“On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.” Edward Motes

What I originally “saw” in this photo was a number of daggers. Then I looked closely and noticed they were the shadows of a number of rocks.

The rock was the reality and the shadow was merely the shape caused by the sun’s light blocked by the rock. No matter the position of the sun, the rock doesn’t change. The shadow does.

Religion is the shadow. It’s mankind’s attempt at being the rock that results in a series of rules that seek to either control your behavior or to conform Jesus into a shadow.

Jesus is the rock. He didn’t teach a set rules to control you, but a relational lifestyle that results in you being freed from sin’s damaging control.

Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will obey Me.” Notice He doesn’t say do this or don’t do that because He’s in charge.

No, He said love Him. This love is based in trusting Him to determine what is best for us to be and then do. And, if we actually love Him, we will then follow Him even when what we “see” differs from what He says.

A living breathing loving relationship with Jesus brings great stability to our lives – a feeling of safety and security for today, tomorrow and eternity.

Move beyond a rule based life. Learn to love Jesus, especially in the ever changing times in which we live.

“Sometimes God lets you hit rock bottom so you will discover that He is the rock at the bottom.”

Can you imagine what these rocks might say if they could speak? Think about this for a second.

God created these rocks, which over time have been beaten by storms, baked under the sun, eroded by water and wind, and fallen to the ground or washed down stream.

Time has changed them. Yet, Scripture tells us that rocks praise Him because the Father’s thoughts are higher than ours; His ways are better than ours; and, His purposes will always succeed.

Do we always see this in our everyday life? No. There are simply times, however, when we just have to praise Him by faith anyways, in who He is and what He can do, especially when we can’t see or feel it.

As we rejoice by faith and let go of life’s stuff, our God, who is ever present, shows up in ways we could never imagine (Phil. 4:4-7).

Rocks praise Him. Shouldn’t we?

Be like a rock and praise your Jesus today. It will elevate your attitude.

“The terrible, tragic fallacy of the last hundred years has been to think that all man’s troubles are due to his environment, and that to change the man you have nothing to do but change his environment. That is a tragic fallacy. It overlooks the fact that it was in Paradise that man fell.” Martin Lloyd-Jones

When it comes to making our lives better we often focus outwardly rather than inwardly. And yet, changing jobs, moving to another location, buying new clothes will not change us. That’s like rearranging the chairs on the deck of a sinking ship.

Lasting change starts by looking inside. And this is the job of the Holy Spirit. He knows exactly what lies are stored in our minds or the past hurtful events that are holding us back from becoming more like Jesus, the only One who can truly satisfy – now and forever.

Yet, can we disconnect from what we are doing in order to let Him do His job? Just something to think about.

“Surrender is series of choices, not a one off event.” Real life change starts with one step and then the next. Please take this journey – for your sake and the world’s.

“In such a fearful world, we need a fearless church to bear fruit.” C.S. Lewis

On a recent hike through a tropical rain forest, my wife and I encountered many beautiful vistas toward the mountains and toward the ocean. They were gorgeous.

On one particular hike, though, as we came back up the same trail toward our vehicle, we saw this pineapple plant. It was there all the time.

Now, we could have drawn the conclusion that there were no fruit trees on our hike; and, we would have been wrong.

We only saw the pineapple because we viewed the trail from a different perspective, coming up rather than going down the trail.

Do your best to gather all the facts you can, which may mean listening to another perspective, before taking a step of faith in following Jesus.

You can only make a decision with the information you have at the moment. But, be prepared to modify your course, if Jesus allows you to “see” new information.

This doesn’t make you a failure. It makes you a follower. As long as you stay in and with the Word of God, Jesus, you’ll get better at seeing the truth He wants you to become.

And as you do, this brings fruit.

“We live in a world crushed, broken and torn, a world God Himself visited to redeem.” Elisabeth Elliot

It’s been said, “God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It took a broken Peter, weeping bitterly, to return with greater power than ever.”

It isn’t until we realize that we’re broken that we’ll turn to Jesus to make us whole again or saved. He died and rose again, not our best broken choices, to make that happen.

It isn’t until we realize that we’re broken that we’ll ask the Spirit to use us, like He does broken soil to produce a character crop that others can enjoy.

Someone wrote, “My broken experience is not who I am. It’s all just a reminder of how far I’ve come from where I used to be.”

Our Father will complete the job of fixing our brokenness.

Until then, rather than focus on our repeated cycle of dumb choices, focus instead on the One who loves and can use us despite our brokenness.

Your brokenness or His love and strength? Focus is everything!