Online Christian Messages
A Tender Moment With Baby Jesus
Sunday, January 1st, 2012
This summer, during worship at church, the worship leader said something about the Lord being precious and laying our lives down before him. In that moment, my mind drifted to Bethlehem and saw Jesus as a baby with the three kings bringing him the gifts (Matthew 2:1-12), and I thought, “What would I do if I were actually able to go back to the day of Jesus’ birth? “
Knowing what I know now, that Jesus loves me and that he was destined to die for me, I think that gold, frankincense and myrrh seem like silly gifts for Baby Jesus. I mean, what is a baby going to do with that stuff? And what is the savior of the Universe going to do with that stuff? He could turn the straw that surrounded him in the manger into frankincense if he really wanted some frankincense. His parents probably sold all this stuff for money to support them while running from Herod, but they knew that God would provide no matter what.
The thing that Baby Jesus would want the most from me would be my love. He would want me to hold him. He would want me to just spend time with him. If he had a need, I would meet that need in any way possible, but that wouldn’t be his priority for me in that tender moment if I could walk into that stable when Jesus was a newborn.
We Are God’s Babies
During this time of worship, several months ago, the concept of holding Baby Jesus and what my heart would feel in that moment, God revealed a greater depth of his love for me. You see, we are his babies. He loves us and cares for us. Unfortunately, because of the baggage that so many of us carry around, being tender and intimate with God of the Universe is hard for some of us to enter into.
Men can have an especially hard time with the idea of being intimate with Jesus. We develop a homophobic squirm at the idea of kissing Jesus or just resting in his comforting arms. That discomfort at these ideas is not God’s best for our hearts! So, in your mind’s eye, imagine yourself walking into the stable in Bethlehem and coming upon a baby lying in a manger. He is helpless and all-powerful in one swaddling bundle. His only worldly desire is to be held in warm and caring arms. Would you pick him up?
You know that this child will someday die a terrible death on a cross, not because he did anything wrong, but for your sins. His resurrection three days later ensured that he gets to spend eternity with you, and he did all of this centuries before you were born.
In this time alone, with just you and this royal infant, how would you feel? What would you do? I’ll tell you what I would do. I would touch my forehead to his. I would caress his cheek with my fingers. I would kiss his tiny lips. I would sing to him, and all the while, tears would be streaming down my own cheeks. I would talk to him and spend as much time with him as I possibly could, and I wouldn’t feel weird about it.
So, what has changed between that time and now? Nothing has changed. Jesus, was the same in the beginning and will be the same eons from now; desiring intimacy with us. He longs for us to lay bare our hearts to him so that he can caress our faces, kiss us and hold us tightly. We are his babies.
My father-in-law is probably the toughest man that I know, and he pointed out that the reason so many guys have a hard time with the concept of being intimate with Jesus is because society has equated intimacy with sex. The two are not identical. We’re not talking about a sexual relationship with Jesus. We ARE talking about a love relationship with Jesus.
Do You Love God?
God loves us (John 3:16). We all know that, even if it’s only a cerebral understanding and not a heart-felt sentiment. Now, I’m going to ask you to do something that might be a little scary: ask yourself, ‘Do I love God?’ Be honest with yourself.
If the answer is, ‘No,’ don’t despair. I have been right where you are. Years ago, I came to the realization that I didn’t actually love God, and I felt like the world stopped spinning and turned completely upside down in a single moment.
“How can you say that!?” you ask? “How can you not love God?” Well, it was the truth. I had been raised in a Christian home and had gone to Sunday school ever since I can remember, but it wasn’t personal. I had no true relationship with Jesus. It was like I was marching in an army, wearing the uniform, but at the first sign of the enemy, I would turn tail and abandon the cause that everyone else around me was fighting for. I knew that God supposedly loved me, but on that afternoon at a Christian music festival, I panicked when I realized that I didn’t love God back.
Please know that if you don’t think that you love God, at least you’re being real with yourself now. Now, be real with God. Pray and tell him how you feel. God’s a big guy. He can take it. Tell him all about how you feel and then…be silent and listen. You’ll probably hear something along the lines of “I love you anyway,” and then ask him to tell you more. Ask him to reveal his love to you like he has never done before.
Why didn’t he reveal this to you before? Because you had everything under control: your control, including your relationship with God. We so frequently walk around acting like little gods of our own little universes. We schedule things and compartmentalize things and indirectly, we end up telling God that there’s no room for him in our lives. We never allow ourselves to be helpless.
But there he is, lying in the manger, totally helpless, and destined for brutalization and execution. All he needs or desires in this moment is your affection. Close your eyes and spend some time with Jesus, picturing him as a baby. Sing him a lullaby. Tell him how precious he is; how beautiful he is. Do you know what you’re doing? You’re worshiping Jesus!
You may need to go back to this moment from time to time to remember what it’s like to be tender with Jesus, but ultimately, God will reveal to you that he feels the same way about you: you right now, not just when you were an infant. We are God’s babies. He loves us like crazy and wants to have an intimate, tender relationship with us.
Jesus longs for you to curl up in his lap and tell him where it hurts. He wants to kiss your physical and emotional boo-boos and make it all better. He wants to sing to you and release peace into your heart (john 14:27). Don’t let the world’s hang-ups or a broken relationship with your earthly father get in the way of a love relationship with Jesus. An intimate walk with Jesus is truly an abundant life.
Mighty, Mitey Men Of God
Thursday, October 6th, 2011God sometimes impresses an idea on our hearts for us to meditate on, to learn from, or sometimes it’s an equipping that happens, where he builds on our faith by giving us some wisdom or truth that he reveals to our hearts. A while back, God showed me that the men of the Bible, the disciples, Daniel, David, and even Moses and Abraham, our “Bible Superheros” were just men – just regular human beings like you and I. They weren’t created from different stuff than we were. They were just men who chose God and who God used, but they were Mighty Men of God nonetheless.
About six months ago, God revealed to me that we, the humans walking the Earth today, can be every bit as spiritually mighty as the “Bible Superheros” of the Bible times. It became a passion of mine to make that my identity. I realized that I could tap into the might of God if I just pressed in and pursued him, had the right motives and, most of all, faith in God’s calling on my life as his son. Then tonight I realized that there is a foundational element to being a Mighty Man of God that I have been aware of sort of unconsciously for a while but hadn’t pieced together.
Giving Mitely, Not Doing Mightily
Becoming a Mighty Man of God doesn’t happen as a result of some amazing spiritual feat of healing or Bible reading or a certain number of hours volunteered at church. It does require effort, but it’s not physical effort. At its core, becoming a Mighty Man of God requires giving. This giving is illustrated best by the story of the Widow’s Mite:
The Widow’s Two Mites
41 Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. 42 Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. 43 So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; 44 for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.”
Not too long ago, when I heard this story, I always thought, “Yeah, that’s cool. She gave less money than the rich guys, but proportionately, she gave a lot more money than they did because it was more of a stretch for her to give that much money. It was all she had.” The thing is, that’s only part of the story. The thing that made Jesus take notice was not the supernatural knowledge that Jesus had of the woman’s finances. It was his insight into her heart. This widow was a Mighty Woman of God because she was truly giving 100% of herself.
Now, right away, many people will hear that “giving 100%” part and they will mentally squint their eyes in focused determination and roll up their sleeves ready to DO 110% more than what they are DOING now. The truth of this message hasn’t sunk in yet. Jesus doesn’t want your to-do list. He has thousands of other Christians at his disposal who can DO what you can do, but there is only one you who can give 100% of you. The question is, are you ready to give him all you have? For me, it took an extended period of extreme trial to bring me to a point where I gave him all I had to give.
My Testimony
In high school, I suffered from depression periodically, but was able to get by, but later, about 5 or 6 years ago, I started battling with serious depression. I was contemplating suicide on a regular basis. Life was good in almost every other sense. I had a beautiful, supportive, loving wife. My career was going well and I was making enough money to keep us afloat and then some, and we had just had our first child, a baby boy. I should have been very happy, but I wasn’t. I wanted to die, and yet, I had this suspicion that things were only going to get worse. They did.
Years went by and I got help in the form of counselling and medication, but it seemed that every time the drugs were starting to work well, my depression would come back with a vengeance. I was having mood swings and now my thoughts of killing myself were coupled with violent images that flashed in my brain and made me feel guilty. My suicidal thoughts were becoming more and more detailed on how I could do it with minimal mess for my wife to have to clean up. I was diagnosed as having bi-polar disorder and put on more drugs.
The new drugs were working out great except that I was always tired, but I was stable for the most part; stable enough in fact, that I decided I wanted to quit my job and go into business for myself. My family and I prayed about it and felt that this was indeed God’s plan for us, so we took the leap of faith and I started my own company. Things moved quickly and I was having the time of my life until the mental illness surged back into my life. Then my business lost its initial momentum. We coasted along on our savings and watched as our bank account slowly ticked downward. It was apparent that we had to do something.
We decided that rather than miss payments on our mortgage, it would be better to move in with Amanda’s parents in Loveland and rent out our condo. Due to the burst of the real estate bubble, selling our condo was not an option, so we began preparations to rent out the condo. All the while, I was struggling with periods of uncontrollable weeping and despair. I had hit “rock bottom”. It was then that I decided that I was going to start thanking God for what I did have and not focus on what I didn’t have.
This was God’s grace. Amanda’s mother, my Second Mother, had loaned me some CD recordings of Joyce Meyer and I decided that I was going to start speaking out of faith, recognizing God’s hand in my life. I was also determined that no matter how small the task, if I felt God telling me to do something, I was going to do it. I don’t think I fully understood the power of what I was doing, but God was about to show me.
On one of the final days of preparing our condo for rental, I was on my way to Home Depot to buy some outlet covers when I saw a woman begging at the corner. I had seen this woman several times in the past. Her sign said that she was “camping and stranded” and “anything helps,” and I was about to ignore her when I felt a tug in my heart. A thought flashed in my mind, “Give her $200 in gift cards.” I sort of did a mental double-take and thought, “God, was that you?”
Again, money was tight and this made no sense in the natural way of things. We were only a few steps removed from this woman’s situation, financially speaking, and $200 was a lot of money for us, but I was sure that this was God telling me to do this. I pulled into King Soopers and bought $200 in gift cards. I walked over to the woman and introduced myself. Her name was Kelly and she was very thankful. I didn’t linger. I think I said, “God loves you very much,” but that was all the witnessing I did. I was uncomfortable and wanted to be on my way. I got back into my car and began driving back to the condo. That’s when things got REAL.
I grew up in Evangelical Covenant churches for the most part, and we had been going to a community church that was “non-denominational” but was sort of the equivalent to a Covenant church in its doctrine. There was no charismatic movement in the church to speak of, and if there had been, we probably wouldn’t have stayed at that church. I thought that charismatic churches were kind of weird (I still do sometimes). At this community church, I never heard anyone talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. At this particular point in my life, I had heard the phrase before and had seen it in my Bible, but I didn’t know what it meant. Driving down S. Monaco Pkwy (image right), just me, God and my car, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, but I had no clue what was going on.
I felt a rush over my body. The air seemed electric and I felt as though I was breathing for the first time. I was overwhelmed with God’s love and I began to weep but this time it had nothing to do with depression. It was like being embraced by a parent but with a million times more satisfaction and love. Even as I type these words, I can’t really describe it.
I pulled into our complex and parked the car, still shuttering and balling my eyes out. I staggered into the condo and made some feeble attempts to try to work but God would not let up. I finally fell to my knees in my empty dining room and began to worship God. This was apparently what God wanted because the feeling of God’s embrace became even more overwhelming and all I could do was mumble, “Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.”
That’s when another “thought” flashed in my mind: “You’re healed of your mental illness.”
That stopped me in my tracks for a moment, but I just kept worshiping. I eventually was able to pull myself together enough to call my wife and my wife’s parents to tell them what had happened. But I didn’t tell them about the healing thing. I wasn’t sure about that until that weekend when Pastor Jonathan Wiggins of Resurrection Fellowship in Loveland, Colorado gave a message that had something to do with healing and faith. I knew then that I had heard from God and that I was indeed healed.
In August 2010, I slowly weaned myself off of my many medications and, with the exception of some dizziness and nausea caused by withdrawal, I had no issues. I have had no (ZERO) symptoms of depression or bipolar or violent images since (over a year ago at the time of this writing). God healed me completely of mental illness that day and he did it because I gave him 100%. It wasn’t the fact that I gave the woman $200 when we didn’t have a lot of money. It was the act of obedient surrender.
Spiritual Squeezing
Think of a summer afternoon with hot dogs on the grill. You pick out a hot dog, load it in a bun and reach for the ketchup or mustard and squeeze the bottle. It sputters and spits out a few drops of ketchup. You shake the bottle and maybe close the lid and pound it upside down on the table. Then you open it up again and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze and use up every last drop that the bottle will give you. That’s what God wants to do with you.
That analogy falters a bit at the end because it’s not really God doing the spiritual squeezing. We have to squeeze ourselves. God is waiting for you. He’s not going to force you to open your life completely to him. You have to make the choice, and even if you do all the things in 1 Corinthians 13 with as much love for others as you can muster, if you don’t give your heart 100% to Jesus, you’ll never enjoy the peace, joy, and freedom that Mighty Men of God do. You have to give your “whole livelihood”. You have to be more than Mighty. You have to be Mitey too. You have to surrender your pride and let Jesus wash your feet. You have to let him have every dark, little corner of your heart and let God replace what you hold precious with what he holds precious. It’s not easy and it’s not an instant process. I certainly haven’t completed it. I never will, but I will keep on squeezing!
“Why Do Bad Things Happen To Me?”
Saturday, October 9th, 2010We don’t know God’s plans. Life seems so filled with uncertainty sometimes, that we forget who is in control. We forget who we are, children of God, and we ask, “Why do bad things happen to me?”
God Uses Trying Times to Test and Strengthen Our Faith
God allows trials in our lives to mold us into who he wants us to be. James writes about how to deal with times of trial. James 1: 2- 12 says:
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything…. 9The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. 10But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. 11For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.
12Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
Consider it pure joy! This requires that we give up control of our lives to God. Is life messing with our plans? Well, there’s your problem. You had plans of your own. We can consider bad things happening to us pure joy, because we know that they are part of God’s plan to draw us closer to him. It will happen if we remember our first course of action, whether things are going well or badly: go to Him!
God Uses Bad Things That Happen To Us For His Glory
Romans 12:1 says that we are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices. Our lives are altars and every day is an offering to him that we place on the altar. Sometimes he pours water on the altar of our lives as Elijah poured water on the altar when he was challenging Ahab and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel 1 Kings 18. They poured twelve large jars’ worth of water on the altar, soaking the wood and the offering and filling a large trench of water around the altar. The miracle God worked by sending fire down from heaven to consume the altar would have been amazing enough, but God used Elijah’s water to really show his glory. The people who were there “fell prostrate and cried, ‘The LORD -he is God! The LORD -he is God!’” (verse 39) Our sacrifice is that much more pleasing to God because we stayed true to him while going through hard times. When things just seem to be pure chaos around us, one bad thing after another, praise God, because he’s getting ready to show how faithful he is!
Times of Tribulation Give Us A Great Testimony
We are called by Scripture to give our testimony to those around us. “Why do bad things happen to me?” So that God can give you a better testimony. When you call on God’s Name during the hard times in life, you can rest assured that he will see you through them. Then you can share that experience with others who are also going through bad things in their lives.
God Uses All Things For Our Good
If you have a relationship with God, then hopefully you love him more than anything in this world. God honors that love. You are precious to him, and one way or another, God will use your hard times for the good of those who love him…
Of course, it’s important to note that, again, we don’t know God’s plans. It may not be evident how getting in that car accident will be used for good, but we can have faith that it will. Also, bear in mind that God may use something of misfortune to you in order to bless someone else. If our hearts are in the right place, we can praise God for that too!
God Never Leaves Us When Bad Things Happen To Us
You’ve probably recited or at least read Psalm 23 before, maybe hundreds of times, but for some reason, when bad things happen to us, we frequently seem to forget what it says, and we feel alone. Remember…
1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
And Psalm 139 reminds us that no matter where we go, we cannot be parted from His Spirit:
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
So, “Why do bad things happen to me?” The answer is, so that God can be God in your life. If something bad has happened to you, and you’re hurting, know that he is there and that he loves you. He hurts because you’re hurting. His love for you knows no bounds. Jesus died for your sins. He loved you that much. After that, everything else is temporary and unimportant, and will pass away. Only God remains and he is enough.
Who Is Your Landlord? Is It Time To Move? (Repentance)
Sunday, September 19th, 2010
I had a dream about a week ago that God gave me. In the dream, my family was renting an apartment. We were just moving in, and I came home from work, anticipating to walk in and see my wife unpacking. Instead, I walked in the door and see the apartment is filled with sleek-looking electronics equipment. I don’t know what brand it was supposed to be. It was all black with blaze-orange accents. It was cool, but it was in the way, and vital pieces of our household were missing. Where the stove was supposed to be, there was a pallet of audio receivers. I asked my wife, “What’s with all this?”
“The landlord upstairs asked if we would store it for him,” she said. I asked her why she said ‘yes’, and she replied, “Well, he owns the place.”
I was livid. What kind of landlord would charge rent and then expect us to store his stuff?! “Where are our things?” I asked. She pointed out the window. Out in the parking lot, next to the dumpsters were all of our possessions in boxes, piled up with no one looking after them.
I stormed out the door and began climbing the stairs to confront the landlord. And that’s when I woke up.
God gave me this dream as an illustration of how we keep our hearts. Who is the landlord of our lives, and what does he ask us to store in our hearts?
Most of the world is renting from Satan. Spiritually, as humans, that’s our natural tendency. We may not be Satan worshipers, but if our hearts don’t belong to God, they belong to Satan. 1st John 3 puts it in the black and white terms of sin.
Satan is a lousy landlord. He constantly shoves his stuff at us, hoping that we’ll say, “Well, okay, you own the place. I guess I’ll throw out the refrigerator and put it right here…”
The things that he brings our way might even look cool. In my dream, the reason why the landlord’s stuff was electronics is that I’m an electronics junky. My initial reaction in the dream, I remember, was a feeling of “Wow, look at all this cool stuff!” But then I realized, “These aren’t mine… Where’s my stuff?”
The Spirit of Jesus that lives in us is a different kind of landlord. He doesn’t force His stuff into our lives. Instead, He offers us gifts. But if we clutter our hearts up with Satan’s junk, or even our own special junk, then there’s no room for the gifts of God. In Matthew 13, there is the parable of the Sower. Seeds fell on rocky places where there wasn’t much soil, so while the seeds sprang up, the plants withered quickly because they didn’t have deep roots. Some other seeds fell among thorns which choked the plants. We can only be fruitful in God and receive His blessings if we make Him our landlord.
So, what do we do if we realize that Jesus is not the landlord of our lives? What if right now, you’re looking at your life, and you’re realizing, “Whose stuff is this!!!??”
In the dream, I got mad! I was going to go confront the landlord.
How do you think that conversation would have gone? The landlord might have said, “Well, if you don’t like it, you can move.” Or, what seems even more like Satan, he might have said, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I thought that you liked electronics. You can use them while I store them in your apartment.” Or, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I’ll remove that stuff right away. Just don’t move out.” And then you know that his stuff would keep showing up in my apartment. Or he would neglect to make repairs to the place, et cetera et cetera. It would be up to me to decide, “No! I’m not going to pay to rent space from this guy,” and decide right then and there that I’m going to find a place with a better landlord. This is repentance!
We frequently simplify repentance to, “O.k. God. I’ll never do that sin again.” Repentance is much bigger than that. Repentance isn’t just refraining from doing bad things. It’s a heart change. It’s MOVING!
If you really want to repent from your sin, you’ve got to say, “Father, from now on, You’re my landlord. I’m getting rid of this other guy’s stuff. I want the blessings and good things that You give to me.”
Acts 3:19-20 says,
We can’t just say, “Well, I’m not going to do that sin anymore,” and keep going it on our own, moving around from one landlord to another. Galatians 5:17 says
Here, the Bible tells us that we’re not going to get anywhere in life if we try to have it both ways. The Bible says that we can’t serve two masters.
In Mark 1:15, Jesus says,
We have to have a heart change. We have to MOVE. The Message translation of Mark 1:15 says, “Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.” And as part of that life change, we do need to stop sinning as it says in 1 John 3. In Jeremiah 18:10, the Bible says,
God has GOOD THINGS, gifts that he wants to give us. Never forget, John 10:10. He has come that we may have LIFE and have it more abundantly. That’s blessings that we won’t get from any other landlord.
Writing this message, I asked myself whether this dream’s analogy really held up. I mean, why do we have to have landlords at all? Can’t we just be land owners? Our own landlords? The Bible explains that’s just not possible. 1st Corinthians says,
We are not our own! We were bought with a price. My dad is big on home ownership versus renting. Why? Because a renter is beholden to the landlord, they’re almost like slaves living in the master’s house. The Bible says that we were slaves; slaves to sin. We were in debt and could not pay the price, so we were in slavery. But Jesus died and paid for our sins. YOU were bought at a price, and now Jesus is supposed to be your Master. He is our Landlord, whether we like it or not. The question is, will we change our hearts, and move into His house and receive His blessings?