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Shift

As I see it life consists of at least two major components – time and transition. 

What you do with time and how you handle transition determines the quality of your life.  Life throws fastballs, curve balls, and slow knuckle balls at us on a continuous basis.  You have to adjust your swing to match the pitch.  Time, transition, and those pitches thrown at us demand an ability to “Shift.” 

Life forces a “Shift” at times and at other times provides an opportunity to “Shift.”  If you refuse to “Shift” you will miss “God-moments” designed to bring you into your purpose.

Live Original!

Many people live their lives emulating others.  Some never realize they are created as an “original.”  Born original, we should not live as a ‘copy’ or die as one. 

The beauty of any person’s life is seen as that person embraces fully their ‘originality’.  Your only hope of making a meaningful contribution to life is to live who you really are.

The fact that you were born means God had need of ‘you,’ (the ‘you’ He designed), in the earth.  There will always be some to whom you are sent.  Spend your life with those who celebrate, value, and honor you.  Never allow into your life those who de-value you, disrespect you, or dishonor you.

Someone once said,

Always be where you are.
Where you are determines who you meet. 
Who you meet determines how you think. 
How you think determines what you do. 
What you do determines your destiny.

God’s plan for you is best lived in consecration.  Consecration means “to devote, separate, set-apart.”  The word originally meant “to fill the hand.”

My yielded life fills the hand of God for His Kingdom purposes.  God fills my hand with tools, gifts, talents, abilities and favor necessary to accomplish His will for the ‘original me’.

Live Original!

Prayer & Fasting

Please read Matthew 6:16-18.

¹⁶And whenever you are fasting, do not look gloomy and sour and dreary like the hypocrites, for they put on a dismal countenance, that their fasting may be apparent to and seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full already.

¹⁷But when you fast, perfume your head and wash your face,

¹⁸So that your fasting may not be noticed by men but by your Father, Who sees in secret; and your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you in the open.

Many years ago a great man of faith was asked, “What do you really think about God?”

His reply – “It matters very little what I think about God, but it matters a great deal what God thinks about me.”

Perhaps a better question for all of us would be – “What does God expect of me?”

Perhaps we should ask ourselves – “Who am I really trying to impress with my faith walk?”

In Matthew 6 Jesus gives us a pattern by which each of us is to live as a child of God – When you give, when you pray, when you fast.  This is how we are to live before God and our fellow man.

God must always be the audience for whom we perform our daily life.  He hates hypocrisy, but loves reality.

To fast is to humble ourselves before God.

To pray is to seek intimacy with God.

To give is to serve others.

To fast is to discipline the desires of our flesh.

The real purpose of our fasting is that we become unselfish.

It implies the giving up of anything which may hinder us in the main business of life, which is that we may be perfected (matured, complete, whole) for His use, to be His instruments, that His purpose for us be fulfilled.

Fasting and prayer bring us to a place that we may be quite willing to undertake any work God may assign us to do.

One thing is very clear – prayer and fasting links us up with, connects us to, and focuses us on the very ministry of Jesus Christ.

Only through prayer and fasting will the ministry and message of Jesus be restored in our lives and to the church.

Being Gay is Not a Gift From God…

Recently, in the Toledo area, billboards carry the message, “Being gay is a gift from God.” 

Being gay is not a gift from God.  In more than 30 years of counseling with people who have chosen the gay lifestyle, not one of them has ever said – “I am delighted to be gay.”  No one has ever said to me, “My gay lifestyle is a gift from God.”  In every case, those engaged in this deviant lifestyle shared with me the pain of their choice, along with the shame and guilt they carry. 

In Romans 1:18-32, God defines for us, what happens when we exchange His truth for a lie.  Paul clearly outlines the unnatural affects of saying “No” to God and thus embracing a life without Him. 

Romans 1:18-32: 

 ^18-23But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.

 ^24-25So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!

 ^26-27Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.

 ^28-32Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!

Within every person there is a seed of God and the God-thirst is the most powerful drive in us, stronger than all the drives of sex, power, security and fame put together.  When someone says “No” to God, they will then find something or someone else to worship.  Man always worships something or someone. Who or what he chooses to worship dictates the essence of his life.  We were born to worship and serve the Creator.  No other life will bring fulfillment of purpose.  Choose this day who you will serve- the God of the Bible or the god of this world.  There is hope, help, forgiveness, love, healing, and restoration to all who will simply believe in His name. 

And the greatest thing about sin… there is a cure.

God Needs You

When Australia was a new nation, its leaders selected a crest to represent the country.  Two animals stood, one on each side of the crest – the kangaroo and the emu.

The two animals were chosen because of a unique common characteristic – while each turns their head to glance backward in order to get their bearing, they always move forward.

Though each animal is very swift afoot (30 mph) neither is able to walk backwards.

The founders of Australia wanted their country represented by what moved forward, never backward.  Kangaroos and emus look back and leap forward.

There are two times when individuals and organizations have a tendency to stop – after a defeat and after a victory.  Such lack of progress greatly affects momentum.

Persistent people begin their success when most others quit.

One person with commitment, persistence and endurance will accomplish more than 1,000 people with interest alone.

The past is for remembering, not living.  Life is understood backwards, but lived forward.

Most of us have dreams, plans for how we desire our lives to be lived.  And most of us will die without achieving many of them.

Have you ever wondered what God has dreamed, planned for you?

When He created you, who did He mean?  Plato said, “You did not come into the world by accident, but at the very moment God had need of you.”

Whatever God has dreamed, planned for your life is something the world greatly needs.

Sowing Power!

If you sow a thought, you will reap a feeling.  Sow a feeling and you will reap an act.  Sow an act and you will reap a habit.  Sow a habit and you will reap character.  Sow character and you will reap destiny.

From the beginning God taught us the importance of sowing and reaping.  He Himself sowed the Word of Creation and our universe was born.

He sowed His son Jesus into the earth and is still reaping a harvest of souls which no one can number.

Today Jesus continually sows the seed of the Word of His Kingdom into our hearts so that we can understand and live by His laws.

His purpose in sowing His Word into our hearts is to recreate the Garden of Eden within us.

The concept of His abundance is found everywhere in His creation.

A spiritual Garden of Eden within will cause us to live life from His principles within rather than living life in the external senses.

In order to accomplish this, our faith and worship life cannot be just another compartment of our highly compartmentalized life.

There is absolute abundance in the Kingdom of God.  It is possible to have total favor with the Ruler of that abundance.

God is never diminished by circumstances.  He can cause our plans to succeed. He can cause people to like us.  He can cause us to be preferred and chosen above others of equal talent.  He can protect us and guard us.  He gives His angels charge concerning us.

When His Word is spoken into our hearts, we can then speak that Word into a situation and it will perform His purpose.

Living a Life of Purpose

C.S. Lewis said, “The command ‘be you perfect as I am perfect’ is not impossible for us to accomplish.  God is going to make us into creatures who can obey that command.  If we let Him, if we choose, He will make the filthiest and feeblest of us into a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating throughout with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly His own boundless power, delight and goodness.  The process will be long and in parts very painful, but that is what we are in for.  Nothing less.  He meant what He said.”

When we come to know intimately Jesus Christ, as new creations, there are no limits to what we may become.

The amazing thing about God in His relationship with us is that He gives what He commands.

God has indeed called us to live a life of holiness – you shall be holy for I am holy.

Spurgeon said that “holiness is the architectural plan upon which God builds up His living temple.”

It is His command and His plan that we be holy.  Our English word “holiness” comes from a root word which means whole, complete, health, sound, perfect in potentiality.

The power to grow and become like God is implanted in us at the beginning of our lives.  A seed of spiritual excellence is buried within just waiting on light and fire to come to life.

Ephesians 5:1:  Therefore be imitators of God [copy Him and follow His example], as well-beloved children [imitate their father].  Not only do we possess an innate capability of becoming like God, but the self-same energy that makes God holy dwells in us and blends itself with our life.

Since His life is within us, no limit can be put on our spiritual development.

Finding Your Significance

 Proverbs 23:7:  For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. As one who reckons, he says to you, eat and drink, yet his heart is not with you [but is grudging the cost].

Proverbs 4:23:  Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.

Proverbs 18:24:  The man of many friends [a friend of all the world] will prove himself a bad friend, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

A long time ago someone wrote a powerful statement about man and God–

 A person’s purpose is to know God, worship Him, enjoy Him, and serve Him forever.

Our most innate need is the need to be significant – to find purpose and meaning.

This calls for the pursuit of the God who is, rather than the God we want.

To be significant we must answer two questions –
          Who am I?  Why do I exist?

When you discover who you are in Christ, you will understand your purpose. 

When you are contributing to God’s agenda on earth, you become fulfilled. The essence of who you are is found in your identity.

Whoever you are in private determines your actions and decisions in public.

Every person has to deal with four identities:

1.           The person you want others to think you are.

2.           The person you think you are.

3.           The person you really are.

4.           The person God created you to be.

The first three of those identities are determined by the person individually.  The fourth is determined only as the person surrenders to the Lordship of Christ.

The process of becoming who God needs you to be includes: studying God’s Word, intimacy in prayer, and continually practicing righteousness.

The most secure and confident people on earth are those who know who they are in Christ.

The key to your future is found in your daily routine.

• With whom do you associate?
• What places do you frequent?
• What things occupy your time?
• What thoughts permeate your brain?
• What words fill your speech?

What you believe shapes your life.  Where you go determines your relationships. Your relationships affect your character.

One of life’s greatest treasures is a true friend.  Choose your friends carefully since a friend will either add to your life or take away from it.

If you missed this weekend at theChurch on Strayer…

Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said:

What I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do…to find the idea for which I can live and die.

People who excel, achieve share one common quality – they get things done. Very few people have consistently mastered the action habit of putting ideas into action.

Our world today is in a state of inaction which has caused severe economic conditions in almost every nation and people group. 

Bold, courageous leadership is needed for America to once again become the envy of the world.

The potential to achieve, succeed and accomplish His purposes has never ceased to be available.  The greatest ability in the world is availability.

Are you available to God for His purposes to be revealed to you and through you?  Are you ready for some action?

To become an action person you will need to include the following initiatives:

          1) Know God intimately.
          2) Begin where you are and with what you have.
          3) Cure your fear with action.
          4) Live in the moment.
          5) Seize the initiative.
          6) Maintain your Personal Belief System.
          7) Finish strong.

Only when you come to know God intimately can you come to know who you are.

Join us next week when we TAKE ACTION.

If you missed this weekend at TheChurch on Strayer …

Stepping OUT!

Everyone has a comfort zone, a certain way of life in which we feel at ease. All too often, we become comfortable, satisfied with the security of our status quo. To live life as God designed it, we must break out of the monotony of comfort zone living & take some risks.

Some people simply accept their place of pain and struggle as if that is their lot in life.  Jabez refused to remain in the misery of a life of pain and discomfort by crying out to God for His help. 

When you determine to know God intimately you will discover who you really are.

To change your life, you must know who God created you to be. You must begin where you are with what you have.  Now is always the best time to start.

Here is a Biblical Formula for living life:    Ready, Fire, Aim!  The natural formula says “Ready, Aim, Fire.”

With the natural formula, you are taking no risks, no chances.

Life is not certain; we don’t always know what to do.  Life is uncertain.  There are really “no guarantees,” & no “sure things.”    To use “Ready, Fire, Aim” formula, you must cure your fear with action.  There is no shame in a bad aim- at least you are firing.  Begin where you are and with what you have.

Join us next week for  Take Action:  Stepping Beyond!