Gotta Stop Blocking My Blessings!

Here is the truth family, I keep God and my blessings as bay.  There is so much “potential ” in my life for me to glorify the kingdom of God and yet I choose to be selfish and act like a child.  The word potential is not a good word and it is usually not a good thing to hear someone has so much potential, especially in coaching.  When you have an athlete that has so much potential and you talk about that, it usually means they are missing the mark and they do not realize the champion in them.  The more I learn about Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit the more I understand the perfect example of team.  As an acronym team means “together everyone achieves more” and what better team than 3 who are so in tune with their mission they are considered one.  The goal of every championship coach is to have his team perform as one.  Being a good Christian means I need to be coachable.  The same type of things that upset me about an athlete with “potential” are the exact same spiritual things I am doing to God.  One of the things I catch myself doing, even after serving for Jesus is I can become very selfish.  I have this innate feeling that will overcome me that I need to do this my way because my way produces results now or the dreaded I will do this one last time because I am a sinner.  When we do things like that, being selfish, we Block our blessings.  God’s will is going to be done no matter what we do, however, how can God trust me with the blessing of a wife or success in His name if I can’t handle the small victories He gives me everyday.  My spiritual awakening of actually noticing I was blocking my blessings came on 6/23/2016.

This brings me to my favorite story in the Bible.  When Jesus restores Peter with love.  He gives Peter three times to say he loves Jesus to replace the three times he denounced him.  This story and the prodigal son story hit home for me.  It is so pleasing to know that God the Father runs to us when we come home.  My heart has turned back to my younger days of first following Jesus and how strongly I shared that with friend, family and foe.  I find myself in a state of complacency and laziness at times now.  Even then as I think back, I was always so selfish to medicate a feeling that I did not want to or know how to (back then) give to God.  As I go back further into my childhood I just remember how much fun it was to play with my friends, to be running up and down the street, climbing trees, playing basketball and cops and robbers.  That was the life and we enjoyed every blessing that came our way.  Joy is what I had when I was little and around my friends.  The joy of being outside, the joy of playing and the joy of friendship were beautiful.  This is what God wants from me, He wants me to experience His Joy and from that I can receive and give Love.  Joy is the foundation and Love is the action of experiencing Joy.  I have had times of my life, with God, where I was Joyful and showing love but they were very conditional times.  You see as I am growing in Christ and with men of God speaking into my life I am more aware of my blessing blocking.  If you think about it how could God trust me with a wife and children if he cant trust me to turn to him for the small things in life.  I was given a great example by my friend about my walk as well as all Christians.  The example she gave me was most Christians are eating candy, it taste really good and you want it all the time, but the truth is that it is horrible for you.  There is nothing good nutritionally for you.  This is what most of us as Christians do, we know the right language or the right way to look or how to hide in the darkness without anyone knowing.  We get stuck in that routine and we just become more and more numb to life.  I am tired of that, I want to eat healthy and nutritional.  I want to eat the meat and potatoes and vegetables of the word.  When we are eating candy it is easy to give into the temptations of the world and be crushed by them.  I know now to walk in Christ as a Champion means not to be a thumb sucking cry baby who turns to self-righteousness in moments of weakness.  No it is preparing for His Glory to be shown through our life and choices.  The more we turn to Him for everything the less our blessings can and will be blocked! Amen

One Love, One King, All Christ!

It Is Finished!

The last words of Jesus are so profound and clear for our understanding. However, because of the complexity of our brokenness we just don’t get it. Jesus breathes His last breath and completes the first part of His sacrifice by saying “It is finished.” As we live our lives we act differently then what our Savior claims. We live walking on egg shells or focused on our past mistakes. Rarely do you find someone ready to be thankful or praising God for their past. Many of us want people to know what we have survived almost like wearing a badge of honor. These are the battles I have fought and look at how strong and cold hearted I have become. Look at how selfish this has made me! I know these feelings because this has been me in my solitude. Then Jesus has revealed to me what He meant by His statement.  I am here, breathing, smiling and walking only because of the sacrifice He made on that cross. I have received God’s mercy and favor so many times over.  When Jesus said it was finished, He meant that it was the beginning for us. The battle is not against the wrongs we don’t want to do, the battle is against believing we are worth God’s Love.  Scripture says that perfect Love (Christ) cast out fear and when we grab a hold of that truth we truly are being sanctified.  Jesus wants us so badly to be in love with Him as He is with us. That longing is being fulfilled in knowing that we have the righteousness of Christ in us because of the cross. He took all of our sins on and into Him and in return God gave us His righteousness.  We can live this life with the confidence of Champions because as Christ has said ” It is Finished!”  This wisdom is key in our walks. I learned as the Holy Spirit shared with me the other day. The reason the devil brings up our past failures, our bloopers reel, is because he has nothing new! Wow think about that even when you sin today, once it is finished it is in the past and becomes void when we repent and turn to Jesus. Amen and Amen to our One True Amazing, Awesome, Powerful, Loving, Graceful and All Knowing God! Selah!

One Love, One King, All Christ!

When the scales fall off, Leave them on the ground!

When Paul converted his life to follow Jesus he did it the moment the scales fell from his eyes and he could see.  He was no longer blind and with his renewed eyes looked at the World and each person differently. I do this often, the being blind part and out in the wilderness all alone.  That’s the lie I tell myself and when the Devil comes whispering and tempting I give in.  The temptations seem to flow with how we are feeling or do not want to feel.  The truth is Jesus is with us and the Holy Spirit is in us.  We have a Warrior King dwelling inside of us who will fight the good fight.  However, because the strongholds have been branded into our souls and minds we must seek refuge in our fortress of Christ.  We can’t expect to change over night or even in weeks or months, completely that is.  We can see the transformation happening and that is an amazing thing to be a part of in my own life.  I need to know the scales have fallen off and I need not pick them back up.  It is almost like I force myself to try and put them back on because when I can’t see I have all the excuses in the World of  why I “needed” to choose sin when in reality I wanted it! OUCH!  The importance of Jesus in our life is the mission He gives each of us to serve.  I believe what Paul learned in those three days was how much Jesus needed to get done on Earth.  When those scales fell off Paul took off and walked with Christ from then on.

Paul realized in this wisdom that he needed to focus all his energies on forgetting the past and looking to what lies ahead.  Those are big words considering he needed to forget being a murderer of the very thing he became, A Christian.  I am learning to not pre-judge or make assumptions of anyone, including the ones we do not like.  We don’t know what they are going through.  It is within our walk with Jesus and the Holy Spirit that we truly start to transform.  Jesus frees us and then the Spirit through us reaches out to all those in our path.  Paul says with conviction that there is no condemnation in those that are in Jesus Christ.  He can say this because he lived it and had the Holy Spirit with him.  Paul says to confess your thoughts and feelings before they can even become temptations.  When you have the eyes of your Heart open, the scales have no appeal! We do not want to be blind when we can truly see.  The whisper of the Holy Spirit speaks peace into us while the “Warrior King” deals with everything else.  The very moment we ask He(Jesus) says YES.  The moment the scales fall off , let them fall do not try and salvage any of the old ways of being blind to Christ!  Our past brings comfort which is not peace, Comfort leads us to laziness which then leads us to sin.  I am leaving the scales on the ground, IN JESUS NAME! I CHOOSE SIGHT, COME, HOLY SPIRIT, VISINE ME! Amen!

One Love, One King, All Christ!