouse behind their back.

In all of these situations we are judging the intent of a man.  This is a hard thing not to do, isn’t it?  I know that I have sinned (wronged) against people a multiple of times by doing this.  Bottom line is this.  I cannot know the intent of some one’s heart, only God does. Whenever I allow my anger to rise up I buy back into that old way of thinking as in, “I can’t believe they are doing this to me!?”  I haven’t even seen the outcome of the decision but I am quick to get all hostile about it.  I am pathetic…

Here’s why I refuse to keep sucking at this.  God says,

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;”  Luke6:37 ESV

I mean all through the scripture we get the same warning.  Don’t do it unless you want the same set of standards placed on you.  You see, that’s where it gets me every time.  God tells me in that little voice in my  head, “Do you really want me holding you to the same set of ridiculous standards you hold everyone else?”  And I’m like, “Um , nope.”  So then I am off and asking for forgiveness….. Again…

At the end of the day God knows the intent of men.  We can’t hide it from Him.  There is also a sense of peace that comes with this.  When you believe that God is truly sovereign (I mean that He is in control of everything and we will be discussing what you think is free will in the future) that everything works for and according to His purposes.  You will also find that fact a couple of more times in the same chapter 16 of Proverbs where we find that verse at the top of the page.

Must be a reason why God had it written that way.  Probably to get us to stop being a cry baby about perceived wrongs because He might have even wanted it that way.  DOH! Now how’s that make you feel?  Yep, there’s something to be said about being slow to anger…

Liked this pic from Edinborough, Scotland - I will visit the homeland someday.

Know when to take a break. Everyone gets busy in their lives.  Sometimes people don’t want to come over and just do another Bible study.  I think many of us would just love to hang out with fellow believers and try to figure out this thing we call life.  Put your feelers out.  If you have a bunch of tired-looking folks, don’t be afraid to break away from the plans.  Care for your peeps by ministering through the lost act of fellowship.

Here’s a working definition of fellowship:

Things to keep in mind when attempting to fellowship with your people:

• Do it over food.  Food is the recognized drug of choice to help people feel better.  There ain’t (I know it’s not a proper word but I like it) nothing like getting together and talking over food.  It will help raise your serotonin levels while you share about your life.
• Add games when you can.  We don’t do this enough in our world.  Life is already too serious.  Laughing and playing together allows people to see the  common interests in their lives.
• Make sure the environment is comfortable.  Yeah, I know we’re not suppose to care what the house looks like but others do.  During this time of hanging out you don’t want people checking out your house which makes them and you uncomfortable.  If that’s not an option pick neutral territory.
• You can combine Bible study and food.  It’s two great tastes that taste great together. (I didn’t steal that).
• Put it on the calendar, and make it a regular occurrence, so that people will look forward to it.

God reveals Himself to others through scriptures AND through relationships.  Safe Christian relationships are the practice field for the mission field in the real world.  These relationships are developed through purposeful fellowship times.  Take the time to plan and respond to the needs of your group.

“Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,”      Acts 2:46 NIV

If you know anything about the early church – this was one of the few things they got to enjoy…the fellowship with other believers.

A long time a go there was a woman named Hannah.  She worked hard at being a good wife and home builder.  She did her share chores and loved her husband.  But there was a problem.  She couldn’t bear children.  In the Israelite culture ,1100 s BC, it was a travesty if a woman couldn’t have kids especially male children.  The line would die out and so in that culture a family was counted blessed if you had sons.  Almost, as if God favored you more.

She also had to live with the thought that she shared her husband with another wife that, could have children!?  Talk about adding insult to injury.  The fact is, in the scriptures, it said that her hubby loved her more that the other.  Um, maybe he shouldn’t have married the other woman?  Ok I digress but that’s a topic for another day.   Guys don’t get any ideas…

Well she travels with old faithful, ahem, to the temple for one of the Jewish feasts (probably the feasts of Tabernacle) and listen to her prayers while there.

“O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”                                                                   1 Samuel 1:11 ESV

Would you believe it if I told you she goes home and gets pregnant?  So I imagine that the little promise pops up in her head and now she’s probably thinking, “How am I going to get out of this?”

Well, we couldn’t be more wrong…

After she weens him off of her milk she takes him to the temple.  Back then that was like three years.  No it’s not gross they didn’t have stores with pasteurized milk or formula in cans.  She drops him off at the temple and tells the high priest his name is Samuel which means possibly “offspring of God”  and leaves him.  Whoa!

I wonder how many of us parents are willing to give up a child, even to God himself? Unfortunately, if we say we can’t, then that shows how much we truly hold to the thought of God is sovereign and owns everything anyway.

Really, raising kids to the glory of God has nothing about your desires to love them it has to do with the ability to sacrifice your need for confirmation from them.  Let me put it this way.  Sometimes we need our kids more that they need us.  We use them for emotional stability. I know that I’ve done this.  If you are honest I think you’d say you’ve probably done the same thing.

Would you be willing to give God your child if it was a promise to Him no matter the emotional pain?  The answer will tell you a lot about yourself, your belief in God and your emotional stability.  Try and answer…

8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:8,9 ESV

Sometimes I get this question from people, “How do you know if you’re saved?”

Well a few years a go I would just run through the checklist.  You know those verses that give you steps.  Say like Romans 10:9, “Confessing and Believing”.  But for a long time I suffered knowing that I had gone through a checklist but I was asking myself the same question all the time.  Here’s the question I was asking and I think it translates the same way as the same one I listed above.

“Why don’t I behave like a Christian?” = “How do you know you’re saved?”

My life was spent feeling guilty about the things I was doing wrong.  There was little joy in my life.  There was a lack of love for a God that supposedly had ‘saved’ me.  I should be acting like an heir to God’s kingdom but I continued to live for myself.  My needs over others.

Then a few years a go, because of this question I started searching for God.  He had awakened my need for Him and I was going after it.  There was this time of trying to have a child like faith while constantly asking Him to change me. Always having that feeling of there is something more to this supposedly Christian life…

On the other side of that journey, and that is a story for another day, reading 1 Peter I get it now.

• you love though you have not seen God
• you believe not just in what He did but in who He is and the principles He gives to live by
• there are times I am filled with this inexpressible joy, not all this guilt

It’s not about the checklist.  The checklist confirms who I am.  I am a Christina because I believe and live in continual confession.  “How do you know if you are saved?” is answered in part by does your life show 1 Peter 8 & 9.

These are all effects of a life transformed by God.  Of a soul that was regenerated.

Where are you at in this journey? Does your life reflect a change or you still asking the question of, “How do you know?”

There is a common theme that I am finding between all of them.

Idolatry

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.    Colossians 3:5-6 ESV

Idolatry can be defined as “worship or reverence given to any created object or person.” Now you may say, “I don’t go around bowing down to things and worshiping them.” Yeah granted, because if someone saw you praying to your new iPhone which you spent three hours on today while you spent like 15 minutes reading the Bible people would think you were crazy.  Which, in the very example I just gave lets look at another form of idolatry.

Fetishism (fetish is derived from the Latin word factitius, meaning to make – ironically the word fact originated from the same Latin word) is when “any living or inanimate object is regarded with awe and devotion.”

Over and over again I hear how the sin of idolatry creeps into the lives of people and destroys families.  Let me show you some examples of what I heard.

“He spends all night sitting down in the basement watching tv but what about me?”

“All he ever talks about is fishing or work.  That’s why I don’t like going out with him anymore.”

“Yep, I am traveling again this week. If I don’t I can’t work.”

“I am always asked where does all the money go.  I get accused of spending it?”

“They don’t understand this is just a hard time.  Trying to close down this business is killing me.  I have to work all the time.”

“I know it’s wrong, but I think about them all the time.  I still love them.” (me-but you are married to someone else, duh!?)

It all comes down to where is your heart.  I gotta tell you I am really sick of hearing excuses.  Marital covenantal relationships is about SACRIFICE! It ain’t about you doing your thing!  It is a sin against God and He definitely can’t bless your relationship while you are engaged in the act of worshiping something else other than Him.  Doesn’t work that way.  So don’t go there.

The biggest thing out of all those examples above is that we make ourselves the idol.  We worship ourselves. That is why we have to put our needs above others.

Later this week I will share some personal examples from my life and how this affected me but let me leave you with how God views this.

3 “You shall have no other gods before me.  4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.   Exodus 20:3-6 ESV

“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap.”  Luke 21:34 NIV

Jesus recognizes the problem of when we get weighed down with all the cares of life.  But He was good enough to also recognize what happens if we do this.  Look at that last phrase – “that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap.” He’s pointing out that if we focus on the cares we miss the point that He is coming back.  There is an end to our cares but it’s not all going to go away now.  He never said it would.

What he has done for us though is give us something else to put our focus on right now.  You see in order to give some of our habits up (worrying about the crud of this world is a habit, ask yourself how much you do it) you have to have something else to put your focus on right now.  He is stating that in the end all of the things we will endure are not as important as the fact that He is returning.  That not only means an alleviation of stress but we have work to do.  Lets get the focus off of us and put it back on Him.

He even points out how we try to cope.

1. drunkenness – numbness, we don’t want to feel pain so we berry it all forms of substance abuse.  But when we numb ourselves we never heal and we’re numb to what God is trying to do for us as well.
2. anxiety – we freak out, because we can’t deal with it.  This comes from the illusion that we had or should have control of everything in our lives.  There is no such thing as control.  Although there comes a peace from knowing God is sovereign.

This little post isn’t about how to be mentally healthy.  It’s about why you should want to.  In the end the only answer is Jesus.  He is the only thing that makes sense.  Those of you dealing with a #1 or 2 from above begin the process of telling yourself ‘NO’ when those negative feelings attack.  We still have work to do and when you focus on that, I mean really begin to think about that, it’s going to get better.