Remember…

Remember you are beloved of the Lord meaning you are God’s favorite and you bring His heart joy!!!

To The Pure All Things Are Pure

Here is a devotional that I received from NLT…

Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted. Titus 1:15, NLT

Some people see good all around them, while others see nothing but evil. What is the difference? Our souls become filters through which we perceive goodness or evil. The pure (those who have Christ in control of their lives) learn to see goodness and purity even in this evil world. But corrupt and unbelieving people find evil in everything because their evil minds and hearts color even the good they see and hear.

Whatever you choose to fill your mind with will affect the way you think and act. Turn your thoughts to God and his Word, and you will discover more and more goodness, even in this evil world. A mind filled with good has little room for what is evil.

My thoughts….
I had a very wise pastor tell me that what you see in others and are emotionally charged about is really a reflection of what you see in yourself. If you are always accusing others of selfishness it’s probably because there is selfishness in your own heart.

I have found that those who are most focused on purity and holiness are generally least pure and holy. Those who constantly see the worst in people and see every action in the most severe light are generally acting out of their own shame and guilt for something that they’ve done or has been done to them.

This is the power of the gospel. God so loves us that He gives us grace and mercy – not only to forgive, but to transform our lives into the very image of Himself. He exchanges the faulty lens that we see each other through and gives us His lens… His perspective.

That is the difference between walking in the flesh and walking in the Spirit. The flesh points out weakness, the Spirit points out Jesus. When the Spirit points out Jesus, the natural response is gratitude.

Is your heart full of accusations and pain for something that has happened to you? Then why don’t you bring it to the cross and allow Jesus to give you His perspective. What is His perspective? To forgive those who did harm to Him and even provide for them a way of salvation. You might say… this is too hard. Let me say this… it’s not too hard, it’s impossible!!! But God empowers us by His Spirit to extend forgiveness and peace even to those who intend to harm us… for what they meant for evil, God means for good. As you allow Jesus to power through your life in forgiveness… watch gratitude and thanksgiving overflow from your life.

Romans 8 – The Principle of Sonship

Check out livinggrace.tv @ 7:30 pm tonight!!! We’re looking at the subject of SONSHIP in Romans 8… email chris@digitalinsights.com to join us old skool (that’s live and in person)….

Romans 8 – No Condemnation!!!

Romans 8 tonight. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ. What does it mean to be in Christ? Check out livinggrace.tv at 7:30.

No Condemnation… No Separation!!!

Check out Life in HD at hollanddavis.com…

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

This next week we begin chapter 8 of Romans in our Thursday study. It’s one of my favorite chapters in the Bible because it speaks of life in the Spirit for the believer. Chapter 8 begins with the declaration that there is “NO CONDEMNATION” for those who are “IN CHRIST.” And it ends with… “NO SEPARATION” from God’s love. What a powerful statement!!!

How often do we relate to God on the basis of what we see or experience in life as opposed to who He actually is and the relationship that we actually have with Him? We can either see life from our perspective… like an unfinished work of art… confused… disjointed… lacking clarity… out of focus…. incomplete…. or we can see life from the perspective of our heavenly Father who sees us as a finished work. The eye of the artist sees the end from the beginning and works until his vision emerges and is complete.

It’s almost as if we look at good things as being blessings from God and bad things as being judgment or condemnation from God. But according to Paul… there is no condemnation and because there is no condemnation… there is nothing that can separate us from God’s love – NOTHING. In the Greek it literally means… NO THING. That means your sin no longer separates you (it’s been settled at the cross), your guilt, your shame, your bad decisions, your good decisions… nothing separates you… nothing condemns you… this is the life of the Spirit that we are called to live. This is REAL LIFE for the believer. This is AUTHENTICITY for the believer. Our view of reality needs to line up with God’s view of reality.

Roxie and I have been listening to a recording of a prophecy that was sung and then spoken over us in 1985. What has been interesting to me is that the Lord has fulfilled His word to us with precision that we could have never understood 25 years ago, but today we see the evidence of His leading. Exact phrases, scriptures quoted, even a sequence of events… all pointing to one reality, one truth… God’s plan has been unfolding all along just as He told us. For me it gives me such a confidence and assurance that regardless of what I see with my own eyes – and even call “real”… really has no bearing on whether or not God will bring His Word to pass in my life. I often say – this circumstance or that situation or even that person has no bearing on my future… because God will unfold the plans He has for my future in my life according to His Word.

Jeremiah prophesies to us… I know the plans I have for you says the Lord… God knows His plans for us. So… even if I don’t understand the plan, even if I don’t see the plan, even if I loose hope in the plan… God knows the plan!!! And it’s a plan to bless us, to give us a future and a hope.

Now I admit… it is hard to see from God’s perspective. It challenges my unbelief. It challenges me to give up what I “see” with my own eyes in order to grasp a hold of the promises of God. It challenges me to give up my unbelief and my own thoughts or opinions of how things are going to unfold in my life and it brings me to the place of TOTAL SURRENDER!!! Lord, I know You’ve promised… now I wait for you to fulfill Your Word in my life. What a place to be!!!

Roxie and I have been in this place for some time… being faithful to the work that He has called us to. Sometimes it’s been so much fun… great fellowship… great friendships… Sometimes it’s been painful and confusing. We’ve invested in folks only to see them move through our lives to other ministries where they are being a blessing. There’s a joy in seeing the fruit of our co-laboring with God. We love seeing people step into the life that God has created them to live. But if I’m honest, I do miss my fellow travelers – especially those who have moved on to other places. Like Paul wrote… Paul planted, Apollos watered and God gave the increase. Some we’ve invested in only to see them fall away from the Lord. That is heart breaking.

I guess the biggest lesson for us has been this… I no longer need to know how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together… I no longer need to know how it’s all going to end up… I can rest in the reality that God will fulfill His Word in my life and whatever He makes of my life is really His part. My part is to simply fall in love with Jesus and serve Him with everything within me and to love those that He places in my life for whatever season we walk together.

I can only do this when I rest in the reality that there is nothing that condemns me… nothing that separates me from God’s love… that He is doing His work through me and all I need to do is simply rest in His love.

What you meant for evil… God meant for good…

I heard a message by one of my favorite preachers… he’s a radical grace preacher by the name of Joseph Prince. He talked about how God will often allow us to repeat life experiences and situations until we learn the lesson that He is trying to teach us through the situation.

I think additionally that there are life messages that God gives us. They become the story of our life and the message God wants us to bring to people in need. I think for me… one of my life messages parallels the story of Joseph… here is the part I’m keying in on…

4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

Now… if you notice, Joseph tells his brothers that God sent him ahead of them to bless them. When I read my Bible – I see that Joseph was sold into slavery, was carted off to Egypt like a piece of property, was framed for a crime he didn’t commit, thrown into one of the worst prisons one could imagine, was lied to, forgotten, abused and rejected by his own family…. and yet, he didn’t blame his brothers, he didn’t seek revenge, he didn’t claim to be a victim in this life… but instead he simply says…

8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God.

So radically transformed was Joseph’s heart that he would eventually tell his brothers…

20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Now that is transformation!!!

How often do we want to blame those in our life for the way our lives turn out? How often do we want to judge what God is doing in our hearts while we’re mid-stream instead of trusting God and allowing Him to complete the work in us? How often do we take matters in our own hands simply because we really don’t believe that God loves us?

As I’ve pondered over the last few years of my life in ministry, I realize there have been times when I wanted to fix blame and hold others accountable for things that happened in my life – all the while not really understanding that the person that I was ultimately dealing with was God Himself. If my life belongs completely to Him, then it really is His will in my life – no longer I who live, but Christ in me. If my life is completely surrendered to Him and I am truly His servant – then the real test comes when I am treated like I am His servant. How do I respond?

Maybe you can relate to the story of Joseph. Maybe you have people in your life who are jealous over you and so they seek to wear you down or even undermine your ability to perform. Maybe you are in a situation where you are being falsely accused or even fired unjustly.

Whatever the situation is… allow God to work in you as He did in Joseph. To give you the perspective of His Kingdom. The perspective that allows you to see His hand leading and directing you and not bringing harm to you. The perspective that allows you to see how He takes ALL things in your life to work together for your good. The perspective that allows you to see God’s plan in the bigger picture…. and remember that no matter what you’re going through it has no bearing on your future!!!

Thought For The Day…

Here is a thought for each of us… We may have been criticized by the best, but the Best Of All says I am His beloved child.

Rooted And Grounded In Him…

Lately I’ve been meditating on Colossians 2:6-7.  It’s my verse for this year.  Here it is…

⁶ As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, ⁷ rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it^[a] with thanksgiving.

Here is what I’ve been thinking about.  The first word rooted is an interesting word.  In the original Greek language, the tense of the verb suggests that it’s not something that we do… but something that is done to us.  Literally Christ roots us in Himself.  It is His work to root us in Himself not mine.  However, it is my job to allow Him to root me in Himself.  To cooperate with His work in my life.

The word built up is another word that has caught my attention.  It word suggests community.  It suggests relationship both with Jesus and with His people.  It suggests that Jesus is the one who builds community around us.  The unifying factor is Jesus Himself.  The presence of Jesus.

So… Jesus roots us in Himself and then He builds a community around us that is unified by His very presence.

The problem for most of us is that we don’t allow Jesus to root us.  We take matters into our own hands.  We plan our own lives and “network” our way into the communities we think we need to be a part of to get ahead in this life.  We don’t allow Jesus to plant us where He desires.  The result is that we find ourselves striving to attain and thus we find ourselves striving to maintain.  I see the effects of self effort on relationships, families, careers… especially as I counsel people.  I see the effects of self effort in ministries where a well meaning leader begins well, but in the midst of striving to hold on to a ministry changes and become more controlling, more demanding, more abusive and eventually stumbles and falls because of pride.  All because we are the ones trying to root ourselves in Christ instead of allowing Jesus to root us in Himself.

Earlier this year I prayed and said to the Lord that I wanted this verse to be true for my life.  The result has been amazing.  Amazing in the sense that it has thrown my life into crisis as God is literally uprooting me from myself and the community that I have wanted to be a part of.  How many of you know that the methodologies of God can be confusing at times – until you get through to the other side?  He’s always good, but not always safe!!!

On the flip side, the result has been amazing in that God has revealed Himself more to me in the last few months than in the last few years.  There is an intimacy with Jesus that I haven’t experienced in years.  I’m watching Him build His community around me.  It’s not what I thought it would be.  Connecting me to people I would have never imagined.  Opening doors that I could never have opened on my own.  I’m seeing His favor in my life in ways that have surprised me.  Unexpected ways.  It’s mind blowing.

What about you?  Are you striving to fulfill your dreams?  Maybe God has spoken to you and like Moses you’re trying to bring His word to pass in your life.  Why not stop and allow Jesus to root you in Himself?  Why not rest in His work in your life?

I want to leave you with this prayer.  I heard Pastor Chuck Smith from Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa pray this before stepping out to minister and I’ve made it my own prayer.  I want to encourage you to make it your prayer.  It’s the prayer of a man or woman who is completely surrendered to the work of Christ in their life.  It’s the prayer of a man or woman who looks at life from the place of wonder… looking forward to what God will do as he or she allows Jesus to root them in Himself and build His community around them.  Here is the prayer… make it yours.

Lord we look forward to seeing what You’re going to do by the work of Your Spirit.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen

Fan Into Flame

Beth Moore… Fan Into Flame Pt. 2

Today I came down stairs and turned on the television. Beth Moore was on Life Today with James Robison. I don’t usually listen to preachers on TV, but something she was talking about totally caught my attention. She was speaking about the disconnect between generations. This is something I’ve been sensing and experiencing at our own church and I fear that the up and coming generation is on the verge of loosing a precious blessing from the previous generation because they are too cool to hang with the old folks. I want to encourage everyone to listen to this very timely message to all generations.

Here is the full transcript…

Begin video clip:

Beth: Now listen — listen, if we’ve got a natural heritage pouring into our lives and a spiritual heritage pouring into our lives, it may be that they’re completely different. Our natural heritage was perhaps just godless, maybe wicked and then we got the spiritual heritage thing going. But it may be that like Timothy, they’re a whole lot closer together.

I want to get you a little encouragement, that’s how I hope it is for my kids. I hope that their family of origin and their family of faith is intermingled between the two.

But here is where I want to give you some encouragement. If your family of origin and your family of faith is a wide gulf apart, anybody getting that with me? — then here’s the beauty of it. Remember, you’ve been put on the planet and left here after your salvation to minister to people. You and I are meant to do some good here. It’s the only reason why we’ve been left here. So if you’re got a real wide gulf fixed between the two, guess what? You’ve got all this distance, you can relate to people — all this distance.

I know what it is like to have family members in jail. I can relate to people that have loved ones behind bars. I know what it is like to stand in the line on holidays. I know about that. As difficult as my upbringing has been, I can relate there.

Listen, I can relate with an addict because I have so dealt with addiction in my own personal life. I’m not glad I’ve been in either one of those places but I’m just going to tell you, I’ve got a wide ability to relate. And that’s the gift — that’s the gift.

But I pray today, one of the things I want God to get through to you today and get through to me today is quit despising where we came from in our natural line. Because the only reason God allowed it is because there is something you’ve been called to minister directly out of it. I need to know somebody is stepping in that with me.

All the time that we’re spending in energy, we’re spending in our bitterness, and in our “what if it had been different?” I might have been so gifted if I had been raised in a situation like that. Anybody guilty of any of those thoughts? If it would have been just different for me? Oh, the opportunities I would have had.

Listen, every single bit of it, your spiritual line and your natural line, are divine setups for you to be extraordinarily gifted. We don’t get to use our natural line as an excuse for why we’re not doing what God has called us to do. You don’t just do it in spite of it, girlfriend! Because of it! Because of it!

Every day of my life I minister out of my background of abuse and the freedom that God has brought me. Even if I never bring it up, it is part of who I am. I don’t want to go back and live it again. And it breaks my heart when somebody says, “I’ve been exactly where you’ve been.” And I know what they’re talking about and they know as well.

But I can tell you this, if God permitted that in his will he did it as a setup for you to be profoundly gifted and effective in your generation and your sphere of influence. He has set you up not for defeat; the enemy set you up for defeat. But God overrules it with a setup for victory, a setup for giftedness, a setup of effectiveness.

Now let me say this to you, if your family of origin is very much the same as your family of faith, that is a beautiful thing — it is a wonderful thing. But I also want to suggest to you that even though Lois and Eunice were such powerful influences in Timothy’s life, he still had to have him a Paul. I tell you why. You want this for your children if you’re parents; you want this for yourself because let me tell you, there are some things that people outside your family can tell you that nobody on the earth can get through to you.

If you’re a mom or if you’re a dad, you notice that after you raised your kids in the faith, if you were able to do that, that they will tell you something profound that their youth minister said or that the camp pastor said and you’re going, “I’ve said that 50 times!” Anybody know? I always thought, isn’t that I coolest thing. I said it — I wrote it in your card when you left!

[Laughter]

Am I telling the truth?

Well, they didn’t even open the card. Why? Because our voice gets to where it is so common to them, they no longer hear it. So there has got to be a Paul. Not just a Eunice and a Lois, there needs to be a Paul — a fresh voice to say what you have said a thousand times! But they have ceased listening to or they don’t think their parent has the sense enough to get out of the rain. Spiritual heritage, natural heritage –.

Let me tell you something, I want you to glance at verses 11 and 12 for a moment. This is Paul testifying to Timothy, I want you to see how much of where you’ve come from and what you’re going through has to do with what you’ve been called to do and with your extraordinary giftedness. This is just like a revelation to me: this is one of those things that just pops off the page. It is blinking a light at us.

11 Command and teach these things. 12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

Is anybody going with me there? He was suffering as he was because of what God had called him to do.

Now listen to me, I’ll try to be careful not to just make a blanket statement 100% across the board, but I can just tell you whether it is in the perfect will of God or in the permissive will of God, this I can tell you, everything we endure that is allowed in our path has been entrusted to us because of what God has called us to do. Everything!

It is just set us up for the most magnificent gifting and effectiveness we could possibly have in our brief little tenure on planet earth. Everything! Everything we’ve come from, all the difficulty and turmoil in Timothy’s home set him up to be able to minister to the people he ministered to.

And listen, when we talk calling, when we talk about doing what God has called us to do, I’m not talking vocational ministry here. I’m talking about when God calls a godly man or a godly woman into the field of law, into politics, into the secular classroom, into a hospital as a nurse, a nurse’s aid, a doctor. In every single walk of life you are in that place to flesh out how Jesus Christ would do your job and show his extraordinary power through everything you’ve been called to do, that’s my calling as well.

And everything we go through, nothing is wasted. Everything is toward our giftedness, not toward our harm. Everything was to build us up, to be profoundly effective in this little brief time that we’re in this garden here. So life will mean, as my grandmother used to say, “a hill of beans” when it is over.

I want you to notice something with me. This is — I recently studied this and so it is so fresh on my mind. It came as such a fresh word to me so I pray it is penetrating your heart as well. But notice something with me, he says, “The gifting that came with the laying on of my hands.” He said that in Second Timothy, chapter one, verse six. He said, “You’ve got to stir into a flame, fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”

Now listen carefully because I read commentary after commentary and the implication is not that it was the laying on of hands that caused the gift to come. Remember, we are baptized, when we received the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal savior, we are baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Right at that moment, even if we’re eight years old, we receive our gifting. But it doesn’t come into full throttle effectiveness until we begin to mature in a walk with God and his word and now how to walk at the impulse of his spirit. So we know it wasn’t just because Paul laid his hands on him but it was the official blessing of the spiritual Father over the spiritual son.

Now here’s what just came as such a wild thought to me and what I believe is completely sound biblically from Genesis all the way to Revelation. Listen carefully, there is a power that comes when the generation before us lays hands on us, and I mean that whether figuratively or literally, blesses us to do what we have been called to do and blesses us in our giftedness. There is a power that comes, an anointing that comes, a blessing that comes.

Now listen carefully, if we forfeit that, if we are living on planet earth in a culture that is disconnecting from the generations around it, we’re going to forfeit a measure of power and blessing and anointing that you and I do not want to lose. It is critical that we stay involved in the generations and that the one generation as the Psalmist says over and over, teaches the next generation the ways of God, the ways of a fruit-bearing life, the ways of blessing, the ways of ministry.

When we disconnect from that, if we’re just doing our own thing and we have never had anybody from the generation before us, literally lay a hand on us and say, “Listen, I bless you; you are gifted in your God!” Then we lack something. We lack something that generation was supposed to have passed down to us: The blessing, that figurative or literal laying on of hands. Anybody getting what I’m saying?

I’ll tell you why it concerns me; it is absolutely critical to the process. I’m not saying we would not be able to be effective at all; I’m not saying our lives would not bear fruit at all. I’m saying there is — I am convinced of it — an anointing that comes with that blessing of that generation that is the most high-throttle power, fullness of God that we can enjoy in that gift.

And here’s going to be the problem. Let me tell you something, I am a huge believer in teaching our children how to relate to older generations. Let me say very quickly, I want to throw out a disclaimer here very quickly because I’m not just talking about the younger generations disconnecting from the older generations, the older generations do it too. We divide ourselves in our worship services of contemporary and traditional. We’re not even sitting in the same sanctuary anymore. We’ve ceased working with the youth at our churches. Anybody know what I’m talking about?

For crying out loud, go to youth camp. You might be the one person that gets to tell them something their mother said a thousand times and they’ve never heard!

[Laughter]

Anybody hear what I’m saying? It is not just them disconnecting from us, it is us disconnecting from them because it is loud. We don’t understand their ways. We’ve got to have it. Listen, they keep us young. We teach them the ways of God, the ways to walk it out. And our blessing on them is crucial.

And the fact that they touch our lives through the very touch of our hands on their shoulder, that’s just a rush of youth to us — our youth is renewed. I want you to hear it because listen, if we do not raise our children to have manners, nobody wants to bless a brat!

[Laughter]

Am I telling the truth to anybody?

Listen, that generation is critical to you. And the thing of it is, nobody wants to take a brat under her wing or his wing unless there’s just a special unction of love; sometimes you just love somebody that you don’t even like. You can’t even explain why you want to work with them, you just do. It is just a miracle of God.

But normally, it is going to be somebody that the other generation finds engaging, finds gracious, and respectful. It is just critical that we teach our children; they’re going to miss the blessing. And I don’t think it is just something that Lois and Eunice could give Timothy. He got it from Paul — he got it from Paul! Blessing — generations have to be connected.

Thirdly, I want you to hear this. This is going to be a long sentence. I kept thinking how can I get it shorter and shorter? Listen to it and write it down in your own abbreviated way if you’re taking notes.

Here is what we have so far. Let me go back through, number one was: God has entrusted each one of us, if you’re just tuning in, if you are in Christ:

We saw as well we’re finding out that:

That everything about your natural heritage, your family of origin was ordained for your giftedness as much as what has happened through your supernatural or spiritual heritage.

Now I want you to hear number three:

He gave us the gift but for whatever the reason, listen, God is always about engagement. God continually, the reason why he does so many things the way he does it, the reason why he calls us to walk in the spirit, the reason why he doesn’t just give us a set of laws; in other words, you just live the following way and then I’ll just check with you when you get to heaven.

No, he said, “You’re going to draw off of me every single day of your life as a person who is compelled by the spirit.”

Every single one of these are ways that he enforces engagement if you and I are going to live in victory. It has got to begin to be something that we live off of continually. So he did this, he said, “I’ve given you the gift but I’ve placed in your hands the responsibility to fan that flame into a forest fire.”

End video clip

When The Lord Speaks….

Roxie and I had a very pleasant surprise this past Friday night. A friend of mine had a record release party. His name is Chris Lizotte and he’s just released a live worship record called Signal Hill Revival. It is amazing!!! Marc Ford, formerly with the Black Crowes, produced the record and played guitar that night. I have to say that I was in complete and total heaven. My favorite kind of music and it was WORSHIP TO THE KING!!!!

In any case… afterwards a young man and woman said they wanted to pray for Roxie and I. It was the most amazing time of prayer we’ve experienced in a long time. Through out our life people have randomly come up to us saying that God told them to pray for us. This was one of those times. They prayed for around 20 minutes straight and literally prayed the last two years of our life. Total strangers!!! I have to confess that my first inclination was to walk away.  In fact, I did.  My heart was such that I didn’t want anyone freaking out on me.  But God prompted me to go back and simply pray.  I’m so glad I did.  God completely read our mail. It was mind blowing. Roxie was in tears the entire time and I was simply in shock and awe.

Without going into specifics… the basic truth I walked away was that God let me know in supernatural terms that He is completely aware of every situation that we are going through and that His hand is on Roxie and I and that we can rest in that fact. He said that he was for us… that we are on the verge of break through… that He sees our ministry and will bring people around us that are in agreement with His vision for our lives… He gave us several specific words that spoke to our current situation and with surgical precision cut out the heart of stone that had developed and replaced it with a heart of flesh.  It put our lives in eternal perspective.

Personally, I had gotten to the point where I was in a place of complacency. My motto was “I don’t care.” No matter what was going on… I don’t care. I want what God wants. Sounds good on the outside, but on the inside it was not good. It covered up unresolved hurt which turned into cynicism.  That cynicism brought me to a point where I just didn’t care.  God’s will be done… alright already.

After receiving prayer… that changed in me from “I don’t care” to “it doesn’t matter.” What’s the difference you might ask?  Well I had gotten to the place where I was so wrapped up in circumstances that I forgot that there was an eternal perspective. When God visited Roxie and myself that eternal perspective returned. Now… I can look at my current circumstances and say… it doesn’t matter. The things that I see folks around me ambitiously pursuing… it doesn’t matter. The positions, power, wealth or titles… it doesn’t matter. People stepping on me or going around me… it doesn’t matter.  It’s not Jesus… so it doesn’t matter.  I need to stay focused on what matters… the things that smell like Jesus… the things that speak of Jesus… the things that magnify Jesus.  God has me on His path for my life and the only thing that matters to me is whatever I do… I want to be in the presence of Jesus.

Imagine Joseph saying to his brothers… you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. After being sold into slavery and left for dead.  The intent of the brothers… didn’t matter from the eternal perspective. Being sold out and betrayed… didn’t matter from the eternal perspective. Being slandered, misrepresented or lied to… didn’t matter from the eternal perspective. They meant it for evil – but God meant it for good.

I don’t want to come off as having arrived in this area. I’m sure I’m going to be freaking out in the near future about something. But today, I’m in a place of rest. I can let go of frustration and hurt. I can let go of feelings of betrayal. I can let go of my fear in the face of an uncertain future. I can let go of the feelings of unfairness and more importantly I can focus on what God is doing in my life and embrace it with joy.

It’s amazing how perspectives can change simply when God speaks. My prayer is that I can live in this place… the place where Jesus speaks, moves, ministers… to not deviate from this position and keep my heart focused on my life as an offering of worship for my King.