Humbled by the Beauty of Trust!

There is always a special feeling when you are apart of something that is bigger than yourself in life. We strive for that for most of our lives.  Whether it be a family, a company, a team or even just a group of friends.  As I was in conversation with God the other day he revealed to me an amazing thing.  The people that are closest to me in my life are people who keep a “small circle of trust.”  God allowed me to see the kind of character he has given me that I would be able to break through that barrier for these friends.  They put a lot of trust in me as I do in them, but they do not trust many and I may actually be able to say they may only trust me outside of their immediate family.  My friends love God and strive to live the best they can to please him.  They are in the fire and trenches with me and struggle daily as they are able to share with me some of those times.  God has allowed me to become a listening an helpful ear to my friends and in turn, as the Proverb says, Iron sharpens Iron.  My friends have helped in molding me into the man I am today and they have been a huge rock in my foundation as I have grown closer to Christ.  I am so thankful for the trust that has been constructed between my small circle of trust and pray that my future wife will trust me even more as Jesus will be our foundation! Amen!

One Love, One King, All Christ!

Promises of God

THANKFUL, THANKFUL and even more THANKFUL is what I am!  There is a peace of mind body and soul when you surrender fully to Gods promises.  The most important of all His promises to us is to love us unconditionally and forever.  I was recently confronted with some very sad news of a friend I taught with in my past two schools and actually met her my first year teaching.  She went home to be with Jesus after  battling cancer, for over 20 years I found out.  She was in her 40’s with a husband and children.  You would have never known her battle when you saw her because she always had a smile and masked her pain so very well.  She was holding onto the promises of God.  She knew these promises intimately because her life literally was on the brink of her last breath for a long time.  This discernment of her peace with God came from the Holy Spirit in me during a time of prayer for her family.  I did not know her well enough to know her relationship with Christ, which on my end I should have been more intent on sharing Jesus back then instead of focusing on Ole Woes Me!  My Woes are nothing to what my friend was going through.  We have to hold on to the promise God will take care of us as we reach out to those around us. They may just need a smile or a hug and sometimes even just a Hello!

As I am reflecting on my own life I decided to sit down and think about the impact God has allowed me to have in this vapor of a breath we call life.  By obedience in my younger years and not always in good standing of repenting of my sins, Jesus has touched so many lives through me.  Even in my darkness and brokenness He chose to use me.  I am truly humbled by His promise to love me and now as I transform willfully to His discipline and teaching I can sense a soul shift and growth in my life.  There is a difference in my peace of mind and in my humility toward Our Father.  I was recently reminded of my gift with kids, athletes, coaches and the such and I have wanted to run from that recently because I didn’t know how to give God my coaching mindset.  “How do I change that?” I would say, then I stop and look at all the changes that are already happening and realize, OH YEAH DUH!!  Give it to him!!

One of the convictions I was directed to by the Holy Spirit was many of the coaches I have crossed paths with over the years haven’t been reached out to by me because of me.  They wouldn’t talk to me so I wouldn’t talk to them.  I carried an ego and a chip on my shoulder but I think more and more I was just dealing with envy of others and a lot of “It’s All About Me!”  The funny thing is as we go around thinking people are thinking about us and we are not even a thought in those we are thinking about.  Instead of going with the flow I need to go against the flow and start to share the same promise that God has given me.  Let these coaches and kids know that God loves them dearly and be real and in the fire with them.  The more we know that God is in the fire and trenches with us the easier it becomes to love him back or better yet accept His love for us.

The reason for choosing to live this way is we are not promised our next breath so stop worrying about your tomorrow or your past or anything other than your today. Even in our today we should live moment by moment and not day by day.  As God is slow to anger we should be slow to grow in depth of his love and wisdom so that our soul is strengthened by every movement we make.  We cannot build on our past because it is finished and we cannot connect to our future because we don’t know it. All We Have Is Our Today!  We are called to take up our crosses daily because we need to be reminded of the only heaviness we should feel which is His love.  Truth be told that heaviness is a beautiful thing to carry and feel.  As I pray for my friends and family, I will be praying for all of you. That you live life abundantly as Jesus promised us and you can, with your last breath, say ” It Is Done!”  The peace of knowing you have given all your body, mind and soul to the One True God, The Lord Jesus Christ, who in all of His glory calls you His friend! Amen

One Love, One King, All Christ!

Chase vs. Pursuit

God put this question on my mind and heart about a month ago.  I decided to ask my friend who is a police officer what was the difference between the two, Chase vs. Pursuit.  He said in a chase you typically weigh the dangers and hazards ahead and the margin for error for safety to life.  If there is a high chance of danger the chase will usually be ceased and live to chase another day.  That made sense because I have many students over the years talk about “getting away” from the police chasing them on their dirt bikes.  Now he said in a pursuit, they are going to do whatever it takes to apprehend the suspect. He gave the example of when a police officer is killed in the line of duty, Law enforcement goes to DEFCON 5 and are relentless in their pursuit of the suspect and there is no stopping until the suspect is caught or killed!  The margin of error and the risk of hazards and safety to life are put to the side in a pursuit.

After chatting with my friend I realized what God was trying to teach me.  You see Jesus pursues us, he goes to the ultimate way of pursuing us by sacrificing his life so we would never have to lose ours.  We do have to carry our cross but never will we be nailed to it.  That is catching our soul by any means necessary.  He pursued us to the point of death.  He finds us in the moment of accepting him, which is him actually choosing us.  It is from that moment that no matter what we choose to do he continually pursues us.  He always makes a way to let us know that he loves us.  His pursuit of our heart, mind and soul is relentless is his God nature.  He desires us so deeply that he will pursue us in the deepest darkest and scariest places where he will grab us, embrace us and lift us to safety.   C.S. Lewis calls Jesus the ” Hound of Heaven” and there is such beauty behind that.  Blood hounds are chosen because they pursue the smell they are given not chase after it.  No matter what gets in their way they will find that scent!  This is what the pursuit of God coming after us looks like.

Then my friends, there is me.  I have known Jesus for over 21 years of my life and truly known his love for me and desire for me the last 10 years.  The problem was I have been ok in all that time with being saved.  Salvation was enough for me.  I believed that salvation was enough and the struggles I have will always be there and I will just have to deal with them for the rest of my Earthly life.  This is what life is about and ” call that George” ( A Trini expression).  The truth is for me and most of us is we are chasing after God and definitely not pursuing him.  I would serve him and glorify him but then when the hazards would seem to dangerous or honestly I would just get tired of chasing after him, I would turn to what was easy.  I heard someone say that people that choose the easy way have a hard life, but those that choose the hard way have an easy one.  We have to work and grind and pursue after our passions and Christ should be our number one passion.  When I got tired of chasing I would fall right back into the darkness and when you are there you are fed by your flesh and the demons around you.  They occupy your mind and fill it with heaviness and numbness and pain until you want to Chase after God again.  Then we are in that cycle and because there is no urgency in a chase, we repeat it over and over again.  This is what the Holy Spirit has revealed to me about myself.  He is telling me I need to Pursue Jesus by allowing the Holy Spirit to lead me.  We can’t do this life alone and usually when you are in a chase it’s one on one, however when you are in a pursuit there are typically several pursuing one.  We have that as children of the one true God.  We have Jesus, the Holy Spirit and angels to help us in our pursuit of God.  He also places people in our paths to help us realize we are not alone.  You don’t stop pursuing when you get tired, but if you do, you have all of these spiritual friends and human ones to help you continue your pursuit through the pain.  There is nothing in the Bible that tells us we will be pain or burden free in this life, but we are told in our pursuit of Christ that his yoke is easy and his burden is light.  He knows if we are pursuing him we are going to get fatigued, beat up and weak and this is where he can and will make us strong.  This will be aging me but I think of Jesus and the Holy Spirit a lot like the cartoon Voltron.  Each character would have a tough time alone.  That is me and all of you, my friends, alone we have a tough time.   However, when the characters would Voltron up and become the Ultimate Defender, they were UNSTOPPABLE!  Jesus tells us the same thing in that when we Voltron up with Jesus and the Holy Spirit, that all things that are impossible become possible.  Scripture tells us that what is impossible for man is possible for God.  I lived my life chasing after God and losing and listening to the lies of “I Don’t Matter.”  Looking for acceptance and validation in every part of my life.  I strived to be the best because I was terrified people would find out deep down I was a poser.  I would quit on myself, even in success, because I would get tired of chasing.  Now, that Jesus has overwhelmed me with his presence and the Holy Spirit has taken over I have made the decision to NEVER stop pursing after Jesus.  We are told to Never say Never, but I can because in my pursuit of Christ he makes all things possible, therefore it is possible for me to say Never in my pursuit because He is with me.

Jesus is worth pursuing.  I am reminded daily by the weight of my cross that I am and you are created in His image.  When we repent and turn away from our sin you are pure and clean in His eyes.  Once we are clean in Christ( and capture, examine and take every thought captive) there is a mental exercise I want to challenge you to do.  I personally have done this a few times and though I am bald headed, the hair on the back of my neck stands and goose bumps cover me and tears have filled my eyes.  The challenge is the next time you look in the mirror, remember this.  We are created in the image of Jesus Christ therefore our reflection in the mirror that we see is no longer me but Jesus! AMEN and AMEN

One Love, One King, All Christ!