Hummingbird Lessons

hummingbirdWhile walking the other day a hummingbird zipped across my path. I’m continually amazed at the amount of energy it expends just to stay in place. I’m sure it’s looking at or for something while it hangs in midair, but its wings are still humming along at quite a rapid pace.
Couple of thoughts here. One, if you’re standing still it should be to rest while restoring your energy sources not depleting them. Yet, how often do we spend needless energy on worry, anger and stress while standing in place? Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Life on this planet is temporary; and thus, so are our challenges. Life can deplete us. Let Jesus refill by standing firm on the truths He gives so your mind can rest.
Two, when you start walking with the Author of life learn to relax. If you’re going to expend energy, spend the Spirit’s power, not your own. Letting go of I and me can be difficult, but learning to Him is less exhausting than living in your power.
Both standing and going forward mean rest for the secure child of God. The more He takes over, the more we can rest in place or while humming along.
“S”et Free Nowww

Broken Hallelujahs

brokenness“May those who love Your salvation always say, ‘The LORD be exalted.'” (Psalm 40:16) To get the full impact of this verse, you must understand its context. David writes before it that people are hunting him down to destroy his life. After it, he writes that he is needy and poor.
He is not writing from life’s mountain top, but from its valley. He realizes that he’s broken; but he’s also reminding himself to praise God for his salvation in the midst of that brokenness.
Jesus is in the process of making us whole, which He will finish the day we see Him. Until then, we still have something to praise God for – we are and will be saved/made whole! This is worthy of praise or what a friend of mine calls “broken hallelujahs.”
We can praise God despite our imperfections, our brokenness, because He who began a good work in you will finish it (Phil. 1:6)! There truly is hope in the midst of life’s valleys
S“E”t Free Nowww

Not Afraid to Think

Rosario Champagne ButterfieldThe following is an excerpt from Rosaria Champagne Butterfield’s My Train Wreck Conversion article. “As a university professor, I tired of students who seemed to believe that ‘knowing Jesus’ meant knowing little else. Stupid. Pointless. Menacing. That’s what I thought of Christians and their god Jesus, who in paintings looked as powerful as a Breck Shampoo commercial model. After my tenure book was published, I used my post to advance the understandable allegiances of a leftist lesbian professor.”
“As a postmodern intellectual, I operated from a historical materialist worldview, but Christianity is a supernatural worldview. I started reading the Bible. I read the way a glutton devours [when a good friend warned that] “This Bible reading is changing you, Rosaria.” I continued reading the Bible, all the while fighting the idea that it was inspired. But the Bible got to be bigger inside me than I. It overflowed into my world. I fought against it with all my might.”
Eventually she surrendered to and is now a strong follower of Jesus who changed her life from the inside out. Rosaria is what 1 Peter 3:15 talks about. “In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.”
Do you believe that Jesus and His Word can change your life? Then don’t be afraid to go where no man or woman has gone before. Let Jesus and His word scrub those lies that cling onto the sides of your brain, answer those cantankerous doubts that bother your soul, or drive your surface level faith deeper.
Have a modern Jesus story to tell, one from a changed life that is not afraid to know Jesus on a daily basis, even if it means challenging long held patterns of thinking.
“S”et Free Nowww

What’s the Question?

question 2There is a Christian phrase that is both a tired cliché and a living truth at the same time. Jesus is the answer. What makes it a living truth is when you know what the question is!
When you’re caught in the sin-confession cycle, you know He’s the answer. Yet, you keep repeating the same sin over and over again, because you haven’t asked the right questions.
Jesus is the light of the world and the Spirit is truth for a reason. They both can expose the lies in your head. They can reveal the issue behind the challenge…if you let Them!
Therefore, the first question you must be asked is, “Am I willing to let Them probe around in My heart and head?” If so, be ready to be shown the lie or issue behind that vicious cycle.
The next question is, “Will you apply the FREEdom process to that lie or issue?” Victory each day and eventual life transformation takes asking the right questions and applying the specific answers/truths Jesus brings.
When you know the exact nature of your challenge, Jesus is the solution. Until then, it’s just a well-meaning, easily tossed out Christian cliché that doesn’t work in real everyday life situations.
Set “FREE” Nowww

A Most Excellent Aroma

incenseRevelation 5:8 shows 24 elders bowing at the feet of the Lamb carrying “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” Allow me a few quick observations. One, it doesn’t say what those prayers were. Two, it didn’t say those prayers made one bit of difference. And three, whatever was said, the aroma was very pleasing to the Lamb and to the One sitting on throne.
Cutting to the chase, simply talking to God brings a smile to His face. It doesn’t matter what we say. The mere fact we’re talking with Him brings Him pleasure.
So often we make prayer out to be a bigger deal than it is. We have to make time for it. We’ve got to get it done. We don’t know what to say or feel so inadequate doing it so we don’t. Folks, we are secure children of God whose Daddy loves to hear our voice!
I’m not always enthralled with what my children say, but I simply love the fact that they’re even talking with me! As we talk with Jesus and the Father throughout our day no matter where we are, they love it. They’re smiling. They’re getting a tremendous kick out of hearing from us.
Go ahead make God’s day…talk with Him while you’re driving, doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, paying bills, at your work desk, etc. It doesn’t matter where or how important or insignificant you think it is. He loves it when we simply talk with Him. Kind of gives a new spin on “pray without ceasing” doesn’t it?
“S”et Free Nowww