Keep Looking at Me

I know that God cares about me when He repeatedly instructs me with a particular scripture. In the past several weeks, the Holy Spirit has spotlighted different verses in Hebrews 12. Using this favorite passage, my Coach is retraining me to jump hurdles. On my own, I can't, but the Spirit of God in me can.  So I choose to keep looking to Jesus, the 'champion who initiates and perfects [my] faith' (see Hebrews 12:1-2, NLT).

As I face a succession of challenges--unfamiliar doctors, pain, broken machinery--I deliberately remember the biggies are beyond my ability and intentionally turn and look into Jesus' face. That focus, rather than the jarring circumstances, slowly renews my relationship with Him. Though confidence is thin at times, I remember it is well placed. Jesus Himself could face great suffering because He was closely linked with Father, so I ask for a stronger link: close, tight, and unshaken by circumstances. I read and pray the Scripture, applying it to the issue, and look to Truth to coach me in running the race set before me.

Interestingly, I rediscover my Helper created me to look confidently to Him at all times, not just when I see rough terrain ahead. My Creator loves me to trust and dialogue with Him. God desires to guide, strengthen and love me. So I'm looking, again and again, and learning new confidence in God's ways even when they don't make sense. It's relationship He's after.

Keep looking at Me, My child. Look into My eyes. I am looking at you.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.  (Hebrews 12:1-2, NTL).

Are you facing a challenge that draws your eyes away from the One who is making you into a champion?

What can you do to refocus keenly on your Coach, Jesus Christ?

Spend at least one minute giving thanks for specific evidence of God at work in your life.

Transformed Through Sharing Faith - Women's Seminar

Women's Seminar- Saturday, April 27th, 9 am to 3 pm.

Poor examples and distorted expectations often undermine our confidence in sharing our faith. "Transformed Through Faith Sharing" will examine the Great Commission, the role of the Spirit's enablement, and common fears.

Besides spiritual and emotional refreshment, you will leave with practical ways to overcome your identified fears and share your faith.

This women's seminar will be held at Cross-Wind United Methodist, 616 N State Road 25, Logansport, Indiana on Saturday, April 27th, 9 am to 3 pm.

Your registration of $39 includes a healthy and delicious lunch catered by Rob & Angie McMinn. We invite you to get a group of friends and come sharpen your skill as a disciple of Jesus Christ for the transformation of your world!

Groups of 5 or more pay $29 each if registered together and prepaid by April 20th.

Please send your name, address/email, phone, church affiliation, and checks payable to Paula Gast, 5801 Trinity Road, Muncie, IN 47304. For groups, please send in one envelope with info for each person. Thank you.

 Please contact Paula Gast through transformingword@sbcglobal.net if you have further questions.

 

The Morning After

My only regret yesterday was that I ate too much desert.

But I was with family, and we laughed around the table. Earlier, my pastor reminded me about the overcoming Christ who gave His life blood for me and the rest of humankind.

For me, He died; for me, He lives!

In a time of increasing skepticism and biblical ignorance, I get to view the story of the resurrection with fresh eyes. I can ask the Lord to disturb the numbing that can come with familiarity or ignorance.

Lord Jesus, my Savior, deliver me from dullness of heart or imagination. Infuse faith into familiarity and give me joy from freshly discovering the power of Your cross and resurrection.

My best words lack the eloquence Your eternal gift evokes. Build on our recent celebrations of Your resurrection and live on in us with resurrection power.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. (1 Peter 1:3, NIV)

With your Easter celebration still fresh in your mind, take a look at your life and the mind scrambling evidence of Christ's resurrection.

So what?

Changing Habits

 

Changing habits takes perserverance, doesn't it?

Two thousand and eleven’s refreshed goals have me reordering my day, aiming at a new rhythm for life but, honestly, I miss my cup of Turkish coffee first thing in the morning.

Devotions and coffee are getting pushed to a slightly later slot. I don't like it...yet... and realize more changes might be coming. You'd think a series of small shifts wouldn't be a big deal, but every morning I have to consciously choose the new over the old routine.

There seems to be a parallel with faith training.

Sometimes, the Lord calls us to reexamine ourselves to make us more aware of His presence. Instead of merely maintaining our daily routines (including our spiritual lives), the Perfecter of our faith occasionally presents us with a challenge to strengthen that faith.

It’s uncomfortable at first, often precipitated by trial, stress, or even the turning of a year.

Come to Me. Watch, learn and imitate Me. Focus on Me. (See Matthew 11:28-29 and Hebrews 12:1-3)

As I try to activate new spiritual disciplines, I wonder if my bumbling frustrates God like it does me. But thankfully, mercy is at work.

The Scriptures tell me that Jesus stands close by, His Spirit cheering me on to persevere. Come on, don’t give up. I’ve given you my Word and My Spirit. You aren’t alone. Give it all you have! I’ll help you choose a better way.

I desire all of you -- heart, soul, and mind.

And I, each day, relish God’s persevering love in the midst of changing habits.


FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Choose a passage and listen for the Spirit's nudges: Matthew 11:28-29; 22: 37-40; Luke 14:25-33; Hebrews 12: 1-13.

Have you been urged to develop a new habit? What might you need to do in order to activate your faith in your Faith Trainer?

Picture found at www.suite101.com/content/preparing-for-a-trip-to-turkey-a211192

Old Faith Recipe

I savor the food old saints serve. It's obvious that they've learned some good recipes in God's kitchen.

My devotions got me mulling over how God teaches fresh faith. An occasional stint in His kitchen won't do it. To live by faith, we need regular practice. It seems like sometimes God changes ingredients on us, so we have to carefully listen, daily, to His instructions.

We learn how to mix the ingredients then wait for them to cook. Finally we get to taste, chew and swallow. Then digestion, a slow process, benefits our whole body feeding muscle, bone, and brain.

Listen to one of A. B. Simpson’s recipes.
"God is looking for people on whom He can place the weight of His entire love, power, and faithful promises. And His engines are strong enough to pull any weight we may attach to them. Unfortunately, the cable we fasten to the engine is often too weak to handle the weight of our prayers. Therefore God continues to train and discipline us in His school of stability and certainty in the life of faith. May we learn our lessons well and then stand firm."
(Streams in the Desert, L. B. Cowman, Updated by Jim Reimann, 1997, Zonderman, p. 426.)

Simpson used a metaphor of his day to describe an ageless principle: circumstances that test our limits are opportunities to prove God’s limitless supply. Even when our faith is scant, we can use the little we have and get into God’s kitchen. There we will discover resources and recipes that will deliver an uncommonly satisfying meal.


FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Might you trust that your short faith supply is really an opportunity to discover God's ‘love, power, and faithful promises?’

"Not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed" (Joshua 23:14, NIV).

Try reading this verse out loud three times. Listen for the Holy Spirit’s promptings after each reading. Jot down your impressions.

Endurance, the Challenge

What makes it hard for you to endure?

For me, it's fatigue, ignorance, or self-reliance. Sometimes in this spiritual race (Hebrews 12), I think I'm looking to Jesus, but I'm running as if I am the one who has to do it all.

Of course I get tired. Of course, I want to chuck it at times and say it's not worth the daily persistence.

I've been living with scriptures on "faith" by prayerfully researching and meditating on those scriptures, and God is teaching me more about trusting Him in hard times.

Patient endurance is not passive resignation. It is actively trusting the energy which God supplies when you are weary, bruised, or flagging in commitment. 

Since I am glaringly aware that it is beyond my natural capacity to excercise that kind of faith, I  journal, pray, and obey with the Holy Spirit's power. Not my own.

So, join me in asking these questions. How can we endure or run with patience this race set before us? How can we look to Jesus who both authors and perfects this faith He has powerfully seeded in us?

We can endure when we realize the important focus is JESUS -- not ourselves nor our issues. Even when we fail (in our eyes or others'), we have to get up, dust off our knees, and refocus and keep running.

Want to be transformed into a woman or man of character? Meet the challenge to endure by looking persistently to Jesus!

Under Authority

Jesus stayed tight with the Father: always listening and doing what the Father revealed. Elijah did the same,and his prayers demonstrated the power of God's authority.

There are some unusual events in 1 Kings 17 that God "commands." I expect God and Elijah had been discussing the altar for Baal that King Ahab had set up in the temple before Elijah told King Ahab that God would stop all rain until He gave further word.

That the rain stopped for three years affirms God's commandment that would create hardship for many. For Elijah to have such powerful confidence in God's commands, he had to be a man under authority -- a man of faith.

The word of the LORD came to Elijah again and directed him to leave and go hide in the Kerith Ravine. There God had ordered the ravens to feed Elijah. Ravens! Dirty (unclean) birds! To feed one of His choice prophets! (Surprise, Elijah!)

The LORD gave further directions to go to Zarephath where God had commanded a widow to supply Elijah with food.

Gathering sticks to cook her last meal with her son, she had to have been afraid of the future -- perhaps even depressed. Elijah assured her she need not be afraid for, if she would do what God asked, the God of Israel would provide flour and oil for her till the famine broke.

She had to trust God's word ... and sacrifice her plans. She was to give Elijah the first cake of bread before she prepared a meager meal for her son and herself. Her adherence to the word of the LORD through Elijah saved their lives. Obedience was her doorway to blessing.

But obedience does not guarantee smooth sailing. Her son got ill and died.

Responding to Elijah's passionate plea that the boy's life be restored, the LORD commanded life to return to this young lad. The result was the mother became assured that Elijah was a man of God whose words were truth.

What lessons might we learn? As we stay under authority by trusting, listening, and obeying God's word, we get to be conduits of God's good purposes so righteousness can come to our land.

For Your Consideration

In addition to 1 Kings 17, see the story of Jesus and the Roman centurion, a man under authority, in Matthew 8: 5-13.

Obeying God may take you to uncomfortable places. How can you make sure that you keep current with God is showing you?

Do you have confidence that God cares about your walk with Him? Or, that God loves to give you what you need and reveal His righteousness?

Faith Training

Weight lifting develops our strength. We sweat, endure pain, and push towards exhaustion. Each time we exceed our former limit, we build greater endurance and strength. When we achieve our goal, the memory of the pain only becomes a badge that we hurdled our obstacles. We admire our better defined abs in the mirror, glad that our discipline has grown strength and a healthier body.

Developing stronger faith muscles is not too different ... except we don't usually sign up for the stress and pain. Oh, we pray for God to develop our faith, but when the opportunity comes for resistance training, our instinct is to question or complain.

Hebrews 12:11 reminds us that discipline is painful, not pleasant. But the pain we endure as Christ followers  produces endurance, character, and a sure hope in Jesus Christ. Suffering, like weight lifting, eventually produces greater joy! As we search for God's help in those times, we discover His love and the Holy Spirit's help. Our hope becomes more sure precisely because of the weight of life's demands (see Romans 5: 3-5).

We do well to remind ourselves that God is at work in every circumstance (see Romans 8: 18-39).  If we continue training with Christ, the weights won't merely display our impotence, they will be the very opportunities that God uses in our faith training.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Are you in a situation in which you can recognize God using "weights" to develop your faith?

What new angle of trusting God are you learning? Will you focus on a scripture promise or principle that could further strengthen your faith?

We Won't Fear, Then

Fear can grow in us like cancer.

News about Iran, the UN, our own economy, national and local politics, our bank accounts, children, accidents, cancer, business closures, home foreclosures... I could go on... all feed our fear.

Dislodging us from familiar ruts, upheaval can leave us shaken and fearful.

Psalm 46 reminds us that God is bigger than whatever earthquakes we experience.

"God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea" (verses 1-2, NIV).

It's only natural to be scared when our stability is shaken. That's why it's good to remember that God is stronger ... and is with us in the earthquake. Even though we walk in the midst of trouble, He revives us.

Despite where we find ourselves, God can bring good out of chaos. But we have to hush ourselves in the holy place (see verses 4-6) and, in the Almighty’s presence, we can quietly listen for the Lord’s voice and look for His works (verse 8).

It takes supernatural power to deal with fear. But we access that through the gift of Jesus Christ who is with us. (See verses 10 -11).

So then, even if the mountains get shaken, we won't fear.

For Your Consideration
(See also Psalm 23; Psalm 138:7-8; Romans 8:28-39.)

What helps you remember that God is with you?

Have you told the Lord of Heaven's Armies about your earthquake?

How do you keep fueling your faith and keep from slipping back into fear?

Faith to Overcome

I keep asking God to increase my faith.

When people or things I love are thrown to the ground, I sometimes feel like the man who asked Jesus to heal his mute, epileptic son. Jesus' disciples had not been able to cast out the spirit, and the man wasn't so sure now that Jesus could do it either. "Have mercy on us and help us, if you can" (Mark 9:22, NLT)

“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes” (verse 23).

He looked into Jesus' eyes, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” (verse 24).

I expect Jesus' question penetrated this father's best hopes and fears. He believed, but he had his doubts.

Unbelief shrinks God to what we've seen and heard. When the limitations of our mind stop us short of the goal and when trusted experts hit the wall of their own expertise, hope get thrown to the ground like the young man. Our senses and experience lie that we are undone and tempt faith to step back from trusting God.

Those are the best times to turn to our Helper. Those are opportunities to let Jesus help us overcome blocks to belief -- to have overcoming faith. They are occasions for God's Holy Spirit to remind us of His presence and greater power at work in us. (See Philippians 2: 12-13; 2 Corinthians 10:3-6.)

Paul says that hearing comes by faith through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17), and John writes, "The Spirit of truth ... will guide you into all truth." (John 16:13).

Regular hearing, reading and applying God's word, then, is critical for opening us to the Word and the Spirit. They train us to jump unbelief's hurdles.

As we make ourselves available to Christ's transforming word, God's grace helps us hear Jesus asking, 'Do you believe I can do this?'

Yes, Lord. Help me believe.

For Your Consideration

When you become aware of doubt, look for your underlying belief:

Do you assume God doesn't love you? That God is surprised or disappointed by you? Or do you think God is either powerless or disinterested? Are you blaming God for consequences of your own behavior? Or are you projecting onto God? -- How do the scriptures speak specifically to the issue you have identified?

What will you do about your discoveries?