Holy Spirit

Oops: Too Far?

Dr. Mike Kingdom Paradigms , , , , , , , ,

Notice how some of us love to take things to the far edge? When driving the car, we speed along approximately 9.9 miles above the speed limit because we know that is the limit police radars are set. (Unless we drive through Ohio, in which case we set our speed control at .1 above the speed limit.) Or, since we know 3 beers is our limit before we begin to get tipsy, we stop ourselves at 2 3/4 bottles. We watch movies with violence because we know it is all make believe, yet we twitch in pain when the scenes are so graphic that our stomach turns somersaults. Yet do we ever ask ourselves how much violence is ok for the heart to absorb before it becomes numb?

My mother had a very low tolerance for risk in her children’s lives. She didn’t want us to get burn with our hand on the stove, so she would tell us not to get close to the stove. But how far is to close? four feet? two feet? six inches? The closer we came to the stove and nothing happened, the closer we came the next time until that one day when we realized it wasn’t how close, but how close without touching it. However, one day when I realized mother’s instructions weren’t true, that one could get close to the stove without any harm, I began to question her instructions of not touching it. If she lied about being harmed by getting to close to it, maybe she is also lying about touching it. So there was only one way to find out: I touched it. Truth behold, nothing happened. Was everything my mother told me a lie? So everyday thereafter I started each day with the habit of touching the stove. I was invincible. No stove could hurt me. Then one day, I skipped through the kitchen and reached out to touch the top of the stove. However, this time what I didn’t realize was the stove top was turned on. Of course, by this time I didn’t just touch the top of the stove with a finger or two; I would slap my entire hand on the circular outlines. I will spare everyone the emergency details, but it is safe to say I didn’t intentional ever do that again.

Yet isn’t that how we operate within our relationships, business transactions, and life’s decisions? We know life is a bell shape curve with the two extreme ends easily discerning what is good behavior and what is not good behavior. It is the middle 80% that is gray and subject to personal interpretation. It is in the gray areas that we push the limits or simply accept the results in gratitude as a gift from God.

Studying God’s Word though opens the door for us to obtain understanding and wisdom from His perspective. His perspective is an eternal one. We generally view life like a four-year old that must stand on his toes and reach over his head to touch the top of a stove. We don’t see what is up there, but must rely on someone we can trust. Most of the time we learn it is our misunderstanding through poor communications that leads us into trouble.

When the serpent tempted Eve by questioning God’s instructions (Gn.3:1-6), Eve could have taken the issue directly up to God. Instead of dealing with conflicting testimony by bring both parties together to find the truth, Eve made a decision apart from having the total picture. She took it upon herself, having only half the story, to divorce God. In management we call that a poor process of determining the best outcome. In counseling, we call that poor communications. In the Book of Proverbs (18:17) it states that one side seems right until the matter is heard from the other side.

Could Eve have been hanging out more with the serpent than with the Lord or Adam? How far is too far before one slides over the edge within a relationship? How close did she travel by the tree on her daily walks? How far do we push the limits before we go over the edge? Where is the edge? Are we absolutely sure or just guessing? What happens when we lose our balance near the edge? Do we have enough rope in place to pull us to safety? Tough questions that only you can determine the answer. We all have different levels of tolerance for risk in our life. My recommendation though is seek wise counsel from all sides before leaning too far near the edge. Also always remember, when Jesus is the center of our world, it is rare that we say oops: too far. For He keeps us balanced between the edges. That is why the relationship is more important than the rules. Rules will fail us; but He did not, does not, and will not.

OUR PRAYER

PRAYER 1

Our Heavenly Father, Son, and Spirit: thank you for your Word. For sharing yourself with us. For opening our eyes to see our spiritual poverty and your riches. Help us to keep you always the center of our lives. Help us to walk with you. Help us to become more like you each and every day. Lead us away from temptation and risks that cause harm to others. Lead us to glorify you always. You are what we want to become like. Deliver us from our stupidity, temporary brain damage decisions, and insane risks that we take with your truth. Help us to desist and you to increase in our life.

Yours In Christ,

Dr. Mike

Consultant, Coach, Encourager
Author of Great Business Emulates A Good God

We Are More Than His Student

Dr. Mike Journey in Christ , , , , , , , , , ,

Disciple 101

We have been purchased by the blood of Christ.  When we heard our Father’s calling and acknowledged Jesus as our Savior, we became one with Him.  We are now adopted children of God and brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus.  Jesus is our King and we are His royal citizens.  Jesus is our Teacher and we are His students.  Jesus is our Savior and we are His saints.  Jesus is our High Priest and we are His priesthood.  Jesus is our Friend and we are His.

Scripture reveals that it’s the Father who calls us to Jesus, after which, Jesus accepts us into the Family and promises to complete the task at hand.  That task is to prepare us for eternity.  It is Jesus who sent us the Holy Spirit into our lives.  It is Jesus who has made every eternal gift possible for us.  It is Jesus who sacrificed His life for us.

Jesus is our good shepherd.  He is not in the business for profit.  Instead, He is leading us because He cares.  Like the parable of the lost sheep, if one of us strays from the fold, He will go looking for its return.  In our current culture, we would do the opposite.  We would sacrifice the one for the sake of the majority, but not Jesus.

Jesus stated that His own hear His Word and respond to Him.  For those of us that slide into complacency, or lukewarmness as described in the Book of Revelation, He is knocking at our door.  He promised not to leave us but always be with us until the end of the age.  He cares for each and every single one of us.

We, like Paul, are bondservants of Jesus: a very high calling in the kingdom of God.  As a bondservant, we acknowledge Jesus is our Master.  We acknowledge His rulership and authority in our life.

We likewise accept His involvement in our life.  In exchange, we realize that our life is in very good hands.  We have a Boss that rules the universe.  Our Boss owns everything.  Our Boss is Boss of All.  What better opportunity or position could a person seek?  As His servant, we gladly follow His instructions and commands with the work that He gives us to do.  We may not be faithful all the time, but He is always faithful.  We may require discipline at times, so He is faithful and will discipline us for our good.  He cares for us.  We gladly accept Jesus as our Lord, Savior, Teacher, and Friend.  We are overjoyed that He accepts us as one of His own.  We can’t think of a better family we would rather belong with than the children of God.

OUR PRAYER

PRAY 4

Almighty Dad, thank you for leading us to Jesus.  Thank you for bringing Him into our life.  Thank you for opening our mind to hear and understand your calling and purpose in life.  Thank you for reconciling us to you through Jesus.

Help us always to walk with you.  Help us to have a close relationship with you.  Help us to know you, to learn from you, and to become like you.

Thank you for the opportunity to live life with you each and every day.  Help us always to be true to you and to our self.  Cleanse us from our sinful thoughts and actions.  Make our heart pure.  Let your Holiness abide in us forever.  Amen.

Yours In Christ,

Dr. Mike

Coach, Consultant, and Encourager

Author of Great Business Emulates a Good God

 

From Physical Difficulties Come Spiritual Masterpieces

Dr. Mike Journey in Christ , , , , , , , , , , , ,

masterpiece 3

When we initially surrendered to God and began the journey with Him, many of us believed that all of the world’s successes and possessions were ours to attain.  We believed we were going to live on easy street.  Everything thereafter that we touched was going to turn to gold.  And why not?  God is on our side.  But reality soon appeared.  Somewhere in time we come to the realization that life is a series of problems that need to be resolved.  Every day brings new difficulties, challenges, and yes, opportunities. And one needs to learn how to handle them wisely, with patience, or they will come back to haunt us for the rest of our earthly life.

In our early walk with God we hopefully learned that not all opportunities of material gain are blessings from Him.  Many times they are only tests to measure our faithfulness, values, priorities, and character.  We recall one instance where a friend had the opportunity to purchase a business. He prayed, counseled, fasted and searched for the “right” answer. Finally, based on the physical events in his life it looked like the answer was to go for it. He did.  Three years later showed him that physically it was a dumb thing to do.  But spiritually, it taught him many valuable lessons of life that are with him to this day.  One such lesson is that from physical difficulties come spiritual masterpieces.

Physically he lost everything.  But spiritually, God was creating a masterpiece.  It was through this ordeal that he discovered joy in tribulation.  He discovered patience in overcoming obstacles.  He discovered peace in confrontation.  And most importantly, he discovered love at the bottom of the pits.  In other words, he discovered all of life’s greatest values while he was being kicked, abused, defeated, and ostracized.  Human pride was being displaced with humility.  Selfishness was being revealed.  Arrogance was being chopped down in size.  Vanity was being deflated.  The Holy Spirit was attaining His objectives while he was busy pursuing other things that he thought was more important.  The spiritual project being created in us is His work.  And it seems that He does His best work while we are going through the rough times of our lives.

Yes, we know that being a disciple of His places us on a road least traveled.  It may be a road without all the physical comforts that we in America are accustomed with living.  But the process has its rewards.  Likewise, the end result has a reward.  To other eyes, the road may be rough.  But as disciples, the road is that one, spiritual Olympic journey for the gold.  The process may look tough, but the reward now and for eternity is worth the challenge.

OUR PRAYER

PRAY 8

Our Great, Creator Dad, thank you for allowing us to be a part of your masterpiece under construction.  And a special thank you for caring and loving us even when our attitude and feelings are against you.  Forgive us.

Help us to always trust you, especially when the circumstances and times are difficult.  Help us to focus our attention and desire in you.  Lead us to your heavenly calling and help us to understand our part in your creation.  We pray for the strength, courage. and conviction to glorify you in all our undertakings.

No matter what the outcome, no matter what the events, no matter what the circumstances, let our heart, mind, and soul always praise you and trust you for the end result.  Help us to focus our eyes towards you and not our surroundings.  Take care of us as you do in mercy, compassion, and goodness.  Help us likewise treat others as you treat us.  Thank you, Jesus.

Yours In Christ,

Dr. Mike

Coach, Consultant, and Encourager

Author of Great Business Emulates a Good God