Chat with the good LORD

Today’s Chat with the good LORD

Yesterday I found myself in a situation that left me grumpy. 

So this morning I sat down to write this morning’s blog and found myself still grumpy. 

By 5:30 am I was sitting in my office studying for the upcoming weekends sermons.  And the good LORD nudged me and said, “Shane, what are you doing?” 

I sat back and said, “Well LORD, I’m doing my best.”

And HE said, “Do you actually think I want your best?” 

After sitting quietly for 2 hours waiting for His next thought HE asked,

“What about MY best working through you?”

“…this is the secret: Christ lives in you.

This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.”

Colossians 1:27 NLT

                                                                                          

I could feel the good LORD putting HIS hand on my shoulder and saying, “Shane, I have given you all you need ~ I live in your heart ~ stop pushing me aside and trying to do it all yourself.” 

Let me tell you about a pastor that had a dream….

One night a pastor had a dream. He dreamed that he could see his own church worship service on Sunday morning. But there was something very strange happening.

The choir was singing. The mouths of the choir members were open......

but no sound was heard.
The people in the congregation were singing.

But there was nothing from their mouths, either.
The preacher himself got up to preach his typical Sunday sermon.

He opened his mouth to preach.....but nothing came out.

There was absolutely no sound at all in the entire worship center.

Then, the pastor saw a little girl up in the balcony and heard her little voice singing, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me."

The pastor was confused and suddenly woke up.
"Lord, what was I dreaming?

It doesn’t make sense to me." He asked.
The Lord spoke to his heart and said,

"Pastor, you just saw a picture of what I see in your ministry and in your church every Sunday morning.

People are singing and you are preaching.......

but I hear nothing.

Why? Because your heart is not focused on me.

You are focused on yourself.

The only one I heard in your church last Sunday was the little girl in the balcony who matters to very few people in your church.

But she matters to me......because she came to church today with the right motive: to love me with all of her heart!"

What if Jesus showed you a dream of your church?

What would He hear?

Whose heart is truly focused on the Lord?

My heart has heard you say,

“Come and talk with me.”

And my heart responds,

“LORD, I am coming.”

Psalm 27:8 NLT

Act or React?

Act or React?

Ask yourself to finish this sentence: “If God is always good, then....”

“I won’t struggle financially”.
“My children won’t get sick”.
“People won’t be mean to me”.
“People won’t leave my church”.
“My prayers will be answered YES”.

We tell God show me and I’ll believe….

God says believe and I’ll show you.

The danger here is that we put yourself in a position to judge God Almighty.

Then it is a short step to where you put yourself in a position to judge Pastor Shane.

And a shorter step to where you put yourself in a position to judge your spouse. 

And this list goes on and on.  People believe they have a right to judge.

It is a terrible burden to believe you have a corner on God’s right. 

The last Pastor F.B. Meyer: “When we see a brother or sister in sin ~ there are two things we do not know: First, we do not know how hard he or she tried not to sin. And second, we do not know the power of the forces that attacked him or her. We also do not know what we would have done in the same circumstances.”

Every minute of every day I have a decision to make:

“Will I hold the love God as the standard in my relationships ~

no matter how misunderstood and mistreated I am?” 

I pray that I react as Jesus did when He was misunderstood and persecuted. 

The key to understanding this is to recognize that this physical world is temporary ~ and there is an eternal realm that we are responsible to. 

To react to this physical temporary world is to be short sighted and shallow.

However, to decide to “act” in a God pleasing manner ~ will bring honor and glory to God in the spiritual eternal realm ~ where God’s Word says we can lay up eternal treasurers. 

“Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. ² Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:1-2 NLT

PRAYER:

“Father, I am asking that you teach each one of us to act in a way that reflects the attitudes and actions of Your Son, Jesus. 

Please give us patience and the ability to see our relationships from Your perspective.

May our attitudes and actions bring a smile to Your face.

I ask this in Your Son’s name, Amen!”

Keep On Keeping On in Prayer

Last week, there was a terrible school shooting just outside of Seattle.

This morning’s newspapers are reporting the ongoing devastation as the wounded students battle for their lives. 

One of the wounded students is a friend of a close friend of mine. 

So last week, my friend reached out to me and asked me to pray for her hospitalized friend as the doctors scramble to save her life. 

I asked my friend for permission to put this prayer request out to God’s people ~ she immediately gave her blessing. 

I posted on FaceBook a general overview of the situation and asked all Believers to stand together in unity and offer up prayers of love and healing. 

The response was overwhelming.

100’s of people posted that they were in prayer.

Not only that, many of those responding are Believers with their own prayer partner networks ~ and they passed the request out to their networks.

This side of Heaven, we will never know how many people have been praying for this young person but what we do know is ~ the heart of God is warmed by the outpouring of love from of His people.

When we pray ~ we keep our eyes on God and not on the difficulty.

Perhaps that is why God allows tragic things to storm into our lives ~ because it drives us to our knees and reminds us who He is and who we are. 

God works in circumstances, events, and people. 

He uses these things to get our attention and draw us close into His presence. 

Because only by drawing close to Him ~ can we experience joy in trouble, peace in difficulty, and love in pain. 

Know this ~ I’m praying for you.

“As for me, I will certainly not sin against the Lord by ending my prayers for you. And I will continue to teach you what is good and right.” 1 Samuel 12:23 NLT

PRAYER:

“Father, one of Your children is suffering this morning.

My prayer is for You to draw close to this child and her parents and provide them with Your peace that passes all human understanding. 

I know that You are always good ~ in every situation ~ working to bring about the very best possible result. 

So in faith I express my gratitude for the perfect answer You are going to provide for this child and her family.

Please surround them with Believers who can encourage them and lift them up in this time of trouble. I ask this in Your Son’s name, Amen!”  

An Opportunity to Serve

Opportunity to Serve

Yesterday I had a unique opportunity to serve.

The wonderful Christian lady that babysat me when I was born ~ passed away.  Yesterday we held her Celebration of Life at the Methodist church. 

This dear lady wrote out the details of her memorial service for us to follow. 

Her pastor officiated and a couple others served as she directed. 

Then right before her pastor offered words of hope and comfort ~ she requested that I sing, “Surely Goodness and Mercy”. 

What a wonderful old hymn taken of course from Psalm 23:6 KJV

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;

And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

These two things ~ goodness and mercy ~ following me all the days of my life are known as the “hounds of heaven”. 

Goodness are things that are good, kind, beautiful, pleasant, agreeable ~ we call them blessings.  David is confident that God’s blessings are going to pursue him every day of his life.  Another word for this is GRACE: God’s undeserved, unlimited kindness.

Mercy is when God doesn’t give us what we do deserve.   I like to think of this as God’s protective love covering my life.  In the Hebrew language, “mercy” is also translated “loving-kindness”.  God’s loving-kindness that reaches down and touches our lives. 

It is hard for me to think of God’s loving-kindness without thinking about God’s forgiveness. 

As followers of Jesus Christ, you and I can confidently walk forward into an unknown, uncertain future knowing ~ “surely the LORD is my Shepherd”.

A little girl once misquoted Psalm 1 and said, “The LORD is my Shepherd, that’s all I want”. 

When I was a kid, there was a TV commercial for Wendy’s Hamburgers.  This elderly lady went around yelling, “Where’s the beef?” 

Perhaps today, you are tempted to look around and yell, “Where’s the goodness and mercy ~ Where’s the loving-kindness?” 

Think about this ~ God promised to provide goodness and mercy everyday of our lives ~ for all of our lives. 

The problem is ~ we often fail to recognize it.

We are so trained to think that we must chase after what we want ~ it is an odd thought for us to think about God chasing after us.  We simply are not trained to see God’s hand at work in our lives ~ so we miss it. 

God’s Word ~ Psalm 23 KJV:

¹ The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

² He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

³ He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

⁵ Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

                                                                           

PRAYER: (lyrics to “Surely Goodness and Mercy”)

A pilgrim was I, and a wandering,
In the cold night of sin I did roam,
When Jesus the kind Shepherd found me,
And now I am on my way home.

Chorus:
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days, all the days of my life;
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days, all the days of my life.

And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever,
And I shall feast at the table spread for me;
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days, all the days of my life.

Verse 2:
He restoreth my soul when I'm weary,
He giveth me strength day by day;
He leads me beside the still waters,
He guards me each step of the way.

Verse 3:
When I walk through the dark lonesome valley,
My savior will walk with me there;
And safely His great hand will lead me
To the mansions He's gone to prepare.